Senior/Executive Director, Development Program Management

Who We Are:


Xenon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:XENE) is a neuroscience-focused biopharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing, and commercializing innovative therapeutics to improve the lives of people living with neurological and psychiatric disorders. We are looking for great people who thrive in a respectful, collaborative, inclusive, and productive culture to join the Xenon team.


What We Do:


We are advancing an exciting product pipeline to address indications with high unmet medical need, including epilepsy and depression. Our flagship azetukalner program represents the most advanced potassium channel modulator in clinical development for multiple indications. Building upon the positive results and compelling data from our Phase 2b “X-TOLE” study in adult patients with focal epilepsy, our Phase 3 epilepsy program includes multiple clinical trials evaluating azetukalner in patients with focal onset seizures and primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures. In 2024, we are planning to initiate a Phase 3 azetukalner program in major depressive disorder, based on topline data from our Phase 2 “X-NOVA” clinical trial. In addition, we are proud of the leading-edge science coming out of our discovery labs, including early-stage research programs that leverage our extensive ion channel expertise and drug discovery capabilities to identify validated drug targets and develop new product candidates. Backed by a strong balance sheet to support our growth plans, we continue to build a fully integrated, premier neuroscience company with strong discovery, clinical development, corporate, and commercial operations.


About the Role:


We are seeking a Senior/Executive Director, Development Program Management to manage cross-functional planning of Xenon’s late-stage development program. This position would partner with the Product Development Team Leader (PDTL) and Product Development Team (PDT) to lead the strategic planning and execution in alignment with key milestones and timelines. This role involves strong cross functional engagement with stakeholders including Clinical Development, Clinical Operations, Regulatory Affairs, CMC, Quality, Commercial and G&A.

This position reports to the Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Alliance Management and will be in Boston, MA, USA. The level of the position will be commensurate with the candidate’s education and industry experience. This role is a hybrid position, requiring a minimum of 2 days per week in the office.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Lead the planning and execution of Xenon’s late stage development program through to commercialization.
• Provide operational expertise as part of the development program management function. This includes working with other leaders within the PM department to define, implement, maintain and continuously improve project standards, processes, metrics, and practices in order to deliver projects and programs according to plan and within budget.
• Partnering with PDT members and key stakeholders to lead the development, implementation and maintenance of high-quality integrated plans addressing program scope, timelines, budget, communications, risks, staffing and change management, ensuring cross functional alignment.
• Build and maintain tools to monitor and communicate program progress to the program team and all levels of the organization, including supporting the development of presentations for Senior Management.
• Co-lead or lead program team and/or sub-team meetings and maintain decisions and action items for tracking to completion.
• Work with the development PM leadership to articulate the 5-year plan and create the development program objectives as part of the Annual Operating Plan (AOP) cycle.
• Partner with Finance, HR, PDT members and functional leads to develop budgets, address program variances, budget requests, and staffing needs.
• Ensure effective, proactive and open communications, to achieve transparency and clarity of program goals, progress and issues. Establish key metrics and monitor performance, through dashboards and reports to enable timely information and analyses for senior leaders.
• Present to senior leadership, governance teams and external audiences on the project strategy and plans
• Develop and propose short- and long-term objectives for the function in accordance with overall Company strategies and plans.
• Act in accordance with Company policies, including, for example, the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and ensure policies are understood and followed by direct reports, if any.
• Some international travel may be required.
• Other duties as assigned.
QUALIFICATIONS:
• 12+ years of in-depth pharmaceutical industry experience and drug development in a program management capacity in late development with significant e