Associate Director, Succession and Assessment Strategy

At Bristol Myers Squibb, our employees often ask,  Who are you working for? —a question that fuels collaboration, accountability, and urgency in our work. Our purpose-driven culture inspires us to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines to prevail over serious diseases. We offer uniquely interesting and meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and a supportive environment that values inclusion, wellbeing, flexibility, and comprehensive benefits.

This is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it.

The Associate Director, Succession & Assessments serves as a key leader in building frameworks to drive leadership continuity, executive readiness, and long‑term workforce sustainability. This role leads the strategy and design of enterprise succession planning, executive assessment, and strategic workforce planning initiatives.

• Lead the design and evolution of enterprise succession planning and succession pool strategy across executive and enterprise critical roles.
• Define and maintain clear succession frameworks, criteria, and readiness definitions that support consistent and effective succession planning.
• Partner with Executive Talent Partners, HR Business Partners and functional leaders to identify and align critical roles and capabilities essential to business continuity and future growth.
• Identify, design and implement critical pipeline development and engagement experience
• Ensure functional succession plans are aligned with enterprise standards while reflecting unique business needs.
• Design and implement succession planning discussion tools and resources to ensure ETM’s ability to translate insights into actionable development and risk mitigation plans.

• Own succession data governance, reporting, and analytics to provide clear visibility into bench strength, readiness, and leadership risk.
• Partner with HR Operations and Technology to configure and optimize Workday succession and talent planning functionality.
• Develop and maintain dashboards and insights that support executive decision‑making and workforce planning conversations.
• Ensure data accuracy, consistency, and usability across succession and talent planning processes.

• Lead the strategy and design of assessment approaches, including discovery, tool selection, and application across leadership populations.
• Ensure assessments are purpose‑driven, evidence‑based, and aligned with leadership expectations and succession needs.
• Translate assessment insights into development priorities and coaching recommendations.
• Own executive coaching vendor management, including selection, contracting, oversight, and quality assurance.
• Partner with Learning, Talent, and HR Business Partners to integrate assessment and coaching insights into development and succession strategies.

• Bachelor’s degree required;
  Master’s in HR, Organizational Psychology, or related field preferred.
• 7+ years of experience in succession planning, executive assessment, workforce planning, or related talent disciplines.
• Strong expertise in succession frameworks, critical role identification, and leadership readiness evaluation.
• Experience working with executive assessments and coaching providers.
• Familiarity with HR systems (Workday preferred), reporting, and talent analytics.
• Proven ability to partner with senior leaders and facilitate high‑stakes talent discussions.
• Strong analytical, strategic thinking, and problem‑solving skills.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Able to manage multiple, interdependent initiatives…