Vaccine R&D Operations Director

Site Name: USA - Massachusetts - Waltham, Cambridge Binney Street
Posted Date: Jan 24 2023

The Vx Operations Director for the Vx RD Viral Scientific and US Sites is a key role which supports the Vx RD teams within the Vaccines R&D Leadership Team.

We bring:

• FOCUS: Utilizing our tenacity, experience and expertise to turbocharge what is most critical to R&D’s success – moving with pace to progress the best opportunities, simplifying and prioritizing high value activities

• EFFICIENCY: Leveraging hard data to confront whatever gets in the way of R&D performing as effectively as possible – collaborating with the best external innovation and specialist support where that makes sense.

• HEALTHY TENSION: Being bold about asking difficult questions, looking for radical leaps as well as increments of progress and injecting fresh thinking to improve how things get done.

Realizing our ambition requires a rare blend of professional skills and expert capabilities, as well as the aptitude to learn or source new ones whenever the need arises.

We are seeking a Vx Operations Director, Vx RD Viral Scientific and US Sites, who understands vaccines discovery and development, and has a successful track record of driving focus, improving efficiency and thrives working in a healthy tension environment.

The Viral Scientific and US Sites organisations will strategically lead the optimal global development of vaccines across the portfolio, substantially contributing and influencing from task force to post-launch life-cycle management to deliver differentiated vaccines of value, with a clear ambition set to achieve upper quartile (UQ) performance by 2023 to maximise our ability to deliver and vaccines to those in need.

We want to be one of the best in the industry, consistently bringing scientific innovation to those in need and to do that we need to be curious, set ambitious goals and respectfully challenge each other and our ways of doing things. We need to hold each other accountable and carefully listen to each other. By being Ambitious for Patients, we will set the standard for others in our industry and be recognised as innovative, all the while maintaining quality, patient safety and high standards to deliver on GSK’s promise to achieve what is best for patients.

The Vx Operations Director, Vx RD Viral Scientific and US Sites, role is an independent contributor who will work closely with the Head of Business Operations / Chief of Staff of Vaccines R&D and the Viral and US Leadership Teams. Responsibilities include driving the implementation and monitoring of the department strategy and operational plans and organizing and enabling the maximum effectiveness of the aligned leadership teams. A particular focus of this role will be on performance management as vaccine development works towards its Upper Quartile goals, and on enabling Strategic Resource Management to support alignment of our people and resources behind our top priority projects.

In addition, the Vx Operations Director, Vx RD Viral Scientific and US Sites, will provide expertise in operational excellence, providing a standardized approach to applying GSK policy, process and enterprise support services to enable the aligned department and focus their efforts on high value vaccine and development activities.

This role will provide YOU the opportunity to lead key activities to progress YOUR career, these responsibilities include some of the following:

• Partner with the Viral and US Site Heads and his/her team to support the definition and the implementation of the Vx R&D Pipeline and Portfolio
• Work independently to provide update to the GSK senior management, including write scientific boards papers / slides packages
• Work with US Leadership teams to support Governance preparation, including writing Executive summary/ presentations
• Implements a framework to monitor business performance. Utilizes position in other part of the business to leverage enterprise thinking and leverage solutions with broad impact.
• Partners with Finance, Human Resources (HR), and RD Ops to generate resource management analyses to enable LT’s to determine if highest priority R&D programs are adequately resourced.
• Partners with aligned Vaccines Head of Business Operations / R&D Chief of Staff to respond to emerging cross-enterprise requests and mandates
• Aligns activities across R&D groups where synergies enable increased efficiency to deliver department objectives.
• Supports the LT to build meaningful yearly SMART objectives with aligned measurements and tracking aligned to both RDLT and Operation goals.
• Actively plans and participates at Leadership Team meetings to ensure delivery of strategic and operational line needs.
• When applicable, partners with quality and risk professionals to help translate GSK policy and facilitate risk identification to maintain a quality culture.

Complexity

• This is a role which must be able to deal with high levels of complexity and ambiguity, as well as be able to effectively navigate through multiple stakeholders and their perspectives.
• Requires strong and sophisticated relationship building and influencing skills and will be comfortable making tangible progress with ambiguity and with minimal direction.
• This role requires the ability to think strategically about key issues affecting Vx R&D and its organizational implications as well as organizational savvy in dealing with senior leaders.

Why you?

Basic Qualifications:

We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Medical, or Life Sciences such as biostatistics, pharmacology, translational medicine, chemistry, biochemistry, biology, etc.
• MBA, MS or Ph.D degree in scientific or business discipline together with substantial industry experience

Preferred Qualifications:

If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:

• Experience leading a line or matrix team driving scientific and business performance.
• ADP Practitioner, PMP
• Results-orientation and drive to set and reach challenging goals; high standards for performance
• Have an entrepreneurial track record of taking intelligent risks, of courage in personal decision-making and willingness to be held accountable
• Must be self-directed and highly motivated and understand where to apply their efforts to achieve the most significant business outcome
• Must be curious and able to engage at all levels within and external to the line in order to create a rich and alternative perspective to the teams that they support.
• Must be able to constructively challenge and influence with mastery, credibly engaging with key stakeholders within R&D and GSK but also with experts in the external environment.
• Highly effective communicator (spoken, written, listener).
• Experience with and cross functional knowledge of drug development, business, processes or operations
• Scientific or operational experience of delivery in an R&D environment, including experience matrix working
• Experience identifying and resolving issues and hurdles
• Experience successfully achieving complex business outcomes, prioritizing demand and removing barriers.
• Experience in writing key strategic summary documents and presentations to support Leadership team

Why GSK

At GSK, we have already delivered unprecedented change over the past four years, improving R&D, becoming a leader in Consumer Health, strengthening our leadership, and transforming our commercial execution. Now, we’re making the biggest changes we’ve made to our business in over 20 years. We’re on track to separate and create two new companies in 2022: New GSK with a leading portfolio of vaccines and specialty medicines as well as R&D based on immune system and genetics science; and a new world-leading consumer healthcare company of loved and trusted brands.

With new ambition comes new purpose. For New GSK, this is to unite science, talent and technology to get ahead of disease together – all with the clear ambition of delivering human health impact; stronger and more sustainable shareholder returns; and as a new GSK where outstanding people thrive.

Getting ahead means preventing disease as well as treating it. How we do all this is through our people and our culture. A culture that is ambitious for patients – so we deliver what matters better and faster; accountable for impact – with clear ownership of goals and support to succeed; and where we do the right thing. So, if you’re ready to improve the lives of billions, join us at this exciting moment in our journey. Join our challenge to get Ahead Together.

GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose – to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together – so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns – as an organisation where people can thrive. Getting ahead means preventing disease as well as treating it, and we aim to impact the health of 2.5 billion people around the world in the next 10 years.

Our success absolutely depends on our people. While getting ahead of disease together is about our ambition for patients and shareholders, it’s also about making GSK a place where people can thrive. We want GSK to be a workplace where everyone can feel a sense of belonging and thrive as set out in our Equal and Inclusive Treatment of Employees policy. We’re committed to being more proactive at all levels so that our workforce reflects the communities we work and hire in, and our GSK leadership reflects our GSK workforce.

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GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer and, in the US, we adhere to Affirmative Action principles. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, genetic information, military service, covered/protected veteran status or any other federal, state or local protected class.

At GSK, the health and safety of our employees are of paramount importance. As a science-led healthcare company on a mission to get ahead of disease together, we believe that supporting vaccination against COVID-19 is the single best thing we can do in the US to ensure the health and safety of our employees, complementary workers, workplaces, customers, consumers, communities, and the patients we serve.

GSK has made the decision to require all US employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, where allowed by state or local law and where vaccine supply is readily available. The only exceptions to this requirement are employees who are approved for an accommodation for religious, medical or disability-related reasons.

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