Global Marketing Director -- Human Centered Design Research

Amgen's Human Centered Design (HCD) group is recruiting for a Design Research Director (Global Marketing Director), located at Amgen's corporate headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California. The HCD group is part of Global Product Strategy & Commercial Innovation (GPS&CI), also located in Thousand Oaks.

GPS&CI is organized around four Therapy Areas (TAs). The HCD group has sub-groups called PODs (Positive Outcomes Design) aligned with each TA to better enable product teams to deliver meaningful customer-support solutions. To do this each sub-group will support the business strategy by facilitating integrated design road maps, leading problem solving and generative ideation for multiple prioritized programs, identifying partnerships, and ensuring concepts work within relevant ecosystems and leverage scalable technologies.

HCD deploys a range of human-centered design research methods such as observational field research and co-creation with diverse stakeholders. These are generative activities to inform a range of concept solutions within an ecosystem of care. One of the critical outputs is the translation of needs into commercial requirements for a solution outlining what patients will be willing to adopt and what will be viable in the market.

The Director provides leadership supporting a TA's disease and product strategies. S/he will manage a POD that consists of a design strategist and design associate as well as additional consultants as needed to meet workload priorities. The Director will have multiple responsibilities ensuring the sub-group's output is meaningful for patients and the business, evolving Design Research capabilities within the larger HCD group and distributed design researchers across Amgen, as well as developing people and creating a positive culture.

Responsible for the quality of multiple and concurrent projects with critical deadlines, the Director will adjust priorities and methods as needed. Projects range from early pipeline and throughout the commercialization process to life cycle management. These may include monitoring, drug delivery, diagnostic tools, and more.

The role involves communication with a full range of stakeholders including internal clients who are in global, regional and country functions such as marketing and commercial, market research, operations engineers, R&D, digital, and regulatory/legal. The successful candidate will interact with key internal partners that span diverse groups, and will define objectives and obtain alignment.

This role will require (domestic and international) travel (20%), and occasionally communication with colleagues and users outside office hours is expected.

Primary Responsibilities:

Provide leadership in Design Research

Define and lead development of HCD design research best practices

Exercise facilitation skills in design research with cross-functional stakeholders including Design Thinking Workshops

Translate and synthesize diverse input to define opportunity areas

Develop platform solutions and marketing requirements

Coach and support HCD team members to boost capabilities

Manage and lead programs that partner with Marketers, Market Researchers, Engineers and Clinical Specialists.

Align User Design work with the other business areas within Amgen.

Advocate HCD aspects in the global Amgen organization.

Create and test scalable tools and approaches to improve methods

Ensure activities are performed and documented in accordance with company standards and regulatory requirements.

Continuously learn and understand users' work practice, context of use, goals, needs and today's and future clinical workflows.

Lead cross-functional teams in concept and functionality design.

Educate on HCD and design research best practices.

Basic Qualifications

Doctorate degree and 4 years of design and/or marketing experience

OR

Master's degree and 7 years of design and/or marketing experience

OR

Bachelor's degree and 9 years of design and/or marketing experience

Preferred Qualifications

Bachelor's degree with emphasis on Design Research or equivalent area such as Industrial Design or User Centered Design or service design.

Proven experience from vision inception to development of marketing requirements for handheld medical devices and adjacent patient support; relevant experience in healthcare and consumer sectors in and around managing a chronic illness and/or health and wellness that have met pain points and led to improved outcomes.

Experience in ecosystem design and leveraging technologies to scale

Experience leading a team of design professionals and integrating a team into the larger organization

5 or more years practical experience performing Design Research activities with patients and other stakeholders in healthcare

Possess passion for great health design, usable products and designing for behaviors

Experienced in HCD methods of studying and identifying users' needs and skills

Ability to convert insight and knowledge of the context of use to the design of patient solutions including drug delivery systems intended for the clinician's office and patient home.

Possess artistic skills and knowledgeable of best practices in industrial design and behavior design

Strong general interaction background and skills

Ability to work effectively as a team member and independently

Effective verbal and written communication skills

The successful candidate is expected to bring an inquisitive mind and breadth of expertise in healthcare to the organization. A strong background in system thinking, visualization, design methods, patient journeys, and co-creation with patients and customers are foundational cornerstones for this role.

Amgen provides a collaborative and creative culture in a company with a strong track record of innovation. Our culture encourages open dialogue and diverse views to land on the best solutions, and we help ensure our staff are equipped to excel today and tomorrow.

Amgen is committed to unlocking the potential for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of human biology.

Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages its expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines with breakaway potential.

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