Vice President, Technical Development

About Vector Laboratories

Vector Laboratories is seeking a talented and highly motivated individual to join our growing team. As an organization known for its culture of service, reliable products and unmatched technical expertise, our employees are passionate about the impact and quality of their work. The opportunities we provide to work collaboratively and build trusting relationships in a team-oriented environment make Vector Laboratories an ideal place to learn, flourish and contribute to scientific advancement. We genuinely value diverse perspectives and ideas and strive to demonstrate how this approach results in success. With nearly 50 years of history, Vector Laboratories boasts an unparalleled reputation in protein labeling, detection, and conjugation. Our recent mergers and acquisitions have significantly expanded our portfolio, serving the biopharma industry, academia, life science tools, and diagnostics, providing comprehensive solutions to the life science industry. We are looking to take Vector Laboratories to new heights and hope you’ll consider joining our globally impactful team!

Job Summary

The VP, Technical Development owns the entire Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) capability build at Vector Laboratories, leading an eighteen-month, $1.08M platform investment spanning conjugation chemistry, analytics, cytotoxic payload facilities, and Wilton, UK site operations. This is a hands-on technical leadership role for a conjugation chemistry or ADC CMC expert ready to own both the science and the site behind it, including direct line management of the Senior Director, Computational Antibody Design.

This position reports to the Chief Scientific Officer.

Responsibilities

• Own the entire ADC capability build, including the linker portfolio, site-specific conjugation chemistry, and supporting HIC, CEX, and LC-MS analytics.
• Direct DAR (drug-to-antibody ratio) determination and peptide mapping workstreams in support of ADC characterization.
• Build and operate cytotoxic payload facilities, including authorship and ownership of SOPs and QC release specifications.
• Own Wilton site performance, regulatory compliance, and P&​L accountability.
• Manage the Cyagen and NJ Bio cellular pharmacology technical partnerships.
• Lead Phase 4 commercialization of the ADC platform across Vector's four client tiers.
• Provide direct line management of the Senior Director, Computational Antibody Design, including hiring, performance management, and resourcing decisions for that function.
• Partner with the Chief Scientific Officer on the broader Technical Development strategy and roadmap.
• Represent Vector's ADC capability externally with clients, partners, and at industry conferences.
• Performs other duties as assigned

Job Qualifications

• PhD in chemistry, biochemistry, or a related discipline
• 12–15+ years of relevant post-PhD experience, including several years in a senior leadership or P&​L-owning capacity.
• Current VP or Senior Director in a conjugation chemistry, bioconjugation, or ADC CMC function.
• Demonstrated ownership of a conjugation or bioconjugation platform build, ideally within a services or CDMO-adjacent business.
• Experience with cytotoxic payload facility operations, including SOP authorship and QC release specification ownership.
• Prior P&​L or site-operations accountability.
• Experience managing cross-functional or cross-disciplinary teams, including functions outside one's own technical background.
• Willingness to be based at or regularly present at the Wilton, UK site.

Competencies Identified for Success

ADC &​ Bioconjugation Leadership: Deep, personally-owned expertise in conjugation chemistry, linker design, and ADC CMC; able to build and scale a platform from the ground up.

Site &​ P&​L Operations: Proven ownership of facility performance, compliance, and financial accountability at a manufacturing or lab operations site.

Antibody Engineering Fluency: Working knowledge of antibody engineering sufficient to partner effectively with the computational design function.

Cross-Regional Leadership: Comfort operating across UK and EU regional structures, including line management of a geographically distinct team.