Senior Project Manager – R&D Transformation

Senior Project Manager

Our client, a leading organization within the Biopharma/Life Sciences industry, is seeking an experienced Senior Project Manager to support a large-scale R&D transformation initiative focused on improving R&D speed, productivity, efficiency, and value realization through AI, data, digital capabilities, and process improvement.

The Senior Project Manager will provide end-to-end strategic and program management support for a portfolio of R&D initiatives. Working closely with Business and Technology Leads, this individual will help translate business opportunities into well-defined value/business cases and drive them from initial idea and assessment through governance, approval, implementation planning, and transition into execution.

This is a highly hands-on role requiring strong knowledge of Biopharma/Life Sciences R&D, technology delivery, AI/data-driven transformation, and complex cross-functional program management.

• Business Case Development:
  Manage the intake and progression of new R&D opportunities. Partner with Business and Technology Leads to define the business problem, opportunity, scope, expected value, technology needs, dependencies, stakeholders, and implementation considerations.
• Business Case Readiness:
  Guide teams through the development and refinement of business/value cases and supporting materials, ensuring submissions are complete, appropriately structured, and ready for leadership review and decision-making.
• Strategy & Portfolio Planning:
  Support leadership in prioritizing and sequencing initiatives, identifying shared capabilities and dependencies, and maintaining alignment with broader R&D transformation objectives.
• Governance & Approvals:
  Manage initiatives through the governance and approval lifecycle, including preparation for advisory, steering committee, and leadership reviews. Coordinate materials, timelines, pre-reads, decisions, feedback, follow-ups, and required revisions.
• Cross-Functional Technology Coordination:
  Coordinate across technology and enabling functions to determine architecture, data, AI/ML, security, compliance, delivery, resource, and other requirements needed to progress initiatives.
• Implementation Planning:
  Translate approved business cases into actionable delivery plans, including scope, milestones, owners, resources, dependencies, risks, governance, funding considerations, and success measures.
• Transition to Execution:
  Drive structured handoffs from business-case development into execution, ensuring delivery teams have the necessary scope, documentation, decisions, resources, stakeholder alignment, and governance structure.
• Program & Portfolio Management:
  Maintain an integrated view of multiple initiatives at various stages, tracking milestones, deliverables, decisions, actions, risks, issues, dependencies, approvals, resources, and upcoming governance activities.
• Risk & Dependency Management:
  Proactively identify issues, cross-functional dependencies, resource constraints, decision points, and delivery risks. Drive resolution and escalate appropriately when needed.
• Meeting & Decision Management:
  Facilitate working sessions and governance discussions, prepare agendas and materials, capture decisions and actions, assign owners, and drive follow-through to closure.
• Documentation & Reporting:
  Maintain organized project documentation, trackers, business case materials, decision logs, action items, implementation plans, and executive-level reporting.
• Stakeholder Management:
  Coordinate across R&D business leaders, technology teams, functional SMEs, program teams, and external vendors/partners, ensuring stakeholders remain aligned on responsibilities, decisions, and next steps.

• 7+ years of Project/Program Management experience, preferably supporting complex enterprise initiatives.
• Strong experience within Biopharma, Pharmaceutical, or Life Sciences R&D environments.
• Experience managing programs involving AI, data, digital transformation, or enterprise technology is highly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiatives from initial concept/business case through governance, implementation planning, and execution.
• Experience managing multiple initiatives or work streams simultaneously within a highly matrixed organization.
• Strong understanding of technology delivery and ability to effectively partner with both business and technical stakeholders.
• Experience with executive-level governance, steering committees, and leadership reporting.
• Strong risk, dependency, resource, and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to translate complex information into clear, executive-ready materials.
• Highly organized, proactive, and comfortable operating independently in a fast-paced environment.

This is not a traditional Project Manager role focused primarily on scheduling meetings and maintaining project plans. The ideal candidate is a proactive, strategic Senior PM…