Senior Director, Head of Research & Early Development

Jazz Pharmaceuticals is a global biopharma company whose purpose is to innovate to transform the lives of patients and their families. We are dedicated to developing life-changing medicines for people with serious diseases — often with limited or no therapeutic options. We have a diverse portfolio of marketed medicines, including leading therapies for sleep disorders and epilepsy, and a growing portfolio of cancer treatments.

Our patient-focused and science-driven approach powers pioneering research and development advancements across our robust pipeline of innovative therapeutics in oncology and neuroscience. Jazz is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland with research and development laboratories, manufacturing facilities and employees in multiple countries committed to serving patients worldwide. Please visit  for more information.

• Process Optimization & Life Cycle Progression (Discovery to FIH)
• Path Acceleration:
  Champion continuous process improvement across the early drug development continuum from Discovery and Candidate Nomination through Investigational New Drug (IND) / Clinical Trial Authorization (CTA) and First-in-Human (FIH).
• Cycle-Time Excellence:
  Establish standardized cycle-time benchmarks, identify key operational bottlenecks, and remove development friction to accelerate high-priority early medicines.
• Scalable Infrastructure:
  Design and scale R&D operational processes to support the increasing demand of a growing neuroscience, oncology, and rare disease early-stage pipeline.
• Portfolio Oversight, Risk Management & Governance Partnering
• Early Portfolio Monitoring:
  Maintain holistic, end-to-end operational visibility over risk profiles, critical-path dependencies, and strategic opportunities within the early-stage portfolio.
• Governance Partnership:
  Partner with the Governance and Portfolio Management Lead to design and align consistent templates for early-stage governance presentations and rigorous post-governance project tracking.
• Accountability Frameworks:
  Establish frameworks to ensure projects stay precisely on track with agreed-upon target timelines, milestones, and approved development budgets.
• Orchestra Operating Model & High-Performing Teams
• Model Integration:
  Lead the active embedding and continuous sustainment of the Orchestra Team Operating Model across all early-stage project teams, clarifying roles, responsibilities, and team decision rights.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  
  Break down traditional functional silos to build highly collaborative, high-performing drug discovery and early development teams.
• PPM Vision Alignment:
  Embed the department’s core strategic pillars into day-to-day operations, shaping project managers as the strategic “COOs of their projects”.
• Executive Stakeholder Collaboration & Strategic Prioritization
• C‑Suite & CSO Engagement:
  Serve as an influential strategic partner to the Oncology and Neuroscience Chief Scientific Officers (CSOs), Corporate Strategy, and Governance leads.
• Goal Setting & Trade-offs:
  Facilitate prioritization reviews and stage-gate trade‑off scenarios to support R&D annual goal setting and executive-level portfolio prioritization.
• Continuity Partnering:
  Collaborate actively with…