Associate Director, R&D Strategic Initiatives

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end project management for complex strategic initiatives, developing and executing project plans, managing risks and dependencies, and ensuring successful delivery against agreed scope, timelines, budget, and quality objectives.
• Develop, maintain, and drive integrated project plans across functions, ensuring cross-functional alignment, transparency, and accountability.
• Partner with senior leaders, cross-functional teams, and external partners, where appropriate, to define project objectives, deliverables, governance, milestones, success criteria, resource requirements and implementation strategies.
• Drive project execution by leading cross-functional teams, proactively managing dependencies, resolving issues, removing barriers, and providing hands-on project leadership when needed to accelerate progress and deliver key milestones.
• Lead implementation planning and organizational change management activities to support successful adoption of new processes, capabilities, and ways of working, ensuring stakeholder engagement, readiness, and sustained business outcomes.
• Monitor project performance, identify and assess risks, issues, and opportunities, develop mitigation strategies, and provide timely updates and recommendations to key stakeholders.
• Lead project governance activities, including preparation of executive presentations, steering committee materials, status reports, and recommendations for senior leadership.
• Drive meetings, develop agendas, communicate meeting outcomes and track actions until completion.
• Build and maintain strong stakeholder relationships, ensuring clear, timely communication of project plans, progress, risks, decisions, and key milestones across all levels of the organization.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive working environment, promoting effective teamwork, shared accountability and successful project delivery.
• Serve as a trusted thought partner by facilitating strategic discussions, problem-solving, and decision-making to support project teams and senior leaders.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen project delivery, governance, business processes, and cross-functional ways of working through continuous improvement, innovation, digital capabilities, and AI-enabled solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in science or related area. Advanced degree (MS/MBA/PhD) preferred.
• Project Management certification is a plus.
• At least 8 years of experience in biotech/pharma or related industry with 3+ years in project management.
• Experience of working in cross-functional environment.
• Proven track record in project management, demonstrating the ability to effectively plan, execute, and deliver complex R&D projects.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise or cross-functional initiatives in a matrix environment, influencing stakeholders and driving alignment without direct authority.
• Strong leadership skills with experience in leading teams, coordinating activities, and managing project resources.
• Excellent stakeholder, communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams.
• Strategic and Innovative mindset, with the ability to translate business objectives into executable plans while identifying opportunities for continuous improvement and organizational impact.
• Detail-oriented and organized, with the ability to prioritize tasks and handle multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience leading organizational change management and implementation activities to enable adoption of new processes, capabilities, or ways of working.
• Experience with AI-enabled projects or process improvement initiatives is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated problem-solving abilities and critical thinking skills.
• Familiarity with regulatory guidelines in development (preferred).