Digital Product Portfolio Head

Work Schedule

Environmental Conditions

Job Description

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science with annual revenue of more than $40 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research solving complex analytical challenges increasing productivity in their laboratories improving patient health through diagnostics or the development and manufacture of life-changing therapies we are here to support them. Our global team delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands including Thermo Scientific Applied Biosystems Invitrogen Fisher Scientific Unity Lab Services Patheon and PPD.

The PPD clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific is a leading provider of global CRO solutions. We provide comprehensive drug development laboratory and lifecycle services to customers across pharmaceutical biotechnology medical device academic and government entities. By harnessing innovative technology and expertise we work to empower our customers to bring therapies to market faster.

We have an exciting new opening for a Digital Product Portfolio Head (known internally as Sr Director Digital Product) to own the strategy prioritization and value realization for an end-to-end digital domain specifically clinical trial execution supporting and building new products that spans study start to final regulatory delivery. This role is responsible for leading Product Managers and UX Designers- and partnering in a matrix with Engineering Data Science and Quality and will incubate internal products and solutions quantify ROI through measurable efficiency gains and guide readiness for future external monetization.

Reporting to the VP/Head of Digital Products you are accountable for domain vision business-case development roadmap execution user outcomes and regulatory compliance (21 CFR Part 11 ICH-GCP GDPR HIPAA).

This is a home-based role (or hybrid) for candidates in the US (East Coast preferred). Travel is estimated up to 25% for site visits customer meetings and team onboarding across Europe India and North America.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Roadmap & Vision

• Craft a 3-year vision that accelerates trial timelines and differentiates PPD.
• Translate vision into rolling 12-month roadmaps aligned to corporate OKRs and business objectives.
• Continuously monitor industry trends competitor strategies and technological advancements to ensure the product portfolio remains competitive and innovative.

Business-Case & ROI Development

• Build investment dossiers (TAM costbenefit payback NPV) for new initiatives.
• Establish value-tracking metrics (cycle-time reduction FTE hours saved quality KPIs) and partner with Finance to baseline and report realized gains.
• Develop comprehensive financial models with partnership from finance and operations to support strategic decisions and present these models to senior leadership and stakeholders.

Product Life-Cycle & Delivery Oversight

• Lead discovery prioritization backlog refinement and acceptance criteria.
• Co-own sprint cadence and release readiness with Engineering Leaders.
• Ensure robust product lifecycle management processes are in place from ideation through to product retirement.

People & Org Leadership

• Line-manage Product Managers / Senior PMs and UX Leads.
• Coach craft mastery career paths and a user-centric data-driven culture across US UK Eastern Europe and India hubs.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive team environment that encourages innovation and continuous improvement.

Stakeholder & Customer Engagement

• Serve as a liaison to study teams investigators sponsors and regulatory/quality partners; champion voice-of-customer and usability.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders to ensure alignment and support for product initiatives.

Governance & Compliance

• Own validation strategy (CSV Part 11) privacy impact assessments and security posture with Quality Security and Engineering

Qualified candidates will have a demonstrated record of developing business cases and ROI models for digital initiatives ($10M) and steering them through funding gates. Experience partnering with engineering organizations to deliver complex regulated products will be critical as well as a deep understanding of clinical-trial operations (recruitment start-up clinical operations data management RBM safety) and associated regulations.

Product-Management Leadership Competencies:

Strategic Product Visioning: Turn ambiguous goals into a crisp 3-year vision and phased roadmap balancing internal efficiency and future market revenue.

Portfolio Prioritization & Resource Allocation: Apply RICE/WSJF at portfolio scale; reallocate team capacity based on live ROI and risk data.

User-Centric Discovery & Validation: Lead problem interviews journey mapping rapid MVP/A-B experiments to de-risk before heavy build.

Data-Driven Decision-Making: Define North-Star & leading metrics; build self-serve dashboards so squads can course-correct.

Product Storytelling & Influence: Craft narratives linking clinical-outcome gains to business value; secure funding via clear storytelling.

Cross-Functional Leadership (no authority): Align Engineering QA and Compliance on priorities through shared OKRs; resolve conflicts by influence.

Coaching & Talent Development: Mentor PMs run product leadership meetings drive craft reviews and growth culture.

Operational Excellence / Product Ops: Implement intake triage release readiness KPI hygiene; partner with Engineering on cycle-time tracking.

Regulated-Market Lifecycle: Integrate Design Controls CSV privacy-by-design from ideation onward; balance agility with validation.

Financial & Business-Case Mastery: Build TAM NPV payback models; translates cost-avoidance into CFO-grade ROI narratives.

Go-to-Market & Change Management: Shape launch and adoption plans; lead internal change-management playbooks for study teams.

Innovation Scouting: Inject emerging tech (AI/ML decentralised trials) into roadmap through structured discovery.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors in Life Sciences Computer Science Engineering or related; MBA / MS preferred.
• Previous experience in product or business management leadership in software/SaaS that provides the knowledge skills and abilities to perform the job (comparable to 15 years experience).
• 5 years experience leading staff
• In some cases an equivalency consisting of appropriate education training and/or directly related experience will be considered sufficient for an individual to meet the requirements of the role.

Preferred Qualifications

• Leadership experience in a CRO eClinical tech provider or digital-health start-up.
• Exposure to AI/ML in commercial software.
• Pragmatic Institute PMC Agile/Scrum SAFe or equivalent certification.
• Published thought leadership on digital clinical-trial innovation.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities:

• Proven ability to lead and influence engineers designers analysts and stakeholders.
• Experience building intuitive user experiences at scale.
• Experience in AI/ML
• Familiarity with agile tools (e.g. Jira Aha! Azure DevOps).
• Demonstrated experience managing detailed product execution within large matrixed organizations.
• Skilled at managing up and aligning with stakeholders.
• Skilled at executive-level storytelling roadmaps and tradeoff discussions.
• Exceptional skill in translating complex business requirements into intuitive impactful software features that exceed customer expectations.
• Deep understanding of clinical trial processes clinical data management and leveraging AI technologies to address data complexities.
• Proven ability to leverage user insights and data analytics to drive feature development and continuous improvement.
• Outstanding English communication and stakeholder management abilities capable of clearly articulating detailed product requirements and vision.

Location: United States. Relocation assistance is NOT provided.

*Must be legally authorized to work in the United States withoutsponsorship.

*Must be able to pass a comprehensive background check whichincludes a drug screening.

At Thermo Fisher Scientific we are committed to fostering a healthy and harmonious workplace for our employees. We understand the importance of creating an environment that allows individuals to excel. Please see below for the required qualifications for this position which also includes the possibility of equivalent experience:

• Able to communicate receive and understand information and ideas with diverse groups of people in a comprehensible and reasonable manner.
• Able to work upright and stationary for typical working hours.
• Ability to use and learn standard office equipment and technology with proficiency.
• Able to perform successfully under pressure while prioritizing and handling multiple projects or activities.
• International travel up to 25%

Salary Transparency

This is a salaried role that will also be eligible to receive a variable annual bonus based on company team and/or individual performance results in accordance with company policy. Compensation will be initially discussed during the screening period with actual compensation confirmed in writing at the time of offer.

Compensation and Benefits

This position may also be eligible to receive a variable annual bonus based on company team and/or individual performance results in accordance with company policy. We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package that our U.S. colleagues and their families can count on which includes:

• A choice of national medical and dental plans and a national vision plan including health incentive programs

• Employee assistance and family support programs including commuter benefits and tuition reimbursement

• At least 120 hours paid time off (PTO) 10 paid holidays annually paid parental leave (3 weeks for bonding and 8 weeks for caregiver leave) accident and life insurance and short- and long-term disability in accordance with company policy

• Retirement and savings programs such as our competitive 401(k) U.S. retirement savings plan

• Employees Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) offers eligible colleagues the opportunity to purchase company stock at a discount

For more information on our benefits please visit: