Executive Director, Product Team Leader

Kite Pharma•Foster City, CA

1d•$274,550 - $390,830•Hybrid

About The Position

Kite, a Gilead Company, is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative cancer immunotherapies. The company focuses on chimeric antigen receptor and T cell receptor engineered cell therapies. Everyone at Kite has been grounded by one common goal – curing cancer. Every day, we aim to establish a direct line between that purpose and our day-to-day work. As our portfolio expands into solid tumors, in vivo modalities, and autoimmune diseases, we continue advancing innovative science that addresses some of the world’s greatest health challenges, in cancer and beyond. The Executive Director, Product Team Leader plays a critical leadership role at the intersection of strategy, operations, and early-stage commercial insight. This position leads operational excellence, long-range strategic planning, cross-functional coordination and execution, and commercial input for one of Kite’s pipeline products across Hematologic Malignancy, Solid Tumor, In Vivo, and Autoimmune opportunities—ensuring future assets are well positioned for eventual global commercialization. Reporting to the VP, Global Portfolio & Asset Commercialization Strategy, the selected candidate will lead the Product Team responsible for late-stage development through commercialization of a next generation cell therapy focused on heme malignancies. To create a strong partnership with stakeholders and leaders across the corporation, as well as to foster continued professional growth, we would like this leader to be based in Kite’s global headquarters in Santa Monica, CA or Gilead’s global headquarters in Foster City, CA.

Requirements

Doctorate or MS / MA Degree and 14+ years of Product and/or Strategy and/or Development and/or Operations and/or Commercialization experience OR BS / BA Degree and 16+ years of Product and/or Strategy and/or Development and/or Operations and/or Commercialization experience

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated experience leading drug development and/or commercial experience with an understanding of what it takes to shepherd a molecule through its life cycle to realize maximum value for its targeted population(s) and the company
Prior experience in cellular therapy, and/or oncology therapeutics, particularly heme malignancies, preferred.
Ideally, the candidate has held a similar role/level leading a Product Team and has experience leading the commercialization of at least one development candidate, navigating development and commercialization stage gates.
Demonstrated leadership skills from leading cross-functional teams in a matrix organization, with highly collaborative instincts and track record of resolving conflicts within the team
Demonstrated success in influencing key stakeholders working collaboratively in a cross-functional environment through excellent communication (written and verbal) skills, organizational skills, interpersonal skills, high EQ, and persuasion.
Able to build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders
Ability to communicate clearly and effectively with clinical scientists, scientists, technical operations experts, regulatory and commercial colleagues at all levels of the organization.
Strong familiarity with the role of these functions in drug development and commercialization is critical.
High learning agility and high degree of organizational awareness and understanding of change leadership and leading innovation in an ambiguous and rapidly evolving environment
Ability to assimilate data, recognize key variables, analyze complex situations and make quality judgments to define product strategy, commercialization and lifecycle plans
Preference for direct people and/or matrix leadership experience with demonstrated success of leading high-performing teams

Responsibilities

Single, accountable leader of a Product Team, providing strategic leadership to drive development and execution of product strategy aimed at maximizing the value of the asset.
Owns global asset vision and lifecycle for the designated asset.
End-to-end lifecycle ownership including long-term commercial value
Accountable for stage-gate progression and operationalization of strategy
Facilitates Go/No-Go decisions
Escalates risks and recommendations, drives execution within governance
Balances science with commercial and medical insights, accounting for provider, payer and patient considerations.
An enterprise leader accountable for clear and timely communication about the product throughout the enterprise with early engagement of key stakeholders.
Partnering with key stakeholders and Kite leadership to align product strategy with broader disease area program strategy and Kite corporate strategy.
Serving as the enterprise decision integrator for the asset, accountable for identifying trade-offs across development, medical, regulatory, technical operations—recognizing the unique complexity, risk profile, and early-stage importance of technical operations engagement in cell therapy—and commercial considerations and making recommendations to maximize long term enterprise value.
Present product updates, strategic issues, options, and recommendations to the Portfolio Committee on behalf of the Product Team
Lead Product Team meetings and ensures cross-functional Product Team Members are working in alignment on strategic and operational topics
Partner with cross-functional leaders to develop comprehensive product development and life-cycle management plans that optimize value, time, resources, risk, and alignment with business objectives.
Develop vision and strategy for the asset and a plan to achieve potential
Embed early commercial, access, and patient insights into development strategy, including target population definition and future value narratives, accounting for current and future competitive landscape
Identify and manage critical path activities and resources
Identify and manage interdependencies and hand-offs
Identify and proactively mitigate roadblocks
Lead contingency planning and identify and document risks, likelihoods, severities, and key mitigations
Capture and communicate progress; escalate potential delays with proposed solution
Drive progression of products through Development and Commercialization stage gates and ensure that:
Product Teams have adequate resources and technical expertise to meet strategic objectives
Issues are raised, discussed, and resolved in a timely manner
Product Teams receive leadership input & decisions in a timely manner
Product Teams adhere to agreed-upon priorities, scope, timelines, resources, and budget
Create a high-performance team culture within the Product Team through collaboration and coaching of cross-functional team members.
Contribute to the development of cross-functional team members, freely sharing expertise and identifying opportunities for team members to grow as leaders
Ensure rigorous adherence to quality and compliance