Senior Director, Head of R&D Governance and Portfolio Management

Brief Description:

The Senior Director, Head of R&D Governance and Portfolio Management serves as the organizational architect and strategic operational lead for Jazz Pharmaceuticals' R&D decision-making bodies and portfolio prioritization mechanisms. Operating across both Discovery/Research and Late-Stage Clinical Development, this leader ensures the frictionless progression of therapeutic assets through all stage gates to commercialization.

This high-visibility leadership role is responsible for ensuring governance forums operate with strategic clarity, uncompromising decision discipline, and operational speed. By partnering with Project Management, Resource Management, Finance, Commercial, Technical Operations and R&D Executive Leadership, the Senior Director translates corporate strategy into transparent portfolio choices, robust risk management, and accelerated cycle times.

Essential Functions 1. R&D Governance Architecture & Committee Operations

• Stage-Gate Governance Oversight: Architect, lead, and optimize R&D governance committees spanning Early Discovery/Research through Late-Stage Development and Registration (including the integration of early and late stage-gate committees).

• Operational Execution: Proactively oversee end-to-end meeting mechanics, including scheduling cadences, topic intake, curated agendas, timely pre-read distribution, minutes publication, and action-item tracking.

• Decision Rights & Mandates: Alignment with Corporate Strategy and Governance: Partner with corporate strategy to ensure clear alignment between corporate decision making on programs and funding and R&D strategic decision making. Establish and enforce clear decision-rights frameworks, explicit committee charters, and quorum standards.

• Written Endorsements & Offline Approvals: Manage rapid, offline endorsement processes for urgent or straightforward milestone decisions to ensure governance remains off the development critical path and serves as a tool for acceleration.

• Material Preparation for Internal Executive Committees: In partnership with the R&D Chief of Staff, will prepare materials for Science Committees, Quarterly Portfolio Review meetings and other forums where R&D leaders may need portfolio slides.

2. Strategic Portfolio Management & Prioritization

• Annual & In-Year Prioritization: In close partnership with Corporate Strategy and Finance, lead the integrated R&D portfolio prioritization process to evaluate strategic trade-offs, pipeline value, and return on investment.

• Resource & Capacity Integration: Partner with Project Management (PPM) and Resource Management leads to link study-level FTE/capacity and financial allocations to prioritized portfolio milestones, identifying resourcing bottlenecks and managing risks before they cause operational drag.

• R&D Pipeline Goal Setting: Drive the annual pipeline corporate goal-setting process in collaboration with Corporate Strategy and Global Project Management leads; monitor and report quarterly progress against milestone commitments.

• Portfolio Risk Management: Synthesize portfolio-level risks across R&D, orchestrating proactive mitigation discussions at executive review forums.

3. Executive Influencing & Team Coaching

• Executive Facilitation: Partner directly with Committee Chairs and executive attendees (e.g., R&D Leadership Team) to maintain meeting focus, and secure definitive, strategic decisions.

• Presentation Readiness & Pre-Flight Reviews: Coach Global Project Teams and early/late development lead prior to governance appearances; review draft presentations critically to identify narrative gaps, clarify decision asks, and ensure executive-ready pre-reads.

Decision Logging & Transparency: Maintain the single source of truth for all historical governance decisions, rationales, and contingency triggers across the enterprise.

4. Governance Optimization & Cycle-Time Acceleration

• Continuous Improvement: Create/design governance tools and regularly audit governance operational models, pre-read templates, and decision templates to eliminate administrative bloat and maximize strategic discussion time. Provide training and guidance to functional leaders, development team leaders and project managers on governance process and best practices.

• Cycle Time Benchmarking: Benchmark internal stage-gate progression and approval timelines against industry metrics (e.g., CMR, KMR), identifying procedural and operational bottlenecks.

• Governance Health Metrics: Design and publish regular dashboards measuring governance performance, including pre-read compliance, first-pass approval rates, meeting efficiency, and action-item completion rates.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Experience: Extensive experience in pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry experience, with experience dedicated to R&D governance, program management, portfolio management, or R&D strategy operations.

• Stage-Gate Expertise: Thorough, end-to-end knowledge of global drug discovery, preclinical development, clinical phases (Phase 1-3), global health authority interactions (IND, CTA, NDA, BLA), and post-marketing commitments.

• Governance Mastery: Demonstrated success creating, chartering, and running senior-level R&D decision-making committees in mid-to-large biopharmaceutical organizations.

• Executive Presence & Influence: Proven track record of influencing senior Vice Presidents and C-suite leaders, maintaining meeting control, and driving consensus without formal operational authority.

• Critical Thinking & Content Shaping: Ability to quickly digest complex scientific, clinical, regulatory, and commercial data to pinpoint analytical gaps and enhance presentation decks.

• PPM Systems & Analytics: Hands-on familiarity with Enterprise Project & Portfolio Management systems (e.g., Planisware, OnePager, Power BI) and risk-adjusted valuation frameworks.

• Organizational Agility: Exceptional written and oral communication skills, with meticulous attention to detail in documentation, minutes, and decision tracking.

Required/Preferred Education and Licenses

• Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences, Engineering, Business, or related field required.

• Advanced degree (PhD, PharmD, MS, or MBA) strongly preferred.