ROLE PURPOSE
Serve as the senior strategic and operational partner to the VP of Development Sciences, enabling the Development Sciences Leadership Team to translate strategy into disciplined execution, effective governance, sound resource stewardship, and a high-performing, inclusive organization. The role leads business operations and chief-of-staff activities across the global function.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Strategic partnership and execution: Advise the VP and Leadership Team on priorities, trade-offs, decisions, and follow-through; convert strategic objectives into integrated operating plans, milestones, risks, and performance indicators.
2. Strategic communications: Shape clear, timely, audience-appropriate communications for leadership forums, organization-wide updates, executive materials, and key external interactions; ensure consistent strategic narrative and message discipline.
3. Leadership-team effectiveness and culture: Design and facilitate effective leadership-team rhythms, agendas, decision forums, and off-sites; strengthen accountability, inclusion, collaboration, and an environment in which teams can perform at their best.
4. Financial planning, forecasting, and resource management: Lead internal and external financial planning, rolling forecasts, investment tracking, vendor/resource oversight, and scenario analysis; provide transparent insights that support responsible resource allocation and delivery.
5. Compliance and governance: Establish and maintain fit-for-purpose governance, controls, policies, decision records, and inspection-ready business processes; partner with relevant functions to identify, escalate, and mitigate operational and compliance risks.
6. Business excellence and organizational improvement: Lead continuous-improvement initiatives that simplify processes, improve operating discipline, enhance data quality, and strengthen organizational capability across Development Sciences.
7. Cross-functional collaboration: Build trusted partnerships across R&D, Finance, Procurement, Quality, Legal, HR, Communications, and other global functions to remove barriers, align dependencies, and advance shared outcomes.
8. Ludwigshafen site operations: Provide core business-operations leadership for the Ludwigshafen site, including site planning, operating rhythms, issue resolution, and local engagement, in close partnership with local site leadership and global partners.
9. Organizational insight and reporting: Maintain a concise view of organizational performance, capacity, risks, decisions, and commitments; deliver actionable reporting and recommendations to the VP and Leadership Team.
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
• VP of Development Sciences and Development Sciences Leadership Team
• Development Sciences colleagues and functional leaders
• Ludwigshafen site leadership, site services, and local employee representatives, as applicable
• Global R&D, Development, Finance, Procurement, Quality, Legal, HR, Communications, and external partners