Associate Director, Strategic Projects and Organisational Enablement

Associate Director, Strategic Projects and Organisational Enablement

Chief Medical Office, Oncology R&D

Location: Barcelona - Spain (3 days working from the office and 2 days working from home)

The Chief Medical Office (CMO) guides the enterprise to meet the needs of patients today and tomorrow. The CMO organization spans the enterprise and all stages of the drug development pipeline covering Global Patient Safety, Patient Science, R&A Quality Assurance, Bioethics and Clinical Trial Transparency. As the Associate Director, Business Planning & Operations, you will play an important role by supporting the leaders in the CMO with the strategic planning of the mission and goals and enabling the execution of those goals by driving process improvement and optimization.

You will provide cross‑functional leadership to ensure the sub‑departments within the CMO increase their performance in line with the greater CMO goals and priorities. You will be accountable for leading the sub‑department leadership team meetings and face‑to‑face events, overseeing their functional budgets (including manpower and non‑manpower costs), and partnering closely with the Head of Business Planning and Operations for CMO, the CMO Finance Business Partner, the CMO HR Partner, and the CMO Communications Lead.

Coordinate business improvement projects across CMO, ensuring projects comply with business needs and progress according to established milestones. Implement new operational initiatives that improve business performance and continuity in the complex, fast‑moving CMO environment. Support CMO leaders to drive performance on the deliverables of the CMO groups, across SET areas.

Work cross‑functionally and across all 3 TAs (Oncology, Biopharma & Rare Disease) to highlight opportunities for innovation and operational excellence in support of CMO functions, proactively engaging with stakeholders. This role will be critical to supporting organisational transformation initiatives to establish new operating models and optimise team outcomes.

Coordinate priority initiatives and cross‑portfolio activities across multiple teams and regions, maintaining alignment within and beyond sub‑departments, and fostering performance, collaboration and accountability.

Oversee the CMO sub‑department budget forecasting, resource planning, and work with the CMO Leadership Team (LT) to coordinate recruitment efforts. Support talent development, retention and succession planning initiatives. This will include supporting open head count requests and managing succession planning for the sub‑department LTs.

Support senior leadership teams through strategic planning, objective setting and performance monitoring. Ensure the sub‑department goals are in line with the broader CMO vision and goals. Track progress of goals and deliverables; report quarterly milestones up to the CMO scorecard and the broader organisation scorecards.

Facilitate leadership meetings, coordinate annual planning cycles and ensure measurable metrics and success criteria are defined for all initiatives. Build and maintain relationships across functions to ensure the deliverables align with broader organisational priorities. Lead business and financial planning activities in partnership with Finance (e.g. long‑term and medium‑term planning) and contribute to CMO‑level planning in collaboration with the Head of Business Planning and Operations for CMO.

Work with leadership teams to set, lead and communicate strategic priorities and goals (activities and budget), in close collaboration with portfolio, project and strategy teams, leveraging reporting and analytics tools to communicate results. In collaboration with Communications, develop effective communication plans to drive understanding of strategy within the function and externally with key partners; ensure clarity of vision, priorities and deliverables across functions and regions.

Partner with HR and Communications to ensure teams are operating efficiently and support people…