Business Partner (R&D Therapeutic Area Units)

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Job Description

Objectives:

• The Business Partner (R&D Therapeutic Area Units) is a strategic role that is expected to provide thought leadership, through the conception, planning and orchestration of DD&T activities, critical to enabling the TAUs to accelerate innovation and deliver differentiated outcomes necessary to build an industry-leading R&D pipeline.
• The Oncology, Neuroscience, and Gastrointestinal and Inflammation Therapeutic Area Units (TAUs) in R&D are operating at the intersection of science, data, and translational strategy, requiring DD&T support that is both deeply specialized and highly coordinated.
• The R&D TAUs’ work spans complex domains such as biomarker integration, omics analysis, image-based endpoints, and exploratory research—often involving high-dimensional datasets, rapid iteration cycles, and integration of clinical and research data. With business critical late-stage programs ongoing, the TAUs need responsive, science-aware DD&T expertise and services that can flex with evolving priorities while maintaining consistency with enterprise systems and standards. This includes comprehensive data foundation, robust analytical and visualization capabilities, and coordinated partnerships with external vendors.
• As part of the R&D Strategy & External Innovation’s leadership team, this individual is expected to bring both domain specific expertise as well as overall leadership skills to the DD&T activities that support the TAUs’ business operations, with a primary focus on analyzing high-throughput multi-omics datasets and deriving insights that feed into novel targets identification, target validation and/or biomarker discovery and development.

Accountabilities:

• Business Partnering: The Business Partner is the primary contact and a trusted technology advisor for the supported TAUs. She/He is responsible for understanding the business processes, identifying DD&T needs and pain points, creating technological roadmaps for transformation and continuous improvement, and collaborating with internal/external resources to implement platforms/solutions essential to meet the growing business needs. As a strategic technology partner, she/he is also responsible to educate the business teams on DD&T processes and operating model, communicate key DD&T initiatives, and escalate critical, high impact DD&T-related issues to broader teams for timely resolutions.
• Strategy: The Business Partner plays the lead role in shaping the TAU technology strategy and roadmap, playbook for operationalization of processes for planning through delivery of solutions, framework for federated allowance of business functional agility with clarity of boundaries for R&D-wide interoperability of data, digital and technology solutions.

• Process Improvement & Optimization: One of R&D’s mission is to improve/optimize business processes across the entire organization to accelerate Takeda’s pipeline. The Business Partner is responsible for collaborating with the TAU teams to assess the limitations of current processes, and evaluate, recommend and implement technology solutions to help improve TAUs’ productivity, simplify processes, and mitigate compliance risks. Further, she/he will act as a liaison with other R&D DD&T or GDD&T teams to address system or process-specific issues.
• Stakeholder Management: The Business Partner will establish strong relationships and build business partnerships with all the three TAUs and related stakeholders. As the primary relationship manager, she/he is responsible for managing the expectations of a broad audience in a complex and fast-paced environment – to ensure technology solution design, implementation and operations all are aligned with Takeda global standards and technology strategies, such as architecture, security, compliance, processes, value management, and operating model.  She/He will build strong strategic partnerships with TAU stakeholders, provide expert guidance and suggestions on DD&T solutions (especially comprehensive data foundation, robust analytical and visualization capabilities and coordinated partnerships with external vendors), and help foster a collaborative and innovative culture.
• Team Leadership: The Business Partner is the technology lead and accountable for all data/platform/solution implementation initiatives related to the supported TAUs.  She/He is responsible for effectively managing a team and delegating resources (including direct/indirect reports as well as external resources) to ensure successful delivery of the overall portfolio of DD&T projects for the TAUs based on business priorities. Working with TAU senior stakeholders, the Business Partner will help advocate for the adoption of new platforms/solutions across the broader TAU user community and aim to share lessons learned with other DD&T teams.
• Portfolio/Project Management: The Business Partner will oversee project budgets, timelines, and resources for TAU DD&T projects and operations. She/He will manage the demand intake and prioritization process with the TAUs during the annual budget preparation cycle. Monitor and communicate project progresses, risks/dependencies, and key performance indicators to TAU senior management and stakeholders. Escalate critical issues to remove roadblocks to successfully execute the projects. Finally, manage vendor relationships and performance based on KPIs.

Education, Behavioral Competencies and Skills:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, data science, engineering, or a related technical field; Master's, MBA, or PhD is preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in product management, digital transformation, or AI innovation, with at least 2-3 years leading AI/ML or GenAI products at scale.
• Proven ability to partner with cross-functional teams (e.g. data science, engineering) to design, validate, and deploy AI/ML platforms/solutions.
• Innovation mindset to drive experiments and evaluate go/no-go decisions for PoCs.
• Experience and knowledge of program/project management process (agile, waterfall, or hybrid), IT operations, and Lifecycle Management.
• Strategic thinking – ability to translate business needs into innovative DD&T solutions that drive short and long-term business value.
• Communication – ability to communicate ideas and data both verbally and written in a persuasive and appropriate manner. Be able to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Collaboration – strong team player with ability to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders at all levels.
• Analytical Skills – a high level of analytical and quantitative skills, including the ability to use information/data and various metrics to develop an informed and factual business cases.
• Management – ability to set priorities, develop workflow processes and manage staff.  Be able to manage multiple projects/initiatives in an ever-changing environment.
• People Development – ability to assess strengths and weaknesses of staff members and provide suggestions for improvement.

Desired:

• In-depth Pharmaceutical industry and drug development experience.
• Professional certification in project management, business analysis or related areas.
• Knowledge and experience in computer validations.

Travel Requirements:

• Travel may be required (5-10%).
• Access to transportation to attend various meetings held in proximity to the Takeda offices.

This position is currently classified as “hybrid” by Takeda’s Hybrid and Remote Work policy

Takeda Compensation and Benefits Summary

We understand compensation is an important factor as you consider the next step in your career. We are committed to equitable pay for all employees, and we strive to be more transparent with our pay practices.

For Location:

Boston, MA

U.S. Base Salary Range:

$174,500.00 - $274,230.00

EEO Statement

Takeda is proud in its commitment to creating a diverse workforce and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, parental status, national origin, age, disability, citizenship status, genetic information or characteristics, marital status, status as a Vietnam era veteran, special disabled veteran, or other protected veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws, and any other characteristic protected by law.

Locations

Boston, MA

Worker Type

Employee

Worker Sub-Type

Regular

Time Type

Full time

Job Exempt

Yes

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