Senior Director, Drug Development Portfolio Manager

Drug Development Project Manager - Boston

ICON plc is a world-leading healthcare intelligence and clinical research organization. We’re proud to foster an inclusive environment driving innovation and excellence, and we welcome you to join us on our mission to shape the future of clinical development.

The Senior Drug Development Project Manager oversees the high-level plans and progress of these teams, managing projects from pre-clinical stages through to commercialization. The DDPM is responsible for incorporating overarching indication activities and milestones, documenting their downstream impact, and justifying changes in project budget and resources. This role involves close collaboration with the Asset Strategy Lead and function leads within the EDST or AST.

The DDPM compiles and owns the integrated cross-functional project plan, ensuring alignment with corporate strategy.

As part of the Project Management Office (PMO), DDPMs advocate for project management techniques and processes, coaching team members on consistent utilization, including risk mapping, mitigation strategies, and logging lessons learned.

• When in a managerial role, the DDPM supports the development of team members, enhancing their confidence, skills, and experiences in alignment with corporate strategy while ensuring the team adheres to agreed project scopes.
• Establishes a project lifetime plan with appropriate detail, proactively identifying risks and resolving issues.
• Maintains and communicates project timelines, budgets, and resource allocations, flagging delays and discrepancies while liaising with governance, finance, and function heads.
• Fosters high team performance by proactively engaging stakeholders and partnering with project leadership to ensure effective governance meetings.
• Collaborates with various teams and function leads to translate strategies into integrated project plans, taking ownership of these plans and sharing insights that influence project direction.
• Encourages positive team dynamics, working with HR to organize team-building activities and ensuring secure document sharing among team members and stakeholders.
• Communicates any significant project accelerations or delays to leadership, driving corrective actions as needed.
• Partners with internal and external stakeholders to establish effective project communications and manage changes towards common goals while promoting conflict resolution.
• Develops and implements methods and frameworks for quality decision-making to support operational excellence in drug development projects and process improvement initiatives.
• Collaborates with finance to address budget-related inquiries, conduct baseline comparisons, and perform variance analysis, optimizing internal project templates.
• Co-creates dashboards with business process managers and acts as a liaison to identify reporting needs from business partners.

• Strong leadership skills, promoting values that enhance team dynamics.
• Excellent communication skills, fostering inclusivity and collaboration.
• Proven interpersonal skills for conflict mediation and management.
• Solid project management skills with broad exposure to the pharmaceutical R&D process; advanced planning experience with MS Project is essential. PMP certification is a plus.
• Adaptability to continuous change.
• Proficient verbal and written English communication skills (full professional proficiency required).
• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in a health-related discipline or equivalent experience.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in drug development across various phases and disease areas.
• At least 5 years of program management experience in a pharmaceutical or biotech setting, preferably in cross-cultural environments.
• Genuine…