Strategy and Operational Excellence Lead

3310 Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.•Boston, MA

20h•Onsite

About The Position

The Strategy and Operational Excellence Lead (Director) reports to the Head of U.S. Oncology Business Unit (OBU) Strategy & Business Operations. This role serves as a senior strategic and operational advisor responsible for shaping and activating the U.S. Oncology strategy by translating enterprise and business unit priorities into actionable plans, governance structures, and measurable outcomes. The role drives operational excellence and enterprise-visible cross-functional initiatives that simplify processes, strengthen organizational effectiveness, and accelerate sustainable value delivery. Working across a complex matrix environment, this leader establishes operating discipline, guides strategic decision-making, anticipates risks, aligns stakeholders, and ensures accountable execution of key business priorities. The position also champions a high-performing, values-based culture grounded in Takeda-ism and the organization’s cultural pillars, delivering meaningful business and organizational impact through disciplined execution, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, life sciences, healthcare, organizational leadership, or a related field.
Minimum 10 years of relevant experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, consulting, or another highly regulated industry, including progressive leadership experience in strategy, business operations, transformation, or cross-functional portfolio leadership.
Minimum 2 years of experience working as a consultant or in a consulting role, with demonstrated responsibility for structured problem-solving, executive-ready recommendations, and cross-functional client or stakeholder engagement.
Formal project management, change management, Lean, or continuous improvement training or certification.
Demonstrated Director-level leadership of complex, high-visibility initiatives across a matrixed organization, including influencing senior leaders and delivering outcomes without direct authority.
Strong strategic thinking and business acumen, with the ability to connect enterprise priorities, market context, organizational capabilities, and operational execution.
Enterprise portfolio leadership capabilities, including prioritization, governance, resource and risk oversight, decision framing, and accountability for sustained outcomes.
Exceptional executive presence and written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to shape compelling narratives, advise senior leaders, and communicate complex choices with clarity.
Strong facilitation, stakeholder management, and change leadership skills; able to create alignment amid ambiguity and competing priorities.
High learning agility, judgment, discretion, and commitment to integrity, fairness, honesty, and perseverance.
Proficiency with Microsoft 365 and digital collaboration tools; demonstrated interest in responsibly applying AI and automation to improve quality, speed, and ways of working.
Highly proficient in storytelling and presentations skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience in Human Resources or supporting people, talent, organizational effectiveness, culture, or workforce initiatives is a plus.
Advanced degree such as an MBA, MS, MPH, or equivalent.
Experience in commercial operations, product lifecycle planning, or enterprise transformation.

Responsibilities

Lead the refinement, socialization, and activation of business-unit strategy, priorities, critical success factors, and multi-year roadmaps with leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
Own the translation of strategy into integrated operating plans, clear decision rights, accountabilities, performance measures, and communications that enable sustained execution.
Provide senior-level thought partnership by synthesizing internal and external insights, framing enterprise trade-offs, and advancing clear recommendations for leadership decisions.
Ensure business-unit strategy and execution remain connected to Takeda enterprise priorities, global direction, portfolio needs, and patient and customer outcomes.
Set a new standard of operational excellence by building capabilities, streamline processes, automate approaches, and leverage systems, tools and technologies to elevate and scale US Oncology operations.
Support cross-functional initiatives from strategy through implementation, establishing outcomes, governance, resources, and change approaches.
Establish scalable frameworks, standard work, tools, and governance that improve consistency, transparency, speed, and decision quality while reducing unnecessary administrative burden.
Maintain oversight of initiative health, resources, milestones, risks, and interdependencies; intervene early and escalate issues with clear options and recommendations.
Build practical portfolio dashboards and performance measures that enable prioritization, accountability, and data-informed decisions.
Partner with Corporate Communications to refine and deploy internal leadership communications that connect enterprise priorities, business decisions, ways of working and culture.
Oversee Home Office Huddles and Town Hall operations and logistics, including agendas, presentation creation, and stakeholder engagements.
Partner with Finance and business leaders to influence resource allocation, maintain budget visibility, and drive responsible stewardship aligned with strategic priorities.
Establish and continuously improve governance and operating rhythms for the US Oncology Business Unit, leadership and cross-functional forums, including annual and quarterly planning, Leadership meeting agendas, pre-reads, decision documentation, and follow-through.
Develop clear and concise narratives, presentations, reports, and recommendations that clarify choices, risks, trade-offs, and expected impact.
Maintain an integrated business-unit milestone view to anticipate dependencies, sequence decisions, and resolve execution conflicts.
Help support a culture of accountability by ensuring decisions, commitments, owners, timing, and outcomes are visible and actively managed.
Build trusted senior-level relationships, influence without authority, resolve competing viewpoints, and enable timely enterprise-minded decisions.
Facilitate leadership workshops and working sessions that convert ambiguity into aligned choices, concrete outputs, and accountable next steps.
Lead cross-functional culture and employee-engagement initiatives aligned to strategy and organizational health priorities.
Create inclusive forums and communication approaches that amplify colleague voice, reinforce shared purpose, and strengthen connection across the organization.
Lead home office new hire onboarding, provide an inclusive environment to share knowledge and accelerate learning.
Model Takeda-ism and focus on six culture pillars: patient-centricity, people-mindedness, respect and collaboration, high performance, decision effectiveness and enterprise orientation.