Exec Director, Program Strategy Leader

Job Description

The Exec Director Program Strategy Leader (PSL) is responsible for leading the team that shapes the program’s vision, strategic context, and lifecycle plan (LCP) to maximize its value. The PSL will work closely with stakeholders at all levels of the organization, navigating complex challenges and decisions, securing investment , and driving program level execution across multiple functions. The PSL must make bold, courageous decisions, informed by expert advisors in a highly matrixed, dynamic environment to ensure optimal program outcomes in alignment with strategic objectives, and effective communication

In this role, you will deliver to the organization the following:

• Strategic Vision and Lifecycle Planning: Lead the creation and execution of the program’s strategic vision and lifecycle plan (LCP), ensuring it aligns with asset strategy, market opportunities, and the competitive landscape. Provide a comprehensive understanding of asset needs, its differentiating values ,costs, risks, and future opportunities.
• Program Accountability: As the single point of accountability, oversee the timely delivery of all Program Strategy Team (PST) deliverables. Manage milestones and execution plans, ensuring alignment with the approved LCP and addressing any deviations effectively.
• Enterprise Leadership: Drive integration across Gilead functions to ensure seamless execution of program strategy. Foster alignment between functional leaders (e.g., Commercial, Development, Regulatory, Manufacturing) to maintain a unified approach while navigating complex trade-offs and creating strategic optionality.
• Collaborative Leadership: Lead cross-functional teams, ensuring clear communication, alignment, and effective collaboration. Balance integration across the enterprise with the flexibility to make quick, informed decisions in a dynamic environment.
• Risk Management: Act as the key point of triage for high-impact issues, guiding cross-functional teams toward clear, actionable decisions. Proactively identify and address risks, using bold decision-making to navigate ambiguity and complexity.
• Decision Leadership: Lead decision-making processes by framing program needs and presenting options and team recommendations to senior leadership. Ensure transparent communication of assumptions, risks, and trade-offs to guide decisions on program direction and resource allocation.
• Expert Inclusion: Engage relevant subject matter experts (SMEs) and cross-functional teams, ensuring their insights and expertise are incorporated into program planning and execution.
• Communication: Proactive communication of program priorities to functions impacted by program decisions to ensure the organization can execute in line with the priorities for the program
• Program Impact: Oversee the day-to-day management of the program to ensure that all critical deliverables, especially those with high impact, stay on track and aligned with strategic goals. Monitor execution closely to maintain focus on long-term objectives while adapting to evolving needs.
• Team Health: Foster a positive, high-functioning team environment within the PST, encouraging open feedback, collaborative problem-solving, and an innovative mindset. Ensure the team remains aligned, motivated, and capable of delivering on program objectives.

In this role the successful candidate will demonstrate depth of knowledge in development of a pipeline asset across it’s phases, including knowledge in clinical development, regulatory requirements and commercial.

• Lead in a Matrixed Environment: Effectively lead cross-functional teams in a highly matrixed organization, balancing diverse perspectives, resolving conflicts, and driving alignment across teams and functions.
• Communicate Effectively: Communicate complex strategies and scientific concepts clearly and credibly to a wide range of stakeholders, including clinical development, regulatory experts, commercial teams, and senior leaders.
• Decision Making: Display bold and clear decision-making capabilities in ambiguous or high-risk situations, making strategic decisions that drive the program forward while managing complexity, risk and uncertainty.

• Drive Strategic Execution: Apply a deep understanding of both the asset and the competitive landscape to oversee program execution that supports the asset strategy. Routinely evaluated optionality, cost, risk and trade- offs to ensure execution remains in support of the program strategy as the program evolves.

• Leverage Business Acumen: Combine clinical development knowledge with strong business acumen to create a program that addresses both clinical and commercial perspectives. Apply strategic thinking to deliver value and ensure alignment across functions.

• Strategic Agility: Ability to swiftly adapt and respond to evolving market conditions, organizational shifts, and emerging opportunities. Continuously balances short term needs with long term goals while making data driven decisions that align with the program vision. Exhibits an innovative mindset, anticipating changes and proactively adjusting strategy.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Disease Area Strategy: Collaborate with Therapeutic Area Leaders and cross-functional teams to define disease area strategies for discovery and early development. y.
• Partner on External Collaboration: Work with External Innovation and Business Development teams to identify and leverage external opportunities that enhance the program’s/portfolio’s strategy and execution.

• Stakeholder Communication: Represent Gilead in external and internal communications, ensuring that scientific, medical, and clinical concepts are effectively communicated in both written and oral formats.

Minimum Education and Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a scientific discipline; advanced or professional degree highly desirable (e.g., PhD, MD, or MBA).
• 15+ years of bio-pharmaceutical industry experience with at least 10 years of relevant work experiences in the biotech/pharmaceutical industry.
• Must demonstrate knowledge of the overall drug development process relevant to biotech/ pharmaceutical companies; commercial launch experience and familiarity with drug development experience is highly desirable.
• Experience working with or on program strategy teams required. Experience with cross-functional program level leadership is highly desirable.