Associate Director, IT & Business Enablement

About us

Our purpose at Dispatch is to help create a world where all cancer patients can be cured. We're humbled by the opportunity to work together as a team on some of the most pressing medical challenges of our time.

To achieve our purpose, we are dedicated to engineering a universal treatment across solid tumors. We're committed to the development of novel therapies, leveraging first-in-class technologies in viral vectors, universal targets, and novel cytokine biology. Our therapeutic approach has the potential to enable us to treat significant numbers of cancer patients and make a real and lasting impact on the world.

Our company was founded on pioneering work carried out in the laboratories of Dr. Carl June (University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Kole Roybal (University of California, San Francisco), Dr. Christopher Garcia (Stanford University) and Dr. Andy Minn (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center).

At our company, you would become one of our early team members— not only playing a role in meeting our ambitious mission but also building our thriving culture. We are determined to deliver with urgency to discover new solutions and we always stay dedicated to scientific rigor; we have an ownership mindset because each and every one of us is integral to our success.

Collaboration is core for us because we believe that by bringing people together with diverse perspectives, we make a stronger whole. And, we show we care about our work and each other by sharing feedback - ultimately in service of our vision to empower people to continue forward with their lives – cancer free.

The role

The Associate Director, IT & Business Enablement will serve as the strategic and operational IT leader for Dispatch Bio — a high-impact, highly visible role at a company on the cusp of clinical-stage milestones.

This is not a traditional IT manager role in that we are looking for a leader who brings equal parts IT operational knowledge and strategic vision: someone who can hold our managed service provider (MSP) accountable to SLAs and quality standards, while simultaneously shaping a forward-looking applications and data strategy that scales with the company.

In this role, you will partner with scientific, clinical, and operational leaders to build a cost-effective, compliant, and future-ready technology foundation — one that empowers our scientists with self-service access to computational resources, positions us well for regulatory scrutiny, and ensures AI is embedded thoughtfully into how we work. Travel up to 20% of the time.

Key responsibilities

• IT Operations
• Serve as the primary internal point of contact for our IT MSP to ensure service quality, accountability, prioritization and continuous improvement.
• Manage relationships with IT vendors and third-party service providers, conducting regular business reviews and driving continuous improvement
• Develop and manage short- and long-term IT budgets, optimizing spend across MSP services, SaaS applications, cloud infrastructure, and security tools
• Ensure consistent IT service delivery across our Philadelphia and San Francisco offices
• Applications Strategy & Business Process Enablement
• Own and maintain a company-wide applications roadmap, balancing near-term needs with a scalable, cost-effective architecture that can grow with the company through clinical development and beyond
• Partner with functional leaders to gather business requirements and identify the right technology solutions
• Lead the evaluation, selection, and deployment of enterprise applications, ensuring thoughtful change management and user adoption
• Data Governance & Security
• Full accountability for architecting and sustaining the organization's cybersecurity framework to ensure total operational resilience
• Design and govern data architecture, storage, access controls, and lifecycle management appropriate for a clinical-stage biotech operating under GxP requirements
• Partner with research leads to understand evolving computational needs and proactively plan capacity and tooling
• Develop and enforce IT policies and procedures that reflect both regulatory requirements and practical operational realities
• Ensure systems are audit-ready and that documentation supports regulatory submissions and inspections
• AI Strategy & Adoption
• Assess and recommend AI-enabled tools and platforms appropriate for a regulated biotech environment, ensuring proper governance and data handling
• Work with functional leaders to identify high-value AI use cases and support responsible adoption and enhance business processes, scientific workflows, and organizational productivity
• Evaluate how AI tools integrate with our existing tech stack and guide the build-out of an AI-compatible data and application architecture
• Required experience & skills: Bachelor's degree
• Minimum of 8 years of IT experience, with at least 3-5 years in a biotechnology or pharmaceutical environment, ideally at the clinical stage
• Demonstrated experience managing or overseeing MSPs and third-party IT vendors, including SLA accountability and vendor governance
• Strong knowledge of business applications strategy, including evaluating, deploying, and managing enterprise software (HRIS, ERP, LIMS, quality systems, collaboration tools, etc.)
• Hands-on experience enabling cloud computing environments (AWS and/or Azure) for scientific or technical users, with an emphasis on self-service models and cost governance
• Solid understanding of data governance, data privacy, and information security in a regulated biotech or pharma context
• Familiarity with GCP and GxP requirements applicable to electronic systems and data management
• Working knowledge of AI tools and platforms and how they can be integrated into enterprise business processes; comfort with the evolving AI landscape
• Proven ability to operate as both a strategic thinker and a hands-on operator in a lean, fast-moving environment
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical audiences
• Strong project management and organizational skills; ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously
• Ability to travel up to 20% of the time
• Preferred experience & skills: Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field
• Experience building or scaling IT capabilities at a company transitioning from research-stage to clinical-stage
• Familiarity with systems supporting clinical trials and regulated workflows (eTMF, CTMS, eQMS, etc.)
• Hands-on involvement with enterprise AI strategy, tool selection, and deployment in a regulated environment
• ITIL certification and/or CISSP or equivalent security credential

Our values

Our values guide everything we do. While capabilities and skills are vital, understanding how a potential new colleague would embody our values is central to our hiring decisions.

Determined to deliver: By working with focus and passion, we can provide patients with the solutions they need. Own every outcome: We can reach new heights when we stay centered on our shared success. Collaboration at the core: When we band together, our work is better. Feedback is fundamental: Constructive and authentic positive feedback may be difficult to master but it is vital to our success. Working here:

• We offer a highly competitive compensation package with meaningful ownership through equity
• Excellent coverage for medical, vision, and dental401(k) with generous contribution
• Life insurance
• Flexible PTO policy
• Additional substantial benefits
• We are an equal opportunity employer.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, national origin, or any characteristic protected under applicable law.