Director, Business Strategy – Operations, Research

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States, +2 more countries.

📋 Description

• Act as a strategic business partner and Chief of Staff to the Chief Scientific Officers in Neuroscience and Oncology, along with their Discovery and Research Leadership Teams.

• Design and facilitate executive operating rhythms, leadership meetings, quarterly business reviews, and strategic offsites.

• Monitor action items, address bottlenecks, and ensure adherence to strategic initiatives.

• Create executive briefing presentations and strategic decks for executive reviews, Board meetings, and scientific governance forums.

• Translate enterprise strategies into Discovery and advocate for Research in operational working groups.

• Oversee workforce and capacity planning across Neuroscience and Oncology Discovery.

• Serve as the Lead Data Steward for resource allocation tools and timecard coding compliance.

• Manage algorithm demand modeling inputs and assumptions in collaboration with Resource Management.

• Advocate for and secure functional headcount and operating resources during planning cycles.

• Supervise and monitor the Discovery & Research functional budget, including OpEx, CRO contracts, lab services, and headcount.

• Lead quarterly forecasting, accruals, variance analysis, and annual budget preparation.

• Direct post-deal integration for acquired discovery programs, technology platforms, or research partnerships.

• Collaborate with Corporate Development, Alliance Management, and R&D Integration Leads.

• Guide the establishment of annual and long-term OKR/KPI goal-setting and performance tracking.

• Develop metrics and operational dashboards to assess research velocity, delivery, and organizational health.

• Communicate progress, milestones, and mitigation strategies to R&D executive leadership.

• Create and implement internal communications for Discovery & Research.

• Initiate Discovery Town Halls, All-Hands meetings, scientific highlights, and executive briefings.

• Cultivate a cohesive and innovative scientific culture across research teams.

• Lead initiatives for process enhancement, administrative simplification, workflow standardization, digital transformation, and AI-assisted methodologies.

• Utilize change management strategies to promote sustainable adoption.

⛳️ Requirements

• Extensive progressive experience in the biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, or life sciences sectors.

• Significant exposure to drug development, portfolio/project management, data science/informatics, or R&D business operations.

• Experience in a strategic business operations role, as Chief of Staff, or in PMO leadership, directly partnering with VP/SVP-level executives.

• Proven experience in leading workforce planning, capacity modeling oversight, resource allocations, and timecard compliance.

• Demonstrated capability in managing departmental budgets, financial forecasting, and variance analysis in collaboration with Finance.

• Experience in business development due diligence and overseeing post-deal functional integrations or external platform onboarding.

• High emotional intelligence with the ability to advise and influence senior functional executives across various disciplines.

• Exceptional skill in synthesizing complex project management narratives, data science strategies, and operational data into presentations for executives and boards.

• Strong aptitude for interpreting resource models, algorithm demand outputs, and financial analyses.

• Demonstrated financial expertise in managing multi-million-dollar functional operating budgets and multi-year workforce planning.

• Proven history of coordinating initiatives across matrixed global teams.

• Extensive experience in process optimization, change management frameworks, and practical applications of digital and AI tools.

• Bachelor's degree in a Life Sciences discipline or a related business/scientific field is required.

🏝️ Benefits

• Discretionary annual cash bonus or incentive compensation.

• Discretionary equity grants.

• Medical insurance.

• Dental insurance.

• Vision insurance.

• 401k retirement savings plan.

• Flexible paid vacation.