Director, Technical Project Management (R&D)
Position Summary
The Director, Technical Project Management, Vaccine Research & Development (R&D) is a senior leader responsible for building, leading, coaching, and developing a team of technical Project Managers who support vaccine development programs across nonclinical, clinical, regulatory, and Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) disciplines.
Responsibilities
Leadership and Team Development: Lead, manage, coach, and develop a team of technical Project Managers supporting integrated vaccine development activities by fostering a high-performance culture rooted in accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Set expectations for Project Management excellence, including planning discipline, meeting management, decision documentation, issue escalation, risk management, budget tracking, and reporting.
Build team capabilities through training, knowledge sharing, and cross-program learning opportunities.
Build individual capabilities within the team through mentoring, feedback, performance management, career development, and consistent use of tools and templates.
Foster a collaborative, accountable, inclusive team culture that supports transparency, constructive challenge, and continuous learning.
Serve as a role model and uphold principles of Program Governance.
Provide clear direction and feedback, supporting individual development plans and career progression.
Partner with Program Managers and functional leaders to ensure technical Project Managers develop and maintain fit-for-purpose integrated plans, schedules, milestones, budgets, assumptions, risks, issues, dependencies, and decision records.
Provide review and feedback of team outputs to ensure high-quality and appropriate integration of functional, external partner, budget, schedule, and decision inputs.
Serve as an escalation point and thought partner for direct reports as well as Program Managers on complex planning, stakeholder alignment, and delivery challenges.
Guide direct reports in using scenario planning, dependency management, critical path analysis, trade-off assessment, and operational readiness planning.
Drive consistent use of project management tools, dashboards, templates, and operating rhythms to ensure alignment, visibility, accountability, and performance.
Ensure technical Project Managers provide timely, accurate visibility to deliverables, risks, issues, assumptions, and variances to support Program Manager decision-making and escalation.
Provide hands-on support and coaching for proposal planning, basis-of-estimate development, budget assumptions, and project controls, while building these capabilities within the team.
Contribute to strategic planning activities, providing insights into program performance, resource utilization, and potential implications for new opportunities and R&D initiatives.
Support the planning and delivery of organizational objectives/goals to ensure successful R&D-wide evolution in support of our mission.
Support R&D-wide efforts, including but not limited to routine and ad-hoc meeting planning and execution, reporting, and system/infrastructure building.
Participate in the development and refinement of project and program management tools which foster alignment, communication, and performance.
Requirements
Bachelor’s degree in a scientific field; advanced degree and/or PMP certification strongly preferred.
12+ years of relevant biopharma, vaccine, biologics, or pharmaceutical experience, including significant project/program management and integrated product development experience.
Demonstrated experience leading, coaching, and developing Project Managers, including performance management, mentoring, and capability building.
Broad understanding of vaccine/biologic development across nonclinical, clinical, regulatory, and CMC disciplines, with sufficient technical fluency to identify dependencies, risks, trade-offs, and integration needs.
Experience with programs funded by U.S. Government agencies, global health organizations, foundations, and/or non-profit funders preferred; familiarity with contractual deliverables, funder reporting, and audit-ready documentation highly valued.
Strong financial acumen, including program budgeting, forecasting, accruals, variance analysis, basis-of-estimate development, earned value management/project controls, and schedule/cost performance tracking.
Experience with third-party vendors and partners, including CDMOs, CROs, testing laboratories, consultants, and academic or government collaborators.
Advanced proficiency with MS Project and Smartsheet tools; strong proficiency with Microsoft 365 applications.
Excellent people leadership, communication, facilitation, influencing, and stakeholder management skills; ability to coach others to lead through ambiguity and operate effectively in a matrixed environment.
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage competing priorities, confidential information, and time-sensitive deliverables; dependable and able to prioritize competing demands to meet deadlines.
Commitment to furthering Sabin’s mission and contributing to a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and collaborative workplace.