Executive Director, Strategic Delivery & Growth

Fortrea•Durham, NC

About The Position

The Executive Director is a senior leader within Global Clinical Development who helps grow a portfolio of innovative and profitable business by designing effective, differentiated operational delivery strategies with clients and internal experts. The role establishes best practices for proposal strategies, strengthens Fortrea’s differentiation through cross-functional input, manages teams, and contributes to process improvement and change management. The position leads business growth and strategic delivery for GenMed, translating market intelligence, client relationships, therapeutic expertise and organizational priorities into actionable growth plans. It oversees the development of winning trial solutions, end-to-end business development strategies, client engagement, proposal and bid-defense work, and strategic partnerships. The Executive Director also builds senior relationships across the therapeutic ecosystem and represents Fortrea’s capabilities through external presentations and publications. The role provides strategic direction and leadership across a global, complex, matrixed organization. It develops a high-performing SDG capability, establishes governance and performance measures, leads workforce and organizational planning, and attracts, develops and retains talent. The Executive Director partners with commercial, delivery, feasibility, recruitment and engagement, medical, and functional leaders to ensure strategies are evidence-based, commercially sound and operationally executable. The position requires substantial global travel, including overnight stays, and may involve work outside normal office hours. Working conditions are standard office and/or home-office based.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; Fortrea may consider relevant and equivalent experience in lieu of educational requirements.
15 or more years of Research and Development and clinical research experience in pharmaceutical or biotech companies and CROs.
Financial acumen, including P&L, budgets, forecasts and resources.
Global travel required 30–50% of the time, with 80% of that travel requiring an overnight stay.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree, APRN, MPH, PhD and/or MBA preferred.
Preferably 3 or more years leading cross-functional full development programs from concept inception through defining the operational strategy for clinical trial delivery in a therapeutic area.
5 or more years of global leadership experience in a complex, virtual and matrixed environment, including leading through others, building organizational capability and strengthening succession.
Established senior client relationships and a strong external network across pharma, biotech and the relevant therapeutic ecosystem.
Demonstrated success translating market intelligence, relationships and therapeutic strategy into differentiated positioning, growth opportunities and commercial outcomes.
Particular credibility in obesity, metabolic disease and/or immunology and inflammation.

Responsibilities

Present Fortrea’s medical, scientific and operational capabilities to clients and lead business growth through innovative, winning trial solutions.
Grow a profitable rare diseases and pediatrics portfolio across therapeutic areas.
Build and strengthen senior relationships with pharma and biotech companies, key opinion leaders, investigators, sites, academic collaborators, advocacy groups and strategic partners.
Lead end-to-end business development strategies, including RFI responses, proposal development, bid-defense preparation and presentations.
Promote Fortrea’s capabilities, visibility and market position through publications and presentations at conferences, meetings and webinars.
Lead development and execution of the GenMed strategic roadmap and shape therapeutic-area growth strategies through Growth Councils, strategic account planning, client engagement and cross-functional leadership.
Provide strategic insight and constructive challenge to the GenMed Leadership Team, translating business intelligence, market trends and organizational priorities into actionable plans.
Establish governance, scorecards and strategic performance measures to monitor progress and accountability.
Sponsor strategic partnerships across Commercial, Medical, Delivery and Functional Leadership to support alignment, accountability and execution across GenMed.
Build and evolve a high-performing SDG capability, establishing clear roles, decision rights, expectations and accountability.
Lead through others, protect strategic capacity, delegate effectively, and provide direction, prioritization, coaching and oversight to the GenMed SDG team and stakeholder network.
Lead workforce and organizational planning to ensure GenMed has the talent, capabilities and leadership capacity needed for future growth.
Attract, select, onboard, develop and retain high-performing talent; strengthen the talent bench and succession.
Partner with Delivery, Feasibility, Recruitment and Engagement, Medical, Commercial and functional leaders to ensure strategies are evidence-based, commercially sound and operationally executable.
Lead portfolio growth through therapeutic choices, early client engagement, differentiated opportunity strategies and disciplined execution across priority pursuits.
Contribute to GenMed growth and financial objectives by ensuring strategies, budgets and deal terms are competitive, executable and aligned with client needs.
Provide commercial, operational, medical and scientific leadership across GenMed, connecting expertise to strengthen therapeutic strategy and client positioning.
Serve as a senior global contact for internal leaders, clients, KOLs and strategic partners on GenMed strategy, particularly in obesity, metabolic disease and/or immunology and inflammation.
Identify and address SDG capability and development needs through coaching, targeted development and succession planning.
Maintain current knowledge of relevant science, sponsor pipelines, competitive dynamics, drug development and clinical delivery.
Perform other duties as needed or assigned.