Operations Manager, Explorations, Pioneering Medicines

What if... We could harness the power of Flagship’s scientific platforms and create novel treatment options that benefit more patients, sooner?

Pioneering Medicines, an initiative of Flagship Pioneering, is building a world-class biopharmaceutical R&D capability focused on conceiving and developing life-changing treatments for patients by harnessing the power of Flagship's scientific platforms and applying those innovative approaches to serious diseases with unmet medical need. Unique to Pioneering Medicines’ approach is the opportunity to combine platforms to create truly novel and potentially transformative treatments. 

About Flagship Pioneering:

Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life science platform companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its founding in 2000, the firm has originated and fostered the development of more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in over $34 billion in aggregate value, 500+ issued patents, and more than 50 clinical trials for novel therapeutic agents.  

We are excited to post this newly created position to support the Pioneering Medicines’ Product Concept Explorations team. Flagship’s unique approach to bioplatform and product innovation is defined by the origination of a novel technologies, followed by their application to human health. The Product Concept Explorations team within Pioneering Medicines explores diseases, identifies areas for innovation, and then conceives of valuable and actionable Product Concepts that pair a unique Flagship technology with innovation opportunities within that disease. These Product Concepts may then be developed as assets in partnership between Pioneering Medicines and Flagship platform companies.

This important role will be responsible for providing enabling structure to our highly creative process of imagining and then conceiving transformative therapies before the Pioneering Medicines group develops these new medicines. This role will help the Head of Explorations manage multiple ongoing product concept ideations; coordinate input within Flagship and from our biopharma partners into these explorations; ensure progress towards the deliverables of a large and diverse set of precisely defined product concepts; and manage communications within the team and within Pioneering Medicines. A critical role will be to organize, maintain, and curate information on the present and planned capabilities of the bioplatforms. This team member will be embedded with the Explorations team and, like other operations managers, will report into PM’s COO. This model is used to facilitate good communication and outstanding teamwork across PM and to create a larger number of career development opportunities over time.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Support the Head of Explorations to define agendas and prioritize the focus of the Exploration team as new explorations start and others wind down; drive progress towards creating a wide and diverse set of product concepts that can be created and moved into our pipeline
• Drive agenda topics with the Head of Explorations; prepare for, facilitate, and document outcomes of team meetings, ensuring they have clear purpose and outcomes 
• Contribute project management to Exploration meetings to make sessions and thinking time between sessions more productive. Get rough ideas down on paper, linking work and thinking from one meeting to the next 
• Provide support in getting input into the Explorations, be that from outside experts, internal R&D and scientific leaders, or our biopharma partners 
• Write presentations, translating ideas to product concept descriptions that can be shared and ideated with other team members and discussed with the PM leadership (
• Facilitate communication with, and communicate effectively with our colleagues in the bioplatforms, understanding their point of view and establishing trust to enable a two-way flow of information about PM’s vision for new products and the roadmap of the platforms’ capabilities
• Maintain, curate, and keep current a library of platform capability information
• Apply experience and project management best practices to effectively drive delivery and creative output; identify and monitor progress of critical path activities.
• Responsible for other duties and projects as assigned

Basic Qualifications:

• PhD or Master’s degree; a minimum of 6 years of biotech/pharmaceutical industry experience; drug development experience strongly preferred.
• Experienced program manager a plus
• Facility with Smartsheet a plus

Additional Qualifications:

• Strong understanding of R&D phases within highly creative biotechnology organizations, while bringi