Associate Director, Strategic Initiatives

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Job Description

Are you looking for a patient-focused, innovation-driven company that will inspire you and empower you to shine? Join us as a Associate Director, Strategic Initiatives in our Cambridge office.

At Takeda, we are transforming the pharmaceutical industry through our R&D-driven market leadership and being a values-led company. To do this, we empower our people to realize their potential through life-changing work. Certified as a Global Top Employer, we offer stimulating careers, encourage innovation, and strive for excellence in everything we do. We foster an inclusive, collaborative workplace, in which our global teams are united by an unwavering commitment to deliver Better Health and a Brighter Future to people around the world.

Here, you will be a vital contributor to our inspiring, bold mission.

Objective / Purpose:

Takeda is a global, values-based, top ten biopharmaceutical leader committed to bringing Better Health and a Brighter Future to people worldwide. Takeda’s R&D organization is a made up of diverse experts who enable Takeda’s mission by embracing scientific advances and the emergence of data, digital, and technology to advance a highly innovative pipeline of investigational medicines intended to provide meaningful benefits to patients. The Office of the R&D Chief of Staff (CoS) leads and enables key priorities aligned with Takeda’s R&D strategy. The leading of these priorities requires collaboration with experts across Takeda, effective strategic planning, and organizational savvy to influence levels of leaders across all R&D functions.

To be a leading organization of the future, Takeda has initiated a multifaceted effort aimed at preparing the organization for a digitally enabled future. A cornerstone of this effort is the Digital Dexterity program, which is the ability and ambition to embrace existing and emerging technologies to drive enhanced personal and business outcomes. As the driving leaders of the Digital Dexterity program for R&D, the CoS Office will collaborate across functions to:

ENGAGE the R&D workforce with urgency and energy in Digital Dexterity, INSPIRE digital curiosity, confidence, and experimentation across all R&D employees, and UPSKILL the organization to be leading in digital dexterity.

The Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives will be responsible for leading key pillars within R&D’s Digital Dexterity program and other technology-enabled agility or productivity improvement initiatives. Specific areas of leadership remit in Digital Dexterity include defining and managing the strategy and tactics for maintaining a right-sized and engaged champions network and managing and communicating the R&D translation to value journey across five digital dexterity skills and their supporting tools. The Associate Director will play a pivotal role in enhancing personal and team effectiveness across Takeda’s large R&D organization by facilitating a future-ready shift in mindsets and enabling the effective use of digital tools.

ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Lead and oversee R&D strategic initiatives related to digital dexterity, agility and other relevant R&D priorities, ensuring alignment with enterprise goals.
• Develop and implement innovative strategies to enhance translation of technology skills and tools into organizational value.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to identify and prioritize approaches that drive the program’s mission forward, anticipating internal challenges and recommending processes for improvement.
• Collaborate across R&D functions and other Takeda Busi