Senior Director, Strategic Portfolio Management
About The Position
Viatris is a global healthcare company uniquely positioned to bridge the traditional divide between generics and brands, combining the best of both to more holistically address healthcare needs globally. With a mission to empower people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life, we provide access at scale, currently supplying high-quality medicines to approximately 1 billion patients around the world annually and touching all of life's moments, from birth to the end of life, acute conditions to chronic diseases. The Senior Director of Strategic Portfolio Management, R&D is a senior leader responsible for maximizing the value, balance, and sustainability of the company’s R&D pipeline. This role provides strategic oversight of the end-to-end R&D portfolio, ensuring investment decisions are aligned with corporate strategy, scientific priorities, and long-term value creation. Partnering closely with the Chief R&D Officer and R&D Leadership Team, this role integrates scientific, clinical, financial, and risk perspectives to inform portfolio prioritization, capital allocation, and governance decisions across all assets in the R&D pipeline. The Senior Director Strategic Portfolio Management partners closely with the Head of Global Program Management Office (PMO) and other functional leaders to ensure visibility into the R&D pipeline programs. The Sr Director of SPM will be responsible for management of regular portfolio reviews and annual workplan process. The Sr. Director will also be responsible for illustrating the impact of different portfolio decisions on the outcome potential of various investment decisions.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (PhD, MD, PharmD, MSc, or MBA) strongly preferred.
- 15+ years of experience in pharmaceutical or biotech R&D, including senior leadership roles in program or portfolio management.
- PMP, PgMP, or equivalent program management certification preferred.
- Proven leadership in strategic portfolio management, R&D strategy, or investment governance.
- Deep understanding of the drug development lifecycle and R&D economics.
- Experience supporting senior leadership and executive-level decision-making.
- Strong strategic and analytical thinking with high financial acumen.
- Ability to synthesize scientific, clinical, and commercial inputs into clear recommendations.
- Work effectively in a highly matrixed environment where resources report to both functional and project leads.
- Has ability to manage expectations of project sponsor and stakeholders regarding scope and deliverables.
- Excellent communication skills, including board-level materials and presentations.
- Executive presence with strong influencing and facilitation skills.
- Ability to manage complexity, uncertainty, and long development timelines.
- Achieves high results through people, creates a collaborative, energetic and positive atmosphere to achieve best results while ensuring a high level of accountability.
- Works well in and appreciates the value of a globally diverse management, employee, and contractor environment.
- Shows diplomacy, tact and good judgment when conflict arises.
- Can reference situations where a high level of persuasive and negotiation capabilities were needed for a successful outcome.
- Possesses a clear vision of project direction/outcome and ability to communicate this vision; instils a sense of project ownership.
Responsibilities
- Lead the R&D portfolio reviews and workplan process to ensure alignment with corporate objectives and therapeutic area strategies.
- Drive portfolio balancing across modalities, therapeutic areas, development stages, and risk profiles.
- Maximize portfolio value through data-driven prioritization, scenario analysis, and trade-off recommendations.
- Ensure alignment between scientific ambition, resource capacity, and financial constraints.
- Manage enterprise R&D portfolio reviews, investment committees, and governance forums.
- Provide objective, integrated insights on portfolio performance, risk, probability of success, timelines, and value.
- Support go / no-go, acceleration, termination, and partnering decisions at key development milestones.
- Establish clear decision criteria and transparency across portfolio governance processes.
- Support long-range R&D planning, including capital allocation, headcount planning, and external spend.
- Integrate financial models (e.g., NPV, rNPV, probability-adjusted value) into portfolio decision-making.
- Lead scenario modeling to assess impacts of pipeline changes, external opportunities, and strategic shifts.
- Partner with Finance to ensure alignment between R&D strategy and enterprise financial plans.
- Establish robust portfolio analytics, dashboards, and performance metrics.
- Translate complex scientific and financial data into clear executive-level insights.
- Drive adoption of digital tools and data platforms to improve portfolio visibility and predictability.
- Partner with Pre-Clinical Development, Clinical Development, Regulatory, CMC, Commercial, and BD.
- Support evaluation of external opportunities including licensing, M&A, and collaborations from a portfolio perspective.
- Ensure seamless integration of internal and external assets into the R&D portfolio.
- Build and lead a high-performing Strategic Portfolio Management team.
- Develop portfolio management capabilities, standards, and career paths within R&D.
- Foster a culture of transparency, constructive challenge, and evidence-based decision-making.
Benefits
- competitive salaries
- benefits
- inclusive environment
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
