Associate Director, HR Program Management

Gilead Sciences•Foster City, CA

About The Position

At Gilead, we are dedicated to creating a healthier world by tackling diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19, and cancer through relentless development of therapies and ensuring global access. With over 35 years of experience, Gilead's mission is to discover, develop, and deliver life-improving therapies for patients with life-threatening illnesses worldwide. The company emphasizes collaboration, determination, and a relentless drive to make a difference, recognizing employees as their greatest asset. People Leaders are crucial to the employee experience, fostering an inclusive, developed, and empowered environment. This role within the HRPMO team is for a Project Manager focused on high-impact special projects that shape the future of work at Gilead. It is ideal for someone who excels at breaking down complex concepts, organizing intricate work, and guiding cross-functional teams to deliver on strategic HR priorities.

Requirements

10+ years of relevant experience with a bachelor's degree or 8+ years of relevant experience and an MS/MBA.
Experience in project leadership, strategy execution, transformation, or HR consulting within a corporate environment.
Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional HR initiatives, with a strong ability to organize complex work and design effective project teams and governance.
Proven ability to influence without authority, engage stakeholders at all levels, and drive alignment in matrixed organizations.
Experience managing a portfolio of HR initiatives, with strong prioritization and outcome measurement skills.
Deep understanding of HR practices and operational improvement.
Strong consulting toolkit—problem framing, opportunity shaping, and effort structuring across varied HR topics.
Experience working across multiple HR domains (e.g., HRSS, Talent, Total Rewards, Ops, Tech).
Proficiency in project collaboration and planning tools (e.g., Smartsheet, Miro, Teams).
A collaborative, resourceful, and growth-oriented mindset that matches our team culture.

Responsibilities

Lead cross-functional HR initiatives from opportunity definition and scoping through execution, ensuring alignment, progress, and measurable outcomes.
Bring structure to ambiguous challenges by organizing work, designing project team structures, and clarifying roles and responsibilities.
Facilitate effective governance and decision-making across HR and business stakeholders in a matrixed environment.
Manage the HR project portfolio, driving discipline in prioritization, sequencing, resource allocation, and outcome measurement.
Serve as a connector and integrator, ensuring visibility, communication, and collaboration across HR domains (Talent, Rewards, Shared Services, Digital, etc.).
Partner with HR leaders and initiative sponsors to define success, structure work, and translate vision into delivery.
Prepare clear, compelling updates and insights for HR Leadership and executive audiences, synthesizing complex information into actionable recommendations.
Identify and resolve roadblocks, risks, and integration points across initiatives.
Promote consistency and scalability by standardizing how work is scoped, executed, and reported across the HR portfolio.
Drive closure and sustainability by documenting outputs, transitions, and key learnings from completed initiatives.
Create Inclusion - knowing the business value of diverse teams, modeling inclusion, and embedding the value of diversity in the way they manage their teams.
Develop Talent - understand the skills, experience, aspirations and potential of their employees and coach them on current performance and future potential. They ensure employees are receiving the feedback and insight needed to grow, develop and realize their purpose.
Empower Teams - connect the team to the organization by aligning goals, purpose, and organizational objectives, and holding them to account. They provide the support needed to remove barriers and connect their team to the broader ecosystem.