Senior Director, Application Scientist

Senior Director, Application Scientist Certara USA, Inc. United States, Pennsylvania, Wayne 4 Radnor Corporate Center (Show on map) May 12, 2026
Overview Certara accelerates the potential of bringing medicines to market and to patients using biosimulation software, technology, and services to transform traditional drug discovery and development. Our clients include more than 2,400 biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and regulatory agencies across 70 countries. Our goal is to enable the life sciences industry's use of data, modeling, and analytics to make better decisions across the various phases of discovery and drug development. Our software and scientists incorporate modern advances in scientific understanding, drug development experience, data analysis, and AI resulting in significant opportunities to decrease the cost and increase the probability of success for new drug approval and commercialization. Certara is seeking a senior scientific leader to serve as a market-facing authority bridging our scientific innovations with customer needs and industry adoption. This role is primarily responsible for external engagement, scientific storytelling, and translating real-world insights into actionable input for product and commercial strategy. This individual will operate at the intersection of customers, key opinion leaders, and internal teams to ensure Certara's solutions are scientifically credible, commercially relevant, and aligned with evolving industry needs. Success in this role will be defined by the ability to elevate Certara's scientific presence in the market, strengthen alignment between innovation and customer needs, and accelerate adoption of our solutions through credible, differentiated scientific engagement. Responsibilities External Scientific Leadership Represent Certara's scientific innovations to customers, prospects, key opinion leaders, and industry groups
Build and maintain strategic relationships across academia, industry, and scientific consortia
Deliver thought leadership through publications, conference presentations, webinars, and other scientific forums Customer Insight and Strategy Translation Engage directly with customers to understand unmet needs, emerging use cases, and real-world challenges
Translate external insights into clear, prioritized input for product, R D, and commercial teams
Support validation and refinement of value propositions in customer-facing contexts Commercial and Go-to-Market Enablement Partner with commercial and marketing teams to strengthen scientific positioning and messaging
Support high-impact customer engagements where deep scientific expertise is required
Ensure consistency, clarity, and rigor in how scientific differentiation is communicated across the customer journey Internal Scientific Alignment Act as a liaison across product, R D, consulting, and commercial teams to align on market needs and scientific direction
Contribute to product and innovation discussions by providing external perspective and domain expertise
Enable internal teams with clear, compelling scientific narratives and best practices Qualifications Deep domain expertise in areas such as QSP, PK/PD, PBPK, regulatory science, or related disciplines, with the ability to span adjacent domains
Strong external credibility, including a track record of publications, presentations, and industry engagement
Demonstrated ability to translate scientific innovation into customer-relevant value propositions and market-facing narratives
Experience partnering cross-functionally with product, R D, commercial, and marketing teams
Customer-facing experience in complex, high-impact engagements (e.g., strategic accounts, enterprise sales, or partnerships)
Systems-level thinking across methods, data, workflows, and software platforms
Proven ability to influence diverse stakeholders without direct authority
Exceptional communication skills across scientific, regulatory, and executive audiences
Strategic mindset with the ability to balance near-term impact and long-term positioning Certara bases all employment-related decision on merit, taking into consideration qualifications, skills, achievement, and performance. We treat all applicants and employees without regard to personal characteristics such as race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, nationality, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental condition, genetic information, military service, or other characteristic protected by law.