Gilead Sciences, Inc. Posted August 12, 2026

Senior Director, Clinical Development (MD), Inflammation and Immunology

Foster City, United States Full time
Clinical Development Immunology Senior Director

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

At Gilead our pursuit of a healthier world for all people has yielded a cure for hepatitis C, revolutionary improvements in HIV treatment and prevention as well as advancements in therapies for viral and inflammatory diseases and certain cancers.

We set and achieve bold ambitions in our fight against the world's most devastating diseases, united in our commitment to confronting the largest public health challenges of our day and improving the lives of patients for generations to come.

This role requires regular on-site presence in Foster City, CA and is not eligible for remote or hybrid work arrangements. Applicants must currently reside in the area or be willing to relocate to Foster City prior to their start date. Local candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

As a Senior Director, Clinical Development (MD), Inflammation and Immunology, at Gilead, this is a highly visible physician leadership role responsible for shaping and advancing clinical development strategies across inflammation and immunology programs. As a Clinical Development Lead and Physician Responsible, you will drive the clinical development vision for assigned molecules and products, influencing development decisions from early strategy through regulatory interactions and lifecycle execution.

You will partner with global cross-functional leaders to accelerate innovative therapies, generate compelling clinical evidence, and advance programs that address significant unmet patient needs.

Strategic Clinical Leadership

Lead clinical development strategies and Clinical Development Plans for assigned assets.

Provide physician leadership across development programs, ensuring scientific rigor and patient-focused decision making.

Serve as a key representative in governance, steering, and portfolio review forums.

Influence development priorities, risk assessments, and investment decisions.

Clinical Development Execution

Lead protocol design, study conduct, medical monitoring, data interpretation, and study reporting.

Oversee clinical trial execution to ensure quality, compliance, patient safety, and operational excellence.

Provide ongoing clinical expertise regarding eligibility criteria, safety assessments, toxicity management, and benefit-risk evaluation.

Guide development teams toward achievement of key milestones and deliverables.

Regulatory and Scientific Leadership

Lead clinical strategy discussions with global health authorities.

Provide clinical development leadership for regulatory submissions, investigator brochures, and other regulatory documentation.

Drive scientific communications, publications, congress presentations, and investigator meetings.

Ensure development activities align with regulatory expectations and Good Clinical Practice standards.

Cross-Functional and External Influence

Lead and influence global cross-functional teams across development functions.

Build and maintain relationships with key opinion leaders, investigators, and external scientific experts.

Support clinical assessment of business development opportunities when appropriate.

Communicate program strategy and progress to senior leadership and executive stakeholders.

Operational Excellence

Ensure compliance with Gilead SOPs, regulatory requirements, and industry standards.

Support effective resource planning and stewardship of development investments.

May manage and develop direct reports while fostering a high-performance culture.

Basic Qualifications

MD of DO with 12+ years of clinical, scientific, and/or drug development experience in biopharma, healthcare, consulting, academia, or a related environment.

Expert understanding of pharmaceutical regulatory requirements and clinical development processes.

Preferred Qualifications

Board certification in Rheumatology.

Experience across inflammatory and immunologic diseases.

Experience in benign hematologic conditions.

Significant experience leading global development programs.

Extensive experience authoring or overseeing clinical publications and scientific presentations.

Experience presenting to executive leadership and governance committees.

Experience managing large-scale budgets and organizational resources.

Prior people leadership experience in a matrixed global environment.

Demonstrated experience leading complex cross-functional drug development strategies and clinical development programs.

Experience leading clinical trial design, protocol development, study execution, medical monitoring, and study reporting.

Experience interacting with regulatory authorities and contributing to regulatory submissions.

Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence senior stakeholders.

Strong verbal and written scientific communication skills.

People Leader Accountabilities

• Create Inclusion – knowing the business value of diverse teams, modeling inclusion, and embedding the value of diversity in the way they manage their teams.

• Develop Talent – understand the skills, experience, aspirations, and potential of their employees and coach them on current performance and future potential. They ensure employees are receiving the feedback and insight needed to grow, develop, and realize their purpose.

• Empower Teams – connect the team to the organization by aligning goals, purpose, and organizational objectives and holding them to account. They provide the support needed to remove barriers and connect their team to the broader ecosystem.

The salary range for this position is: $302,005.00 - $390,830.00. 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 [email protected]  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
Senior Director
Function
Clinical Development
Therapeutic area
Immunology
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 194 comparable Senior Director Clinical Development roles across 26 biopharma companies.

194Comparable roles tracked
163Currently active
26Companies hiring similar roles
15Countries represented

Salary context

103 of 194 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 $302,005/yr – $390,830/yr
Lowest disclosed · Clinical Research Director (P4-P5) · Lilly $101,379/yr – $181,067/yr
Highest disclosed · Global Clinical Head- Executive Director · AstraZeneca $331,874/yr – $497,810/yr
Peer group range $141,223 – $414,842 (median $299,750)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 194 comparable roles

United States152
Spain10
United Kingdom9
India4
Poland4
China2

+ 9 more countries

Seniority mix

194 of 194 peers have a known seniority level

Director141
Executive/VP33
Senior Director20

Therapeutic area mix

93 of 194 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Oncology39
Immunology17
Respiratory10
Neuroscience9
Cardiovascular / CVRM9
Vaccines & Infectious Disease3
Ophthalmology3
Gastroenterology1
Dermatology & Aesthetics1
Rare Disease1

Similar opportunities

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.

100%similar
Merck Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America Senior Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Same seniority Same country
90%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country
90%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Executive/VP
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country
90%similar
AbbVie Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country

Open in 3 locations

North Chicago, United StatesWaltham, United StatesSouth San Francisco, United States
90%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country
90%similar
AbbVie Director
Same function Same therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Same country

Open in 2 locations

Waltham, United StatesSouth San Francisco, United States

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.

100%
Senior Director (Senior Principal Scientist), Translational Medicine, Immunology
Merck · Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America · Senior Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
90%
Medical Director, Immunology Clinical Development
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
90%
Director, Clinical Pharmacology (Immunology)
AbbVie · Waltham, MA · Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
90%
Director, Global Clinical Physician (Immunology)
E.R. Squibb & Sons,L.L.C. · Princeton, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Adjacent seniority Country
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.