Associate Director, Pipeline Project Management
At GSK, we have bold ambitions for patients, aiming to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade. R&D is committed to discovering and delivering transformational vaccines and medicines to prevent and change the course of disease.
We believe the Greater Boston area is an important hub for the biotech and pharma industry, which is why we’ve invested in growing our footprint and expanding our R&D space in Cambridge, with a primary focus on additional state-of-the-art lab space. Here, we will bring together talent and expertise, building upon GSK’s long history of vaccine development, to create globally leading viral capabilities and cutting-edge vaccines technologies, as we add to our robust portfolio targeting infectious diseases at every stage of life.
In GSK, the Pipeline Project Manager (PPM) will act as the ‘COO’ of the asset and will partner with project leads to help teams plot the best course, then accelerate through complexity and uncertainty with no compromise to quality or safety.
Pipeline Project Managers compose a community of drug/vaccine development experts applying established project management practices to plan and deliver pipeline projects with industry-leading performance:
1. Apply a holistic perspective and broad knowledge of drug/vaccine development to help Research and Development teams test ideas and optimize the strategy.
2. Empower teams to challenge convention, manage uncertainty, and accelerate delivery of critical milestones.
3. Continuously assess progress and clear the way for uninterrupted focus on the critical path.
4. Build high-performing teams by cultivating trust and outcomes-focused ways of working.
5. Share learnings and proven practices across PPM so that we learn and grow as an organization.
Key Responsibilities:
6. Facilitate and/or contribute to asset strategy and evidence strategy, and lead development of the integrated project plan to ensure feasibility and alignment with Research Unit strategy, prioritization, and pipeline performance objectives.
7. Own the single integrated plan that builds team commitment to shared goals with schedules and budgets based on clear dependencies and assumptions.
8. Lead options planning, generate recommendations, alternatives, and tradeoffs to strengthen decision-making and optimize the project strategy.
9. Leads team preparation for governance decisions and owns schedule, risk, and budget inputs.
10. Identify opportunities to accelerate by challenging constraints that impact critical path and near-critical path activities.
11. Orchestrate seamless handoffs with focus on the critical path through proactive project plan monitoring, risk management, and cross-functional management of project issues with timely escalation to leadership as required.
12. Ensure rigor, consistency, and compliance in established systems to drive timely, high-quality data and reporting in and across projects.
13. Build trusting relationships with the team and stakeholders to encourage transparency and collaboration.
14. Use strong facilitation skills to lead regular project team meetings and apply consistent best practice for meeting agendas, actions, minutes, and other meeting documentation.
15. Establish and sustain agreed-upon ways of working for effective team communication, decisions, and conflict resolution.
16. Actively promote GSK’s Code and values. Seek diverse perspectives, cultivate psychological safety, and ensure that all relevant voices are heard to strengthen outcomes and foster broad commitment. Work on any assignment as directed.
Basic Qualifications:
17. BS in Life Sciences or Business related field.
18. Minimum 7 years of project management experience in a matrix team environment in pharmaceutical R&D or related industry.
19. Five or more years of experience in all aspects of project management, based on established PM principles and methods (e.g. PMI/PMBOK).
20. Five or more years of experience building and maintaining high-quality project plans, budget and resource forecasts, and project management documentation (key assumptions, risks, etc.).
Preferred Qualifications:
21. MS or PhD. in related field
22. PMP Certification
23. Experience facilitating the identification, visualization, and acceleration of the project’s critical path, including the ability to explain the critical path activities and dependencies to project stakeholders.
24. Demonstrated expertise in managing project risks, ensuring that the risks across functions are appropriately identified, measured, managed, and communicated.
25. Demonstrated proficiency in established PM planning tools.
26. Demonstrated experience facilitating and documenting effective project team meetings.
27. Understanding of drug/vaccine development and organizational knowledge to validate the operational feasibility, challenge project team assumptions, and prompt subject matter experts to consider the impact of portfolio strategy and external landscape (regulatory, commercial, and competitive).
28. Experience guiding team to develop recommendations and options inclusive of benefit, cost, and risk trade-offs to realize the project strategy.
29. Experience preparing for governance interactions to enable funding, resourcing, and strategic and operational project decisions.
30. Experience leading or partnering with project leaders to establish and sustain a high-performance team environment.
31. Demonstrated ability to build trust and strengthen collaborative relationships with matrixed team members across teams, sub-teams, and functions.
#LI-GSK
• If you are based in Cambridge, MA; Waltham, MA; Rockville, MD; or San Francisco, CA, the annual base salary for new hires in this position ranges $132,825 to $221,375. The US salary ranges take into account a number of factors including work location within the US market, the candidate’s skills, experience, education level and the market rate for the role. In addition, this position offers an annual bonus and eligibility to participate in our share based long term incentive program which is dependent on the level of the role. Available benefits include health care and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, paid holidays, vacation, and paid caregiver/parental and medical leave. If salary ranges are not displayed in the job posting for a specific country, the relevant compensation will be discussed during the recruitment process.
Please visit to learn more about the comprehensive benefits program GSK offers US employees.
Why GSK?
Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.
GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale.
People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.