Senior Director/Vice President, Head of Clinical Operations
https://www.gubra.dk/
Discover International is leading the search for a Senior Director/ Vice President of Clinical Operations on behalf of the company Gubra.
ABOUT GUBRA
Gubra is a Danish, NASDAQ Copenhagen-listed techbio company operating across CRO, Biotech and Ventures Business Units. The Biotech BU specializes in peptide-based drug discovery and drug development with a growing internal preclinical and clinical pipeline within metabolic diseases and beyond. The company's discovery-driven obesity portfolio includes multiple partnered clinical-stage assets — among them ABBV-295 with AbbVie and BI 3034701 with Boehringer Ingelheim, both advancing toward Phase 2 in 2026 — alongside its wholly-owned clinical candidate, GUB-UCN2, now entering first-in-human studies.
Following a record financial year, the company is scaling its internal clinical development capabilities to support an expanding, increasingly self-owned pipeline. This role is central to that build-out.
THE ROLE
Gubra is seeking a Senior Director or VP, Clinical Operations to lead the design, execution, and oversight of its growing early-to-mid-stage clinical trial portfolio. This role is a senior leadership appointment within the Development leadership team and reporting into the Chief Medical and Development Officer.
You will own clinical operations strategy and delivery across Gubra's internal development programmes across multiple therapeutic areas, with responsibility for building and leading the clinical operations function from the ground up.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Build and lead the clinical operations function, including hiring, structuring, and developing an internal team as the pipeline grows across Phase I and II clinical trials.
- Own end-to-end operational delivery of Gubra's clinical trial portfolio, including GUB-UCN2 and future internal candidates, from study start-up through to close-out.
- Define and execute clinical operations strategy in close cross-functional partnership.
- Select, manage, and oversee performance of CROs and other external vendors, ensuring quality, timeline, and budget delivery across all studies.
- Establish robust clinical trial management systems, including vendor oversight, SOPs, and quality frameworks appropriate for a scaling, GCP-compliant clinical organisation.
- Manage clinical operations budgets and resourcing plans, providing regular progress and risk reporting to the executive team.
- Ensure inspection-readiness and compliance with ICH-GCP, EU Clinical Trials Regulation, and other applicable regulatory frameworks across all studies.
- Support investor and board-facing communications on clinical progress in partnership with the CDMO, CEO and Investor Relations.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- 10+ years' experience in clinical operations within biotech or pharma, including significant senior leadership experience (Director/VP level).
- Proven track record of building or scaling a clinical operations function, ideally within a growing or transitioning biotech organisation.
- Direct experience managing early-phase (Phase 1/2) clinical trials, including first-in-human studies.
- Strong working knowledge of ICH-GCP, EU Clinical Trials Regulation, and clinical trial application processes in Europe and the USA.
- Experience working with or alongside large pharma partners on co-developed or licensed clinical programmes is highly advantageous.
- Background in metabolic disease, obesity, or peptide therapeutics is a strong plus, though not essential.
- Demonstrated ability to operate at both strategic and hands-on operational levels in a lean, fast-scaling organisation.
- Fluent English required
- Willingness to be based in the greater Copenhagen area or Basel area, and/or ability to travel to Gubra offices in Denmark on a regular basis.
WHAT'S ON OFFER
- A senior leadership role at a high-growth, NASDAQ-listed techbio with strong financial backing and a differentiated clinical pipeline.
- The opportunity to build a function from the ground up during a defining period of Gubra's expansion into clinical-stage development.
- Direct exposure to pharma and biotech partnerships and a fast-advancing portfolio within metabolic diseases and beyond.
- Competitive compensation, equity participation, and a hybrid working model based in Hørsholm, Denmark or Basel, Switzerland.
This search is being conducted exclusively by Discover International. For a confidential discussion, please contact Laurie Kesteven - Senior Manager
