Senior Director, R&D PMO & Innovation Excellence

Neogen Corporation•Oakdale, CA

12d

About The Position

Neogen is seeking a strategic, execution-focused Senior Director, R&D PMO & Innovation Excellence to lead the enterprise program management office and strengthen how the organization turns innovation and strategic priorities into measurable business outcomes. This senior leadership role will establish an effective operating model for portfolio governance, resource allocation, integrated planning, and delivery across high-priority R&D, product development, transformation, and integration initiatives. The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in portfolio management and needs-driven innovation, enabling teams to make informed decisions, accelerate value delivery, and create solutions that address meaningful customer and market needs.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in engineering, science, business, operations, or a related discipline; an advanced degree, MBA, master's degree, or doctorate is preferred.
Typically 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in portfolio management, program management, product development, innovation, operations, transformation, or related fields, including 7+ years leading complex cross-functional programs and/or a PMO.
Demonstrated success building, transforming, or leading an enterprise or business-unit PMO and improving portfolio decisions, delivery performance, resource productivity, and benefits realization.
Deep practitioner experience with needs-driven innovation methods, including observation, need finding, need screening, concept development, prototyping, and implementation planning; formal Biodesign training is preferred.
Strong knowledge of portfolio management, stage-gate governance, integrated planning, capacity and resource management, risk management, business-case analysis, and executive-level reporting.
Experience in regulated product environments and guiding products, diagnostics, instruments, consumables, software/digital solutions, services, or integrated platforms through development and commercialization.
Experience in food safety, animal safety, life sciences, diagnostics, medical technology, laboratory workflows, industrial biotechnology, or related industries is preferred.

Nice To Haves

An advanced degree, MBA, master's degree, or doctorate is preferred.
Formal Biodesign training is preferred.
PMP, PgMP, PfMP, Lean, Six Sigma, Agile, or comparable certifications are preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead and continuously improve Neogen's R&D PMO operating model, including portfolio governance, decision rights, reporting cadences, escalation paths, standard work, and program management capabilities.
Create and maintain a reliable enterprise view of the strategic portfolio, including initiative ownership, outcomes, milestones, dependencies, risks, capacity needs, investments, and value realization.
Partner with executive and cross-functional leaders to translate strategy into an executable portfolio; facilitate prioritization, stage-gate, investment, continuation, acceleration, and risk-management decisions.
Embed repeatable needs-driven innovation practices across R&D and product-development work, including customer observation, problem definition, need screening, concept development, prototyping, evidence planning, and implementation readiness.
Provide executive oversight for complex, high-risk, and cross-enterprise programs, aligning R&D, Product Management, Commercial, Operations, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Regulatory, Finance, IT/Digital, Legal, and other functions around shared outcomes.
Build a high-performing PMO and innovation excellence team through talent development, coaching, communities of practice, performance management, and reusable tools, playbooks, and learning processes.