Associate Director, R&D Program Management

Program Management

Nearly 37 million Americans are currently affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. 37 million.

At Akebia we take that number very seriously and every day we come to work, with the purpose of bettering the lives of each person impacted by kidney disease and the renal community that serves them.
Our tenacious, passionate employees' challenge the status quo and work to develop unique therapeutics that have the potential to set new standards of care for people living with kidney disease.

This is life-changing work, and we are all in, are you?

Job Summary:

The Associate Director R&D Program Management will provide project/program management support to early Global Program Teams (pre-clinical through Phase 2) and relevant sub teams to develop and execute on integrated development plans and timelines. This high impact role will also manage the External Research Review Committee (ERRC), ensuring research proposals are reviewed in a timely manner by a cross-function team. This position requires a deep understanding of pharmaceutical drug development, strong leadership skills, and a proven ability to manage complex programs in a highly dynamic environment.

• Partner with the Program Executive on early Global Program Teams to ensure integrated development plans and timelines for programs/products are established and maintained, and plans & directs the seamless execution against Program Team goals
• Actively manage progress against the plan, and identifies and escalates critical issues to program executive and works with program team members to mitigate risk and identify solutions
• Schedule and facilitate program team and sub-team meetings, prepare agendas and meeting minutes, and track action items and integrated timelines.
• Partner with Program Executives and functions to set measurable goals and clear priorities that are aligned with corporate objectives and areas for collaboration or redundancy are identified
• Liaise with Finance team to develop, forecast, and monitor alignment to program budgets
• Construct and maintain information sharing teams' sites for assigned programs
• Champion the program(s) through Governance process, facilitating decision-making, including scenario plans and risk/ benefit analysis, and ensure outcomes and decisions are communicated
• Contribute to the development and implementation of a portfolio strategy across early-stage development through Phase 2
• Coordinate review, approval, and implementation of external research collaborations, serving as program manager to Akebia External Research Review Committee to advance external research efforts at Akebia
• Maintain team effectiveness through collaboration, coaching, and mentoring of team members
• As appropriate, assist in the preparation of materials for business, functional meetings, and external alliance meetings for assigned programs
• Pro-actively communicate cross-functionally and escalate critical issues

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in life sciences, pharmacy, or a related field (advanced degree preferred, such as an MSc, PhD, PharmD, or MBA).
• At least 5-8 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry managing cross-functional project teams with timeline management and budgetary responsibility, preferably supporting early-stage drug development programs (preclinical/IND enabling stages/through Phase 2)
• Excellent presentation, written, communication and relationship-building skills
• Demonstrates strong ability to collaboratively lead without line authority, interact and work effectively with other departments as well as external organizations
• Excellent organizational skills, ability to multitask and with attention to detail; capable of managing multiple projects within assigned timelines
• Strong analytical and logical thinking with ability to analyze problems, identify alternative solutions and implement recommendations for resolution
• Functions well in a dynamic environment
• Team player with strong negotiation, problem-solving and strategic influencing skills
• Expertise with project management related software and tools (e.g. MS Project, SharePoint, etc.)