Associate Director, Strategy and Operations- Practice Economics

AbbVie•Irvine, CA

8d•$141,500 - $268,500

About The Position

The Senior Project Planner assists with the development of project plans for Asset Development Teams (ADT) using standardized project management tools and processes. These plans and data are used for decision making on drug development teams and across the R&D portfolio. Facilitates drug development team communications. Manages R&D cross-functional (Development, Discovery, Regulatory, etc) process improvement initiatives using standardized methodologies.

Requirements

Bachelors degree required, preferably in a technical, scientific or project management related discipline and 8+ years professional work experience, preferably in project management, system based processes, or the pharmaceutical or biotech industry; or Masters degree with 6+ years of work experience; or Doctorate degree with 4+ years of work experience in same disciplines.
4+ years Project Management experience, including leadership of a cross-functional team required.
Must be able to demonstrate knowledge of project management principles.
Ability to work independently and represent sound strategies is required.
Must have clear leadership skills that minimally include: strong written and effective interpersonal communication; capability to clearly present, influence, and logically justify proposals; sound judgment; negotiation and conflict management; effective communication across cultures and disciplines; relationship building and fostering teamwork; and training experience.
Job requires knowledge of the drug development process.
Excellent technology skills (e.g., MS Office software, MS Project, Qlikview, Spotfire, etc.) required.

Nice To Haves

Accreditation in a project management or process improvement discipline highly preferred (e.g. Project Management Professional, LEAN Six Sigma, etc.).
Cross-functional and global project team leadership experience preferred.
Proficient in the tools and techniques of Project Management and /or Business Excellence.

Responsibilities

Independently provides advanced and extensive proj mgmt services to multiple complex (e.g. late stage, requiring a device) drug dev projects.
Drives team accountability to meet project deliverables.
Develops multiple planning scenarios; identifies, monitors, and analyzes business risks.
Recognizes when corrective action and planning are necessary and conducts root cause analyses.
Manage activities to ensure functions have the right tools, reports, and data for accurate resource estimates.
Manages large and small cross-functional process improvement initiatives using certified methodologies.
Contributes to defining departmental vision and strategy.
Converts departmental and cross-functional goals to tasks and coordinates activities to meet goals.
Estimates and manages requirements to achieve defined objectives.
Lead multiple process improvement teams through execution on defined objectives and keep management informed of progress and achieved project milestones.
Apply advanced and extensive project management principles and techniques to the coordination and completion of assigned goals and tasks.
Prioritize tasks with effective use of time.
Support and advise Project Managers on monthly project plan maintenance and information reporting.
Provide data entry for change requests.
Utilize QC reports to ensure proper input of project information and accuracy of data.
Compile and provide routine standard reports on a monthly and ad hoc basis.
Proactively address conflicting, incorrect, insufficient, or inappropriate information prior to report publication.
Apply advanced project management tools for metrics collection and conduct advanced analysis of project data.
Develop guidelines and checklists.
Utilize and implement tools to identify novel solutions for metrics collection, data analysis and process improvement.
Serves as local expert for business procedures and recommends solutions to R&D (Development, Development Sciences, Regulatory, etc).
Develop and provide advanced training courses, presentations, and guidance to foster best practices.
Mentor junior staff on training, presentation development, and delivery.
Support and execute on business development and merger & acquisition integration activities (e.g. project planning and resource estimation for deal evaluation and integration of new assets into existing systems and processes).
Utilize established organizational network to identify opportunities, gaps and synergies consistent with departmental strategy.
Actively manages team behaviors, mediates internal team disputes, and facilitates establishment of high performing teams.
May manage up to 5 planners within the department.
Interacts with all levels of employees in support of project coordination.
Effectively influences senior R&D leaders regarding project initiatives and direction.
Defines performance expectations and assesses progress against plans, processes, and practices to determine effectiveness and areas for process improvement.