Senior Director, IT Product Management - SAP Platform

Overview

The Senior Director IT Product Management, SAP Platform, will oversee and lead a portfolio of digital products critical to Exelixis's success and ambition to launch innovative medicines for patients. This role defines and drives the strategy, development, and operational excellence of our Enterprise Resource Planning ecosystem, ensuring alignment with business objectives and a strong focus on user experience and value delivery.

Operating within a product-centric model, the Senior Director will define product roadmaps, foster cross-functional collaboration, and lead agile product teams to deliver innovative and impactful digital solutions that accelerate drug discovery, development, and commercialization.

Product Strategy & Roadmap (Product-Centric Focus):

• Define, evangelize, and drive the enterprise vision and multi-year strategy for a portfolio of digital products (Enterprise Resource Planning, Financial Reporting and Analytics, Supply and Demand Planning, SAP S/4
  
  HANA Platform), ensuring alignment with corporate objectives and IT goals.
• Engage senior business leaders and functional executives across Finance, Accounting, Strategic Sourcing, Pharmaceutical Supply Chain to shape product direction, uncover unmet needs, and translate strategic opportunities into actionable roadmaps.
• Conduct market research, competitive analysis, and technology trends assessment to identify new opportunities and ensure our enterprise applications remain cutting-edge and competitive within the life science landscape.
• Prioritize product initiatives based on business value, technical feasibility, regulatory compliance, and resource availability, ensuring a balanced portfolio of short-term wins and long-term strategic investments.
• Conduct final review and approval of architecture and design patterns to ensure enterprise solutions are built in the right and secured manner.

Product Development & Delivery (Agile/Product Team Leadership):

• Inspire and lead cross-functional teams by cultivating strategic ownership, innovation, and continuous improvement across the product lifecycle.
• Provide executive oversight of the entire product lifecycle from ideation to launch and post-launch optimization, ensuring efficient product development processes (e.g., Agile Scrum, Kanban).
• Set standards for definition and delivery of multiple enterprise products by guiding high-impact user stories, acceptance criteria, and product specifications that balance business priorities and user needs across functions.
• Partner at a strategic level with engineering, architecture, and quality leaders to deliver secure, scalable, high-quality enterprise applications that meet evolving business demands.
• Shape and govern strategic vendor relationships, ensuring alignment with roadmaps, delivery timelines, and operational excellence standards.
• Champion a user-centric design approach with user research, usability testing, and feedback loops to continuously improve the user experience and effectiveness of enterprise solutions across multiple products and functions.
• Manage and sustain a robust data management & AI practice to protect sensitive information and ensure accuracy and reliability across enterprise products and functions.

Stakeholder Management &

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Serve as an executive liaison between IT and business functions, translating technical strategies into actionable business outcomes.
• Forge and sustain strategic partnerships with key stakeholders to align on product vision, investment priorities, and measurable outcomes.
• Facilitate effective communication and decision-making across product teams, 3+ business units, and IT groups.
• Represent the Information Technology team in executive steering committees, strategic planning councils, and enterprise-wide cross-functional initiatives.

Operational Excellence, Quality & Compliance:

• Accountable for the operational stability, performance, and security of digital applications, working closely with IT operations and infrastructure teams.
• Establish and lead governance frameworks for vendor partnerships and third-party software solutions, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, compliance mandates, and business continuity objectives.
• Define and enforce that all enterprise applications and releases comply with regulatory requirements (e.g., GxP, HIPAA, GDPR, SOX) and internal quality and security standards.
• Ensure product releases meet rigorous quality standards and compliance requirements; partner with quality and compliance leaders to update standards as needed.
• Design and operationalize strategic KPIs and dashboards for executive visibility into product adoption, business impact, and continuous improvement opportunities driven by data and stakeholder feedback.

Team Leadership & Development:

• Shape and execute a strategic talent agenda for the IT organization, attracting, developing, and retaining top-tier talent to build a resilient, high-performing team aligned with…