Head of Research Project and Portfolio Management

About This Role

The Head of Research Project and Portfolio Management will lead project planning execution and portfolio management practices to optimize the delivery of Biogens Research portfolio spanning from early stage discovery through IND filing.

This role is accountable for shaping portfolio strategy and optimization by creating a common understanding of the state of the Research portfolio including value risks and upcoming inflection points; by driving clarity and alignment on key imperatives to progress and evolve the portfolio; and by ensuring that portfolio priorities and resourcing align to organizational objectives.

This role will also build and scale a Research project management and reporting function leading the successful translation of strategy into execution. Working in an open innovation model the role will ensure high-quality project plans risk management and operational excellence for internal projects and external therapeutic collaborations.

This position requires an agile visionary leader with deep experience in portfolio strategy project management and organizational design capable of fostering a culture of strategic clarity accountability psychological safety and continuous improvement.

What Youll Do

• Establish and maintain a strategic framework for guiding Research portfolio composition.

• Drive alignment and clarity in Research portfolio strategy through regular reviews of portfolio composition health prioritization trade-offs and scenario planning.

• Oversee the implementation and optimization of portfolio reporting processes tools and analytics to enable transparency of program status activities timelines and resourcing.

• Establish lead and mentor a team of exceptional project managers with skills tailored for discovery research through IND filing. Foster a collaborative results-oriented and supportive team environment promoting knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

• Provide oversight to ensure the development of high-quality project plans that translate project strategies into clear objectives deliverables timelines decision trees and resourcing needs for both internal research efforts and external therapeutic collaborations.

• Implement a robust risk management capability at the project and portfolio level.

• Foster a high-performance project team culture in Research based on accountability data-driven rigor agility collaboration and psychological safety.

• Cultivate advanced PPM capabilities and tools such as portfolio modeling and AL/ML-aided workflows leveraging industry best practices.

• Contribute to organizational strategic planning processes through insights gained from portfolio performance and project trends.

• Build and optimize processes and best practices for project handoffs to the Development project management organization.

Who You Are

Youre a strategic leader with a compelling vision for what excellence looks like in a Project & Portfolio Management (PPM) function. Youre motivated by the opportunity to be a highly visible role that will build and scale a critical new capability in the organization. You thrive in dynamic agile environments and love to prototype ideas while iteratively improving them based on evolving information and feedback. You are passionate about enabling scientific innovation through operational excellence cross-functional collaboration and decision-making rigor. You seamlessly balance strategic vision with execution discipline lean into influencing at all levels and have a passion for coaching and growing others.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelors degree in a scientific discipline is required; an advanced degree (e.g. MS PhD MBA) in a relevant field of study is strongly preferred.

• Minimum of 12 years of experience in portfolio strategy portfolio management and project management within the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry.

• Comprehensive understanding of drug discovery processes including target identification and validation lead selection and optimization pharmacology and translational science. Scientific experience in neuroscience immune-mediated diseases or rare disease is highly desirable.

• Demonstrated ability to drive strategic clarity and alignment on portfolio priorities.

• Proven ability to successfully build and scale a PPM function including organizational design and process development.

• Strong expertise in project management methodologies and software portfolio reporting tools and analytics and decision frameworks.

• Demonstrated experience in applying AI/ML or other advanced computational tools for portfolio management or optimization.

• Demonstrated ability to lead inspire and motivate a high-performing team.

• Agile and adaptable to changing priorities and evolving information while maintaining a focus on results and accountability.

• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to engage inform and influence stakeholders at all levels of the organization.

• Familiarity with external collaboration models and alliance management.

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Additional Information