Senior Director, Research Program Management

What You’ll Do

• Build and maintain integrated, milestone-driven program plans from discovery through candidate selection, including critical path, key decision points, and success criteria—grounded in modality-appropriate benchmarks for small molecule, biologics, and gene therapy programs.

• Establish clear, stage-appropriate deliverables (e.g., target validation, lead optimization, develop ability, candidate nomination) aligned to industry benchmarks; challenge planning assumptions before they’re embedded in program baselines.
• Maintain a real-time portfolio view across NJ/NH programs to enable leadership visibility into progress, risks, timelines, and trade-offs.
• Partner with Program/Project Leaders and functional scientists to translate strategy into execution plans and priorities; support team operating cadence with clear objectives, documented decisions, and accountability.
• Serve as a cross-functional connector across biology, protein engineering, immunology, translational, and CMC to resolve dependencies, remove bottlenecks, and manage cross-site interactions.
• Proactively identify scientific/technical/execution risks; drive mitigation planning and data-driven decisions using options, trade-offs, and scenario analyses.
• Identify opportunities to accelerate timelines via parallelization, externalization, manufacturing sourcing optimization, or scope prioritization; focus on critical experiments and minimal decision data packages.
• Ensure rigorous documentation of decisions, risks, and assumptions (decision logs and version-controlled program records).
• Lead portfolio update materials and quarterly review narratives; ensure executive summaries reflect material risks and timeline changes; track post-review actions.
• Drive adoption of fit-for-purpose early research program management tools/templates, including modality-specific templates.
• Contribute to a scalable research operating model (standard milestone frameworks, portfolio tracking, and ways of working).

• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific discipline.
• 12+ years of biotech/pharma R&D experience, including drug discovery and early development.
• 10+ years of program/project management experience in a matrixed R&D environment.

• Track record advancing programs to development candidate selection or IND-enabling stage; strong understanding of target validation; hit/lead identification and optimization; develop ability; candidate selection criteria; translational and preclinical considerations.
• Ability to interpret scientific data and connect it to program-level decisions and risks; identify misapplied cross-modality assumptions and drive course correction.
• Experience with integrated planning, scenario analysis, attrition modeling, and risk management frameworks.
• Proficiency with MS Project, Smartsheet, SharePoint, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Ability to identify/resolve systemic cross-program bottlenecks; engage CMC, Development, Finance, and Regulatory as structural contributors.
• Proven ability to lead through influence in a cross-functional matrix without formal authority over scientific teams in fast-moving discovery settings.
• Highly structured/organized; able to manage multiple complex programs while maintaining execution rigor.
• Excellent communicator who can distill complexity into actionable insights; collaborative, low-ego approach.
• Ability to work across NJ and NH research sites with flexibility for on-site presence.

• PhD or advanced degree strongly preferred.