Associate Director, Vendor Excellence & Agency Management

Takeda • Lexington, MA

5d • Hybrid

About The Position

Lead day-to-day vendor excellence and agency management by setting governance, tracking performance, and coordinating commercial and medical SME oversight to ensure agencies deliver compliant, high-quality content efficiently.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, life sciences, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in marketing operations, agency management, or content production within pharmaceutical, healthcare, or regulated industries, with a strong track record of managing multiple agency partners and driving vendor performance.
• Proven experience leading and developing cross-functional teams (e.g., agency managers, SMEs), establishing governance frameworks such as performance scorecards, QBRs, and escalation pathways to ensure consistent execution and accountability.
• Experience partnering with commercial, medical, regulatory, and content operations teams to ensure vendor outputs meet quality, compliance, and strategic standards.
• Experience piloting and scaling new approaches (e.g., modular content production, automation, AI-enabled workflows) and driving adoption of enterprise templates, playbooks, and ways of working across agencies and internal teams.

Responsibilities

• Program ownership: Translate Marketing & Content Excellence priorities into vendor excellence plan (standards, goals, and year-round focus areas)
• People leadership: Manage Agency Performance Managers and Commercial/Medical SMEs; set team objectives, coach performance, and ensure consistent execution
• Agency governance lead: Establish agency management routines (scorecards, QBRs, escalation paths) and coordinate decisions across brands, agencies, and internal partners
• Performance and improvement leader: Oversee KPI frameworks and agency / vendor performance reviews (quality, speed, cost, reuse); direct corrective action plans and continuous improvement initiatives across vendors / agency partners
• Quality oversight coordination: Ensure commercial and medical standards are applied consistently; prioritize high-impact issues and drive resolution with agency leaders
• Approval readiness support: Partner with review and delivery teams to improve submission readiness and reduce review cycles and delays
• Capability and innovation pilots: Identify and pilot agency improvements (e.g., modular content, AI-enabled production, automation) and scale proven approaches
• Standards adoption: Drive consistent use of required templates, toolkits, and ways of working across brands, agencies, and partners

Benefits

• medical, dental, vision insurance
• a 401(k) plan and company match
• short-term and long-term disability coverage
• basic life insurance
• a tuition reimbursement program
• paid volunteer time off
• company holidays
• well-being benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level