Executive Director -Project Management Lead

With operations in 35+ nations and ~27,000 employees worldwide, CSL is driven to develop and deliver a broad range of lifesaving therapies to treat disorders such as hemophilia and primary immune deficiencies, and vaccines to prevent influenza. Our therapies are also used in cardiac surgery, organ transplantation and burn treatment.

CSL is the parent company of CSL Behring and Seqirus. CSL Behring is a global leader in the protein biotherapeutics industry, focused on bringing to market biotherapies used to treat serious and often rare conditions. CSL Behring operates CSL Plasma, one of the world's largest collectors of human plasma, which is used to create CSL’s therapies. Seqirus is one of the largest influenza vaccine companies in the world and is a transcontinental partner in pandemic preparedness and a major contributor to the prevention and control of influenza globally.

We invite you to take a look at the many career possibilities available around the globe and consider building your promising future at CSL by becoming a member of our team!

The Executive Director Project Management Group is responsible for directing, overseeing, and integrating R&D project management across all Therapeutic Areas/Platforms, for Research, Development and Combination Device project management.  He/she will ensure project management excellence and robust, strong project leadership for R&D. This individual will establish consistent execution of PM skills and leadership across Development, Device and Research PM, creating a strong foundation, and optimizing opportunities for more flexible resourcing solutions.

The Executive Director is responsible for assisting in development of the PM functional strategy to deliver to the 2030 CSL and R&D strategies and applying project management rigor, discipline, focus and agility across projects, while optimizing information management to enable the successful and timely delivery of complex, global, cross-functional projects. The Executive Director is responsible to clearly articulate expectations and performance standards, provide feedback and coaching, identify, and fulfill training needs and hold team members accountable.

This position is a manager of people managers and must have the experience and competency to manage through others and within a complex matrix organization.  Additionally, he/she is an active member and participant of the R&D Project Management Leadership Team (PMLT).

Responsibilities:

Project Management Group Leadership 
•    Lead the Project Management group responsible for supporting Development/Platform Teams, Research Project Teams, and Combination Device Project Teams across multiple TAs and geographies (e.g., KoP, Marburg, Bern, Parkville).  
•    Inspire and create a high performing PM team and a culture of accountability and execution, clearly communicating expectations and deliverables.  
•    Provide strategic direction, oversight, and delivery of various programs to meet business objectives, while adhering to and consistently applying project management excellence. 
•    Provide thoughtful strategic planning to support R&D growth and development while ensuring solutions are pragmatic and flexible to allow for innovation to deliver on the 2030 CSL and R&D strategies.  
•    Anticipate the future organizational development needs of Project Management; actively contribute and have shared accountability for the evolutionary growth and development of PM; identify strategic direction for Development/Platform and Research support, anticipating business needs and building innovative solutions and skills of the PM organization to support over 2x growth in our portfolio without doubling the number of FTEs. 
•    Provide strategic and tactical support for accelerated development planning and delivery of our R&D portfolio. 
•    Identify ways to provide peer review of development programs to pressure-test and optimize plans through constructive challenge and applications of best practices 
•    Accountable for workforce planning for his/her team, i.e., understand the skills available and the skills needed (current and future) of the PM staff to effectively resource and deliver our portfolio. 
•    Collaborate with Project and Portfolio Operations and Project Excellence, providing specific expertise, input, and value, ensuring outputs (e.g., training needs, training, processes, tools, systems, reporting, etc.) are meeting the strategic, tactical, and operational needs of our organization with optimized operational efficiency. 
•    Be a key member and contributor to the PM Leadership Team and overall leadership of the Project Management department
•    Understand the business needs; balance project and people management with an eye on the business needs and staff development; provide insights and context of the business to all decisions, actions, and decisions

Project Leadership and Governance
•    Understand the R&D portfolio well enough to effectively manage the PM staff and key stakeholders.  
•    Provide guidance and directional support to Senior Directors as appropriate to support and empower the PMs and PSTs within their respective Development/Platform Project Teams. 
•    Actively support the successful implementation and continuous improvement of the Project Operating Model and respective evolutionary changes as an active and strong change agent. 
•    Build strong relationships with stakeholders and ensure effective cross-functional project communication and best practices. 
•    Accountable for PM preparations for stakeholder and Governance meetings on all project-specific information while also, supporting alignment between the TAs, GPLs, PSTs, and senior leadership.
•    Partner with PM responsible for managing Governance to enhance (streamline and simplify) the overall Governance process and hold accountability for implementation within Development/Platform and Research PM

R&D PM Capabilities and Systems
•    Accountable for increasing the level of Project Management maturity within the Development/Platform and Research PM population
•    Collaborate with R&D PM Leadership Team and Key Stakeholders to identify and create KPIs for our portfolio and R&D Project Management 
•    Accountable for identifying key capabilities, metrics, and criteria to optimize decisions and tactical plans for execution within the project setting 
•    Remain current on best practices and changes anticipated in the PM space, providing thoughtful recommendations, and then applying those enhancement to the PM organization.  
•    Collaborate with Project Excellence and Project and Portfolio Operations to design and implement solutions that will streamline the operations of the PM organization with the objective of more informed and decisive project management.  
•    Ensure adherence to PM Excellence methodologies, tools, and processes across the New Product Development organization, while sharing best practices and learnings across the broader R&D PM teams.  
•    Champion new technology, processes, and ways of working that improve results 
•    Inspire team members to embrace change and innovation.  
•    Optimize and streamline relevant PM-owned processes related to budget management and oversight, schedule management, resource management and reporting

Capacity Management (Budget, FTEs, Resources)
•    Accountable for the R&D Development and Research budget and forecast processes and data integrity, ensuring global R&D project financial and human resource needs are accurately captured and in alignment with approved project budgets and portfolio prioritization (this includes all financial data {forecasts, accruals and actuals}, FTE data {forecasts and actuals}, and all project-specific data {e.g., schedules, risks, issues, agendas, minutes, actions, decisions, project assumptions, development scenarios, etc. })
•    Prioritize and allocate PM resources to best support business objectives; develop innovative resource solutions to meet the growing needs of the portfolio while effectively doing so in a resource constrained environment.
Portfolio Management
•    Accountable for integrity of all project data contributing to all portfolio modelling and portfolio summary reporting 
•    Responsible for ensuring their team makes all available project information accessible to team members, stakeholders and leaders in a manner that is timely, transparent, and readily available
•    Collaborate Portfolio Strategy to create optimal views to accurately report on the portfolio in support of strategic evaluations and decision-making 
•    Partner with Portfolio Strategy to define and then own accountability for implementing tracking and performance metrics / KPIs
•    Ensure projects provide thoughtful, challenging, relevant scenario planning, projection planning for portfolio modelling

People Management & Development
•    Lead, coach, inspire, and motivate PM staff to deliver R&D projects.  
•    Develop, attract, and retain high performing talent and leaders driven to excite growth and innovation.
•    Clearly articulate expectations with objective measures for success 
•    Prepare direct reports to anticipate potential challenges and identify risks and opportunities to achievement of project goals.  
•    Encourage and empower staff to drive excellence. 
•    Hold direct reports and respective staff accountable and give timely, specific, constructive feedback. 
•    Provide performance management and learning & development opportunities to continue talent growth and engagement – including but not limited to process improvement, resource planning, and other project management excellence skills and training. 
•    Drive to maintain a culture based on CSL’s core values of customer focus, innovation, integrity, collaboration, and superior performance.
•    Provide inspiration to build an inspired, high-performing PM group, leading my example

Ancillary Support 
The Executive Director may be asked to take on additional responsibilities which may include but are not limited to:

-    Serve as backup to VP, Head of Project Management
-    Contribute to the PM Vision and Strategy of the Future
-    Support the design and execution growth initiatives to support the 2030 strategy
-    Spearhead and oversee operational improvement initiatives across the R&D PM or Development organization 
-    Strategically design, implement and continually optimize the PM-project organization to support successful delivery of our portfolio 
-    Partner with R&D cross-functional leadership to ensure strategic and tactical support for all projects across the TAs and Platforms
-    Lead cross-TA/Platform capacity management discussions to ensure appropriate resources are allocated and aligned to support the R&D portfolio to deliver key business objectives
-    Lead integrations of in-licensed products and/or company acquisitions, as appropriate

Qualifications:

• Undergraduate science/business degree in relevant discipline essential, preferably with post-graduate qualifications
• Post-graduate qualifications in scientific or business-related field preferable

• 15 years or more working experience in the Pharma and/or biotech industry

• 10+ years’ experience working within a project-centric matrix organization

• Proven experience leading cross-functional, multicultural, and international product development teams.
• Sound scientific understanding of the drug development process and associated risk
• Experience managing complex, multi-year projects and portfolios required
• People management experience required; experience managing people managers preferred

• Ability to think strategically and from a global perspective
• Ability to establish and maintain strong relationships at senior levels
• Ability to lead large cross-functional global teams within a matrix environment
• Strong leadership skills and a demonstrated ability to develop constructive and effective relationships with direct reports, colleagues, and senior management.
• Excellent business acumen and a strong understanding of the business and its strategy and processes. Sound scientific understanding of the drug development process
• Experienced manager with proven ability to develop talent and achieve results through teamwork and leadership of others, streamlined execution, and innovation in a global matrix environment
• Strong technical, project management, regulatory and commercial acumen
• Proven stakeholder management and influencing skills, and ability to share knowledge and experience amongst colleagues.
• Excellent oral, written communication, and presentation skills
• Possesses excellent planning, organizing and prioritizing skills
• Experience in developing, managing, and controlling departmental headcount and financial plans
• Cross cultural sensitivity demonstrating understanding and acceptance of different cultural parameters.
• PMP certification preferred