Gilead Sciences, Inc. Posted September 24, 2026

Director, Clinical Development (MD)

Foster City, United States Full time
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Gilead Sciences, Inc. is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

At Gilead, we’re creating a healthier world for all people. For more than 35 years, we’ve tackled diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19 and cancer – working relentlessly to develop therapies that help improve lives and to ensure access to these therapies across the globe. We continue to fight against the world’s biggest health challenges, and our mission requires collaboration, determination and a relentless drive to make a difference.

Every member of Gilead’s team plays a critical role in the discovery and development of life-changing scientific innovations. Our employees are our greatest asset as we work to achieve our bold ambitions, and we’re looking for the next wave of passionate and ambitious people ready to make a direct impact.

We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future, you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included, developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible, together.

Job Description

Key Responsibilities

Provide clinical and scientific leadership for one or more inflammation development programs.

Develop and continually refine the Clinical Development Plan (CDP), including indication strategy, target populations, clinical sequencing, success criteria, and key development decisions.

Lead the design and execution of early- and mid-stage clinical trials, including Phase 1b/2 proof-of-concept and dose-ranging studies.

Translate complex immunology and human disease biology into testable clinical hypotheses and development strategy.

Integrate clinical, translational, biomarker, pharmacologic, and competitive data to inform asset strategy and decision-making.

Provide medical leadership for protocols, eligibility criteria, endpoints, safety monitoring, dose selection, and benefit-risk assessment.

Partner closely and proactively with Clinical Operations, Biostatistics, Clinical Pharmacology, Translational Medicine, Research, Regulatory Affairs, Safety, Medical Affairs, and Commercial colleagues.

Represent Clinical Development on cross-functional asset teams and contribute to governance presentations and development recommendations.

Build and share institutional knowledge across the portfolio, contributing expertise beyond a single asset so that learnings, assumptions, and strategy are aligned across programs rather than siloed.

Develop productive relationships with investigators, external scientific experts, and key opinion leaders.

Contribute to regulatory strategy and health authority interactions, including preparation and review of clinical sections of regulatory documents.

Qualifications

Required

MD, PhD, or equivalent advanced degree, with 6+ years of relevant experience in biopharmaceutical clinical development or academic clinical research.

Demonstrated expertise in immunology, inflammation, or immune-mediated disease.

Significant experience in biopharmaceutical clinical development and/or highly relevant academic clinical investigation.

Experience designing, conducting, and interpreting interventional clinical trials.

Strong command of trial design, endpoints, statistics, safety assessment, and drug development principles.

Ability to critically evaluate emerging biological and clinical data and convert it into clear development decisions.

Demonstrated success working through multidisciplinary teams and influencing without direct authority.

Strong written and verbal communication skills, including translating complex science for non-specialist audiences.

Comfort operating in a rapidly evolving environment where strategic and scientific questions remain open.

Preferred

Clinical or development expertise in pulmonary/respiratory medicine or dermatology, ideally asthma, COPD, atopic dermatitis, hidradenitis suppurativa, or related inflammatory disease.

Board certification or advanced training in pulmonary medicine, allergy/immunology, dermatology, rheumatology, or a related specialty.

Experience developing small molecules and/or novel targeted modalities in immune-mediated disease.

Experience spanning first-in-human through proof-of-concept and Phase 2, including dose selection and evidence-generation strategy.

Experience developing and applying pharmacodynamic, translational, or patient-selection biomarkers.

Experience contributing to INDs and FDA or global regulatory interactions.

The salary range for this position is: $261,375.00 - $338,250.00. Gilead considers a variety of factors when determining base compensation, including experience, qualifications, and geographic location. These considerations mean actual compensation will vary. This position may also be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, discretionary stock-based long-term incentives (eligibility may vary based on role), paid time off, and a benefits package. Benefits include company-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans*.

For additional benefits information, visit:

https://www.gilead.com/careers/compensation-benefits-and-wellbeing

* Eligible employees may participate in benefit plans, subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable plans.

For jobs in the United States:

Gilead Sciences Inc. is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment, and is dedicated to fostering an inclusive work environment comprised of diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Employment decisions regarding recruitment and selection will be made without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex , age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, genetic information or characteristic, gender identity and expression, veteran status, or other non-job related characteristics or other prohibited grounds specified in applicable federal, state and local laws. In order to ensure reasonable accommodation for individuals protected by Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Act of 1974, and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, applicants who require accommodation in the job application process may contact ApplicantAccommodations@gilead.com  for assistance.

For more information about equal employment opportunity protections, please view the  'Know Your Rights' poster.

NOTICE: EMPLOYEE POLYGRAPH PROTECTION ACT

YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Gilead Sciences will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, (c) consistent with the  legal duty to furnish information; or (d) otherwise protected by law.

Our environment respects individual differences and recognizes each employee as an integral member of our company. Our workforce reflects these values and celebrates the individuals who make up our growing team.

Gilead provides a work environment free of harassment and prohibited conduct. We promote and support individual differences and diversity of thoughts and opinion.

For Current Gilead Employees and Contractors:

Please apply via the Internal Career Opportunities portal in Workday.

Job details

Seniority
Director
Function
Clinical Development
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Foster City, United States
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Clinical Development role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 259 comparable Director Clinical Development roles across 50 biopharma companies.

259Comparable roles tracked
248Currently active
50Companies hiring similar roles
17Countries represented

Salary context

130 of 259 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject $261,375/yr – $338,250/yr
Peer group range $0 – $392,100 (median $274,150)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 259 comparable roles

United States205
United Kingdom17
India8
Spain7
Switzerland5
Ireland3

+ 11 more countries

Seniority mix

259 of 259 peers have a known seniority level

Director196
Senior Director38
Principal25

Therapeutic area mix

86 of 259 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology47
Immunology11
Neuroscience9
Cardiovascular / CVRM6
Respiratory4
Ophthalmology4
Dermatology & Aesthetics3
Rare Disease1
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1

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The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

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Notify me about similar jobs

Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
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Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.