Associate Director, Programme Management

Main Purpose of Job:

The primary purpose of this role is to lead and drive the cross-functional, early-stage clinical-stage program teams in the development of the Immunocore portfolio by effectively contributing to the development of and translating program strategies into cross-functional plans and ensuring delivery against those plans.
The incumbent is expected to leverage emerging expertise and subject matter knowledge in early-stage clinical programs to address significant and unique complex issues, aligning work with the wider Immunocore’s strategy. The individual will interpret internal and external business challenges, recommend best practices, and identify new solutions. They will make timely, tough decisions, effectively dealing with ambiguity and sometimes, limited information.
The individual in this role will be expected to maintain strategic awareness of the market, competitive landscape, and opportunities, understanding the impact of their decisions on short-term and long-term results. They will interact proactively with key stakeholders, influencing and persuading on difficult concepts, and regularly presenting at high-profile meetings.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partners with Program Lead to drive the cross-functional alignment and delivery of assigned programs.
• Provides program management leadership by providing active input into the project strategy & vision, ensuring alignment of the project strategy with operational delivery.
• Leads teams in the creation of comprehensive development plans, including identifying alternatives and scenario planning in corporation with other functional areas.
• Partners with all functional areas (e.g. pre-clinical, manufacturing, regulatory, clinical, safety, data management) to refine and build integrated program strategy and timelines, identify the critical path and keep the programs on track.
• Ensures appropriate linkages between project strategy and key internal processes (therapy area strategies, prioritization, corporate scorecard, etc.).
• Works with the program team to establish short and long-term goals and proactively identifies issues and/or risks; facilitates risk mitigation strategies where needed.
• Coaches project teams towards successful issue resolution and decision making and focuses the team on the right activities at the right time; able to handle many challenging project situations.
• Monitors deliverables and communicates regular updates of program status to stakeholders via dashboards, program reporting and other cross-portfolio project management tools.
• Completes day-to-day program management activities, such as facilitating cross-functional team meetings, leading discussions to drive decision-making, preparing agendas and meeting minutes, and defining and resolving action items.
• Partners with the Program Lead and project team members to develop impactful presentations which summarize complex topics into critical points to facilitate strategic planning and decision-making and prepares programs status updates and governance presentations to the governance committees.
• Ensures that all key stakeholders are knowledgeable of program milestones, plans, program status and decisions through regular reporting and communication.
• Ensures the team and stakeholders have the right information for decisions and leads the team through problem solving, decision discussions and contingency planning, particularly with respect to complex and unique issues.
• Upholds good program management best practices and principles while serving as a visible leader to strengthen the program management department and create efficiencies where possible.
• Provides guidance regarding standards/templates to Program Lead, the project team and senior management/governance bodies that allows efficient (timely and informed) decision making.
• Working with the Program Lead, uses broad influential network and ensures engagement at all levels prior to key decisions to ensure alignment on key questions/decisions which need to be made.
• Ensures that overall team deliverables, budgets, schedules, and performance standards are realistically set, governance-approved and successfully attained, and that the project effectively fulfils all business reporting requirements.
• Champions company program management methodologies and adoption of new project management practices; can drive and execute programs.
• Uses business knowledge to drive cross-project learning, champion and embed better ways of working across the company through influence.
• May assist the VP, Program and Portfolio Management, and other team members as required, in process improvements and other initiatives to improve organizational effectiveness; may lead departmental initiatives as requested.

Supervisory Responsibility (If applicable):
• N/A

Education, Experience and Knowledge:

Essential Qualifications:
• Typically requires a bachelor’s degree and 14+ years of related experience; or equivalent experience.
• Educated to BS/ BA level or higher in life science discipline or equivalent
• Desirable: Masters/ PhD/ PharmD/ MBA in immunology, biochemistry, cell biology or related discipline
• Desirable: Formal project management training
• Experience with advanced project management tools, such as MS Project or Smartsheet
• PMP certification preferred but not required

Preferred Experience, Knowledge and Abilities:

• Experience in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry with prior experience in an R&D Project or Product Management role in the Biotech industry (at least 9+ years of relevant experience)
• Extensive knowledge of R&D drug development processes within the Pharmaceutical and/or Biotech industry
• Proficiency with MS Project/Smartsheet and/or other PM tools and practices
• Ability to empower, lead and encourage efficient cross-functional teams
• Excellent working knowledge of project management tools and processes
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Familiarity with Microsoft environment (Word, Excel, Power Point, Visio, SharePoint, Teams)
• Exceptional relationship building skills to work with internal and external stakeholders and user groups and quickly understand their needs and the scientific, clinical, and operational problems that need solving.
• Ability to influence and persuade other stakeholders by applying knowledge and expertise to drive desired departmental while preserving relationships
• Excellent attention to detail, organisational, communication and stakeholder management skills
• Highly proactive in identifying risks, raising issues, and identifying solutions within the project and predict where opportunities for improving processes may arise in the future
• Delivery-focused mindset, capable of scaling at pace, taking operational and practical ownership of projects
• Strong track record in a relevant scientific discipline