Senior Director, Program Lead

Role Summary

Deciphera’s cross‑functional program teams drive the strategy and operations of our late preclinical, clinical, and commercial assets. We are seeking a dynamic, seasoned Sr Director, Program Lead (PL) who will be responsible and accountable for one or more therapeutic assets. The successful candidate will be a strategic leader who can leverage their strong drug development expertise, EQ, and organizational skills to develop and drive the asset strategy and for leading all development and life‑cycle management projects associated with the asset.

Key attributes of the successful candidate include:

• Program Strategy & Execution Accountability (60%)
  • For a given asset/program, responsible for the development and execution of the overarching global program strategy. The PL leads all research and development activities associated with an asset from approximately nomination of lead candidates to the marketplace with full accountability.
  • Drive the development and execution of the strategic plan, appropriately balancing data quality, timelines and costs based on current internal corporate considerations and the external landscape.
  • Lead one or more cross‑functional program teams to define program vision, strategy, goals, decision points, investments and areas of risk and associated mitigations and contingencies.
  • Partners closely with the program manager to provide strategic, process and operational leadership to the Program team
  • Identifies and communicates risks and appropriate mitigations
  • Lead data‑driven decision‑making processes to enable timely and objective development decisions
• Communicate (20%)
  • Holistic and confident communication: ensure PT clearly understands expectations from leadership, ensure leadership clearly understands program status, timelines, milestones, risks and mitigations
  • Focus team efforts on most critical tasks; identify and resolve communication bottlenecks
  • Participate in Portfolio Strategy Steering Committee meetings as the key representative of the program team
  • Liaise with relevant stakeholders within the Ono Pharma Group to ensure alignment across entities. Liaise with peers within the Program Leadership and Management function to maintain consistent cross‑project standards, ensure aligned strategies, and to determine overlap of competing priorities.
• Promotes organizational reputation by engaging with internal and external stakeholders and collaborating actively with other Deciphera PLs (20%)
  • Stakeholder management
  • Mentor junior PLs and program managers
  • Cultivate healthy, effective, and highly functioning program teams

• PLs are experienced, versatile and strong enterprise leaders
• PLs are highly collaborative cross‑functional leaders who consistently drive top performance and deliver against challenging goals
• PLs ensure that risks and challenges are addressed proactively and collaboratively with partner functions, with joint decision making when appropriate to drive, deliver and maximize asset value.
• PLs are effective in communicating to partners and stakeholders at an appropriate level of detail.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

• A minimum of 15 years drug development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including a minimum of 3 years’ development program leadership experience
• Solid understanding of drug development process (steps, functions and their roles, key interdependencies)
• Strong interpersonal skills, with a proven track record of influencing without authority across a matrixed organization
• Highly effective influencer without authority at all levels
• Builds consensus, but identifies a final decision maker / escalates when required
• Outstanding written and oral communicator, able to clearly and accurately express complex ideas
• Demonstrated ability to be flexible and open to adjusting approaches as new information or circumstances emerge
• Resilient in a fast‑paced, rapidly evolving environment
• Highly motivated with a "hands on" leadership style - no task is too big or small!
• Strategic, efficient, organized, and empathetic leader who can zoom both in and out
• Committed to driving the program forward to the next strategic…