Director, Customer Engagement & Transformation Portfolio

Partner with the Head of Customer Engagement & Transformation, functional and initiative leads, and relevant Strategy, Operations & Innovation leaders to translate strategic priorities into objectives, roadmaps, integrated delivery plans, milestones, and measurable outcomes. Provide project-management expertise and operational insight to support the development and execution of Customer Engagement & Transformation strategy. Maintain an integrated view of initiatives, interdependencies, resource requirements, risks, expected benefits, and strategic contribution to support prioritization and leadership decision-making. Lead or support the development of annual and longer-term operating plans, functional roadmaps, strategic priorities, and portfolio scorecards, ensuring alignment with broader organizational priorities. Maintain an integrated view of key initiatives, dependencies, resource requirements, risks, and expected benefits. Own structured prioritization across the business-planning cycle, including forecasting, phasing, trade-off decisions, and alignment to medium- and long-range plans. Bring a broad global business perspective and support effective translation of global strategy into regional and local execution.

1. Cross-Functional and Matrix Team Leadership

Lead and coordinate cross-functional initiatives, ensuring that workstreams are aligned and integrated plans are delivered effectively. Establish a collaborative and accountable project environment across teams, functions, and geographic locations. Build strong, trusted working relationships with senior stakeholders, initiative owners, project managers, workstream leads, and delivery teams across multiple time zones. Facilitate effective communication, escalation, and decision-making processes across the portfolio. Support the effective operation of governance forums, including leadership meetings, steering groups, and cross-functional councils. Help onboard new team members to consistent project-management practices across the function. Where assigned, lead and develop project-management colleagues or contingent resources, building trust, providing mentorship, clarifying expectations, and creating a high-performing team environment. Adapt leadership style to the situation, generate commitment, balance short- and long-term needs, and resolve differences constructively.

The role will be accountable for delivering or enabling:

• An integrated Customer Engagement & Transformation portfolio plan, roadmap, and prioritization framework.
• Regular portfolio reporting, including progress against milestones, strategic goals, dependencies, budgets, risks, issues, decisions, and benefits.
• Effective project and governance routines across key initiatives and workstreams.
• Leadership-ready status reports, dashboards, scorecards, roadmaps, walking decks, presentations, communications, and decision materials.
• Consistent tracking of project deliverables, actions, decisions, budgets, contracts, and resource requirements.
• Coordinated input into annual and longer-term planning, forecasting, workforce planning, budget cycles, RBU, MTP, and Long-Range Plan processes, as applicable.
• Clear tracking of resources, workforce requirements, budgets, contracts, purchase orders, vendors, and financial commitments.
• Clear escalation and mitigation plans for delivery risks, barriers, competing priorities, and dependencies.
• Effective coordination of cross-functional meetings, steering groups, councils, and workstream forums.
• Standardized project-management tools, templates, and ways of working.
• Stakeholder-engagement and adoption plans for priority initiatives.
• Documented lessons learned, reusable practices, and continuous improvement opportunities.
• Delivery of up to two strategic Customer Engagement & Transformation workstreams, or an equivalent portfolio of high-priority initiatives, as required.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Minimum of seven years of relevant experience in the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare, life sciences, or a closely related regulated environment.
• Minimum of three years of Medical Affairs experience at global, regional, or local level, or equivalent experience working directly with Medical Affairs teams and priorities.
• Significant experience in project management, portfolio management, business transformation, operations, or program delivery, ideally within a large and matrixed organization.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives from planning through implementation and benefit realization.
• Comprehensive understanding of pharmaceutical product development and commercialization, and of the global business context in which Medical Affairs and customer engagement operate.
• Strong ability to translate strategic priorities into practical delivery plans, milestones, governance, and measurable outcomes.
• Experience managing interdependencies, risks, issues, budgets, resources, and competing priorities.
• Successful experience influencing cross-functionally, cross-culturally, and across brands, including bringing together teams without direct line-management authority.
• Experience working in a global setting and managing stakeholders across different geographies and time zones.
• Strong stakeholder-management and influencing skills, including the ability to work effectively with senior leaders and diverse functional teams.
• Experience preparing and/or delivering presentations, recommendations, and communications to executive leadership.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex information into clear updates, recommendations, and decision materials.
• Experience establishing project-management routines, dashboards, reporting processes, and governance forums.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to oversee multiple deliverables in short timelines and deliver high-quality work despite ambiguity or change.
• Demonstrated change-management capability spanning process implementation, communications, training, adoption, people development, and organizational effectiveness.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership capability, including strategic thinking, practical problem solving, independent judgment, decisiveness, and the ability to resolve differences constructively.

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Graduate-level degree in science, business, or a related discipline.
• Experience in pharmaceutical, healthcare, or life sciences.
• Familiarity with Global Medical Affairs, customer engagement, medical operations, scientific engagement, or digital transformation.
• Experience working with enterprise transformation portfolios or operating-model changes.
• Exposure to customer-engagement platforms, digital capabilities, data and analytics, automation, or AI-enabled productivity tools.
• Experience with financial planning, budget tracking, vendor management, purchase orders, or grant-management processes.
• Proficiency with project-management, collaboration, reporting, and information-management tools such as Microsoft Project, Power BI, SharePoint, Teams, or equivalent platforms.
• Formal project- or program-management certification, such as PMP, PRINCE2, Agile, or equivalent, is desirable.
• Consulting experience is an asset.
• Understanding of the medical, scientific, and/or commercial pharmaceutical marketplace; therapeutic-area experience, including oncology, is an asset.