About Avalyn:

Avalyn aims to transform the treatment paradigm for pulmonary fibrosis and other serious, rare respiratory diseases. The company is advancing optimized inhaled formulations of established antifibrotic medicines designed to deliver drug directly to the lungs, enhance local efficacy, and reduce systemic side effects. Avalyn’s AP01 program is an optimized inhaled formulation of pirfenidone currently being evaluated in MIST, a global Phase 2b clinical trial in patients with progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF). AP01 has demonstrated encouraging safety and clinical activity across Phase 1b and an ongoing, multi-year open-label extension trial, with long-term data supporting the potential to preserve lung function while improving tolerability relative to historical oral pirfenidone. Avalyn’s AP02 program is an optimized inhaled formulation of nintedanib currently being evaluated in AURA, a global Phase 2 clinical trial in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Avalyn is also advancing AP03, an inhaled fixed-dose combination of pirfenidone and nintedanib, designed to deliver multiple antifibrotic mechanisms through a single lung-targeted platform. By leveraging its proprietary drug-device approach and deep expertise in rare respiratory disease development, Avalyn aims to establish a new standard of care in pulmonary fibrosis through inhaled, lung-targeted therapies. For more information, please visit avalynpharma.com and follow the company on LinkedIn.

Position Overview:

The Senior Director, Clinical Safety Physician provides medical leadership and oversight of drug safety across Avalyn’s portfolio of inhaled antifibrotic investigational products. The role is accountable for the ongoing medical evaluation, surveillance, interpretation, documentation, and communication of emerging safety data, including adverse event assessment, signal detection, and characterization of potential risks, ensuring that safety findings are appropriately incorporated into clinical development and risk management decisions. This is a hands-on leadership role suited to a clinical-stage, scaling biotech company. The Senior Director directly reviews adverse event cases, safety listings, and aggregate safety data, identifies and assesses emerging safety signals, and provides medical recommendations to inform ongoing study conduct and development decisions. The individual also serves as the medical safety lead across Clinical Development, Clinical Operations, Regulatory Affairs, Biostatistics, Data Management, Medical Writing, Quality Assurance, and external CRO and pharmacovigilance (PV) partners. The Senior Director integrates safety considerations into clinical development strategy and execution, establishes and oversees fit-for-purpose pharmacovigilance processes and systems, and provides medical safety leadership in interactions with senior leadership, governance committees, external partners, and health authorities. The Senior Director reports to the SVP Clinical Development and partners closely with cross-functional leadership to ensure appropriate medical oversight of safety across the portfolio.

Responsibilities:

• Medical Safety Leadership & Oversight: Provide medical leadership and oversight of safety across Avalyn’s clinical-stage investigational products, including the inhaled pirfenidone (AP01), nintedanib (AP02), and fixed-dose combination (AP03) programs.
• Clinical Trial Safety: Provide ongoing safety oversight of Phase 1–3 clinical trials through periodic review of aggregate adverse events, laboratory abnormalities, vital signs, ECGs, pulmonary safety parameters, and other clinically relevant safety data.
• Signal Detection & Benefit-Risk Assessment: Lead medical safety surveillance across Avalyn’s development programs; proactively identify, investigate, and medically evaluate potential safety signals, integrating individual cases with aggregate clinical, laboratory, and nonclinical data.
• Aggregate Safety & Regulatory Reporting: Lead medical review of Development Safety Update Reports (DSURs) and other periodic safety reports, and review the safety sections of Investigator’s Brochures and Reference Safety Information.
• Safety Governance & Cross-Functional Leadership: Lead program-level safety review meetings and prepare safety assessments and presentations for clinical development and senior management governance, including the Development Review Committee (DRC).
• PV Vendor Oversight, Infrastructure & Inspection Readiness: Provide medical oversight of outsourced pharmacovigilance activities, including medical review, escalation, reconciliation, and communication processes with PV vendors and CROs.
• Regulatory Interactions: Provide medical safety expertise for interactions with FDA, EMA, and other health authorities, including responses to regulatory safety questions and preparation of briefing materials.

Qualifications:

MD or DO required; board certification or equivalent clinical specialty qualification preferred. A minimum of 10+ years in pharmaceutical or biotechnology clinical development or drug safety, with meaningful pharmacovigilance responsibility and experience providing medical safety oversight for interventional clinical trials. Demonstrated experience reviewing serious adverse events (SAEs) and individual case safety reports (ICSRs) and assessing causality, expectedness, and medical significance, along with signal evaluation and aggregate safety assessment. Experience reviewing and providing medical input into Development Safety Update Reports (DSURs), Investigator’s Brochures (IBs), clinical study protocols, IND safety reporting, and other safety-related regulatory submissions. Strong working knowledge of applicable ICH safety guidelines, GCP, MedDRA, and applicable US and international investigational product safety-reporting requirements. Experience in pulmonary diseases, particularly interstitial lung disease (ILD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), or progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF), is preferred. Experience in rare diseases or inhaled therapeutics is also valued. Phase 2/3 development experience is strongly preferred. Experience interacting with FDA and/or other global regulatory authorities on safety matters is a plus. Experience overseeing and managing outsourced PV organizations and CROs is preferred. Experience operating within a public-company governance structure including participation in Development Review Committee (DRC) activities, board-level reporting, material nonpublic information (MNPI) and disclosure processes is preferred. Takes a hands-on approach to clinical safety, personally reviewing individual safety cases, narratives, listings, laboratory data, and aggregate safety outputs rather than relying solely on vendor assessments or operating at a governance level. Applies strong clinical judgment to distinguish potential drug-related safety findings from underlying disease, concomitant illnesses, and background events. Interprets emerging safety trends across doses, exposure, duration, and patient populations, translating findings into recommendations affecting trial design, monitoring, and development strategy. Exercises sound judgment amid uncertainty, communicates effectively with cross-functional teams and senior leadership, and builds fit-for-purpose processes in a lean, evolving biotech environment while handling sensitive information with discretion. Must be willing and able to travel domestically and internationally up to 15%.

Proposed pay range:

$310,000—$350,000 USD