Senior Director, Global Project Management

Do you have a real passion for Project Management (PM) and want to lead the way we discover and develop medicines? Do you see yourself as a mentor and coach for others? If so we have a career opportunity for you at AstraZeneca!

At AstraZeneca, we put patients first and strive to meet their unmet needs worldwide. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big and working together to make the impossible a reality. If you are swift to action, confident to lead, willing to collaborate, and curious about what science can do, then you’re our kind of person.

We are currently looking for a Senior Director, Global Project Management in our BioPharma PM Team within Global Portfolio and Project Management Organisation (GPPM).

The GPPM organisation has a critical role to play in advancing our pipeline and delivering Growth Through Innovation by closely partnering with Research & Development (R&D) and business leaders to support decision-making, resource allocation, project management, and governance across our combined Oncology and BioPharmaceuticals portfolio.

What You´ll Do

This position plays a highly visible and critical role in leading and ensuring that our cross-functional drug development teams achieve key strategic objectives and deliver development, regulatory and commercial achievements. You will lead programs of the highest complexity, scale and of high priority to the company to secure timely delivery. You will act as a coach and mentor for your junior colleagues and you may also have direct reports.

Responsibilities

Strategic Business Partnership

• Provides program management leadership by active input into the program and project strategy & vision, ensuring alignment of the program strategy with operational delivery
• Ensures project and sub-project strategies align with overall program strategy
• Leads development of drug project, cross-project or portfolio strategies
• Ensures appropriate linkages between project strategy and key internal processes (Therapeutic Area strategy, prioritization, corporate scorecard)
• Identifies key business opportunities or need for strategic shifts based on external and internal events
  
  
  

Team Leadership and Delivery

• Leads project management of cross functional drug development teams and ensures delivery of strategic objectives
• Serves as a leader and key point of contact to drive efficient operation of project teams including overall plans, priorities, budget and risk management
• Creates a shared sense of purpose, inspires and energises others. Proactively and independently addresses team cohesion issues
• Coaches project teams towards successful issue resolution and decision making. Proactively identifies potential issues and mitigates. Identifies development opportunities for team members
• Focuses the team on the right activities at the right time. Coordinates the efforts of sub-teams to ensure delivery at multiple levels of the development team
• Engages with critical stakeholders outside of team to address barriers or challenges facing team
  
  
  

Governance and Investment Decisions

• Leads team towards optimized governance decisions (e.g., evaluate multiple strategic options) and can drive team to value-maximizing drug development decisions
• Provides guidance to both the team and senior management / governance bodies that allows efficient (timely and informed) decision making
• Demonstrates broad influential network and ensures engagement at all levels prior to key decisions
  
  
  

Planning, Monitoring and Delivery

• Ensures that overall team deliverables, budgets, schedules, and performance standards are realistically set, governance-approved and attained, and that the project optimally fulfils all business reporting requirements
• Directs project support staff in maintaining plans of the highest data quality, accountable for all integrated Project Management deliverables associated with the program.
  
  
  

Entrepreneurship

• Serves as a role model for cross-functional collaboration and effective conflict resolution
• Leads by example in learning and innovation, proactively seeking opportunities to change paradigm and remove barriers within and outside the team
• Uses business knowledge to drive cross-project learning, champion and embed innovative ways of working across the enterprise, helping to establish new company standard processes
  
  
  

Required

Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific or technical drug development subject
• 10+ years of experience in leading drug development projects including success in multiple roles/environments.
• Expert project manager with a successful record of delivering complex/high business impact drug development projects within the agreed time, quality and cost.
• Skilled at building, motivating, leading and inspiring hard-working teams.
• Experience demonstrating strategic vision and portfolio awareness.
• Expert knowledge of project management tools and processes
• Experience ensuring high quality data in enterprise systems
• Track record of effective Senior Customer management, demonstrating a strong ability to influence strategically and manage difficult situations
• Experience creating and implementing improvements in drug project and/or portfolio processes or ways of working.
  
  
  

Desirable

• Ph D. or equivalent experience in a scientific field
• In-depth knowledge of the entire value chain of the drug development process with therapeutic area specific knowledge and experience
• Strong internal network with experience in AZ ways of working
• Direct line management or team leadership experience
  
  
  

Why AstraZeneca?

At AstraZeneca when we see an opportunity for change, we seize it and make it happen, because any opportunity no matter how small, can be the start of something big. Delivering life-changing medicines is about being entrepreneurial - finding those moments and recognising their potential. Join us on our journey of building a new kind of organisation to reset expectations of what a bio-pharmaceutical company can be. This means we’re opening new ways to work, pioneering groundbreaking methods and bringing unexpected teams together. Interested? Come and join our journey.

So, what’s next!

If you’re a passionate teammate, detail oriented yet strategic and interested to grow, join us in this influential role and be a part of bringing innovative medicines to patients!