Head, Oncology Alliance Management

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Job Description

Are you looking for a patient-focused, innovation-driven company that will inspire you and empower you to shine? Join us as a Senior Director, Head of Oncology Alliance Management in our Cambridge office.

At Takeda, we are transforming the pharmaceutical industry through our R&D-driven market leadership and being a values-led company. To do this, we empower our people to realize their potential through life-changing work. Certified as a Global Top Employer, we offer stimulating careers, encourage innovation, and strive for excellence in everything we do. We foster an inclusive, collaborative workplace, in which our global teams are united by an unwavering commitment to deliver Better Health and a Brighter Future to people around the world.

Here, you will be a vital contributor to our inspiring, bold mission.

Role Summary

Takeda is seeking a highly accomplished, enterprise-minded leader to serve as Senior Director, Head of Oncology Alliance Management. This role is accountable for shaping and leading the global alliance management strategy for the Oncology Therapeutic Area, ensuring Takeda maximizes the strategic, scientific, operational, and financial value of its most critical partnerships across the discovery, development, and commercialization continuum.

The Senior Director will lead a high-performing team of alliance managers and serve as a senior partner to Oncology leadership, Business Development, R&D, Legal, Finance, Program Leadership, and other cross-functional stakeholders. This leader will be responsible for setting alliance management strategy, driving governance excellence, influencing major partnership decisions, and ensuring disciplined execution across a portfolio of highly complex, business-critical collaborations.

The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in alliance management, broad pharmaceutical industry experience, exceptional executive presence, and a demonstrated ability to shape strategy, lead through ambiguity, influence senior leaders, and build scalable partnership capabilities across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee a complex portfolio of research, clinical development and commercial partnerships led by a team of therapeutically aligned Alliance Managers and directly manage business-critical activities for the Oncology Therapeutic Area.
• Directly manage a limited number of partnerships, determined by complexity and strategic value to the Therapeutic Area.
• Provide strategic leadership for the Alliance Management team to:
  • Maximize the value of partnered programs by successfully operationalizing alliances and ensuring the vision, goals and strategic intent of partnerships are jointly created and executed.
  • Embed operational effectiveness across all components of the alliance, establishing measurable performance metrics, mitigating risk and facilitating speed of execution.
  • Proactively report on upcoming decision points and contractual milestones.
  • Clearly define and share the communication plan and alliance critical processes.
  • Lead joint project and governance teams; develop risk mitigation plans; and negotiate contractual amendments in partnership with Business Development as needed.
• Ensure the team is implementing Takeda’s partnership strategy in alignment with alliance management best practices across the company.
• Build and maintain key relationships across a broad sphere of influence, both internally and externally, to achieve the strategic intent of partnerships, manage conflict and ensure mutually beneficial outcomes.
• Leverage relationships with key stakeholders (team members, functional leads, external alliance counterparts, etc.) to ensure alignment and accountability for functional, program and organizational objectives.
• Actively engage with cross-functional stakeholders to influence and operationalize new deals, balancing risks and opportunities, and establish and implement effective governance structures, strategies, and processes which maximize the potential value and operational success of pending/newly executed collaborations.
• Coordinate team efforts for providing impactful presentations which succinctly summarize status updates, key risks, complex discussion points and recommendations to facilitate strategic planning and decision-making by senior leadership.
• As part of the Alliance Management community at Takeda, collaborate with other Alliance Management leaders to shape the strategy and to elevate alliance management capabilities by developing R&D-wide standards for excellence in partnering and facilitating improvement by developing or enhancing internal tools, systems, processes and training materials.
• Drive and embed a strong culture of continuous improvement, ensuring that key takeaways are shared across R&D and applied to subsequent alliances.
• This role has people management responsibilities and involves onboarding and training of new alliance managers, along with ongoing development and mentoring.

Qualifications

• In-depth understanding of the drug discovery, development and commercialization process and working knowledge of cross-functional areas and deliverables.
• Proven leadership skills in managing matrixed global teams, influencing outcomes and project decisions, and strategic problem-solving ability.
• Strong business acumen required, and the ability to work effectively amidst ambiguity and organizational complexity.
• Ability to effectively drive decision-making within cross-functional and cross-cultural global teams, motivating others, influencing senior leaders/stakeholders internally and externally and managing conflict.
• Strong written and oral communication skills as well as demonstrated organizational aptitude.
• Highly collaborative and excellent interpersonal skills with the ability and presence to provide guidance and mentorship across all levels of the organization.
• Ability to effectively represent Takeda and partner interests to maximize partnership value.

Education and Experience

• BS/BA required; advanced degree (e.g. MBA) and/or advanced life sciences degree (MD, PhD, PharmD) preferred.
• Professional certification in alliance management (CA-AM) is desirable.
• Minimum of 10+ years of experience as an alliance manager leading global pharmaceutical development programs in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry with an in-depth understanding of drug discovery and development processes and demonstrated track record of successfully managing enterprise-level discovery research, preclinical and clinical development alliance programs.
• Minimum of 5 years of direct people management experience and/or proven leadership experience in managing global matrix teams with solid experience in influencing across the organization and leading change management with or without direct authority.
• Strong direct-line management experience managing a high-performing global team.
• Prior experience managing or working within cross-functional project teams with timeline management and budgetary responsibility.

Preferred Qualifications

• Must be adept at working in a global environment, fostering agility and strong collaborative spirit internally and externally.
• Strong personal skills to influence without authority, motivate others and manage conflict.
• Strong written and oral communication skills as well as demonstrated organizational aptitude.
• Relevant Oncology therapeutic area experience.

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

This position is currently classified as “hybrid” in accordance with Takeda’s Hybrid and Remote Work policy. 

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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:

$212,000.00 - $333,190.00

The estimated salary range reflects an anticipated range for this position. The actual base salary offered may depend on a variety of factors, including the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, specific and unique skills, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. The actual base salary offered will be in accordance with state or local minimum wage requirements for the job location. 

U.S. based employees may be eligible for short-term and/ or long-term incentives. U.S. based employees may be eligible to participate in medical, dental, vision insurance, a 401(k) plan and company match, short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, a tuition reimbursement program, paid volunteer time off, company holidays, and well-being benefits, among others. U.S. based employees are also eligible to receive, per calendar year, up to 80 hours of sick time, and new hires are eligible to accrue up to 120 hours of paid vacation. 

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

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.