Senior Director, Portfolio Leader, Enterprise Innovation

Working with Us
Challenging. Meaningful. Life-changing. Those aren’t words that are usually associated with a job. But working at Bristol Myers Squibb is anything but usual. Here, uniquely interesting work happens every day, in every department. From optimizing a production line to the latest breakthroughs in cell therapy, this is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. You’ll get the chance to grow and thrive through opportunities uncommon in scale and scope, alongside high-achieving teams. Take your career farther than you thought possible.

Bristol Myers Squibb recognizes the importance of balance and flexibility in our work environment. We offer a wide variety of competitive benefits, services and programs that provide our employees with the resources to pursue their goals, both at work and in their personal lives. Read more: careers.bms.com/working-with-us.

Position Overview

The Senior Director, Portfolio Leader – Enterprise Innovation will serve as a critical execution and governance leader responsible for managing the innovation portfolio across the enterprise. Reporting to the Executive Director of Enterprise Innovation, this role ensures the structured delivery, tracking, and scaling of innovation initiatives aligned with the company’s strategic priorities.

This position will partner closely with senior leaders, initiative owners, finance, and digital teams to provide portfolio visibility, drive investment discipline, and ensure that innovation efforts yield measurable business value. The ideal candidate is a hands-on portfolio strategist who can translate enterprise ambition into operational clarity.

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio Strategy & Governance

• Design and lead the governance model for enterprise innovation initiatives, including intake, evaluation, approval, and sunset mechanisms.
• Maintain clear investment prioritization frameworks, including value scoring models and resource capacity planning.
• Support senior leadership in steering committee facilitation and decision-making readiness.

Performance Management & Value Realization

• Define and report on portfolio KPIs, including ROI, cycle time, risk exposure, and adoption metrics.
• Partner with Finance and initiative leads to track actuals vs. expected benefits and create dashboards for executive visibility.
• Continuously monitor portfolio health and escalate delivery risks, resource gaps, and integration issues.

Execution Support & Initiative Enablement

• Provide governance support and operational structure to initiative owners, ensuring standardized use of tools, templates, and status reporting.
• Monitor interdependencies across workstreams and ensure alignment with transformation timelines and operational readiness.
• Coordinate benefit realization planning and create visibility into bottlenecks and acceleration levers.

Cross-Functional Engagement

• Collaborate with leaders in Strategy, Digital, R&D, Manufacturing, Commercial, Enterprise BMS and other functions to ensure enterprise alignment of innovation efforts.
• Partner with the Senior Director of Strategic Innovation to integrate the portfolio with broader transformation and capability roadmaps.
• Serve as a bridge between innovation strategy and initiative execution teams, ensuring information flow and issue resolution.

Continuous Improvement & Strategic Foresight Integration

• Refine portfolio management processes using feedback and emerging best practices.
• Incorporate external trend insights and strategic foresight into portfolio planning to ensure resilience and future alignment.
• Build a knowledge base of innovation metrics, case studies, and outcomes to inform ongoing investment decisions.

Experience & Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree (MBA, MPA, or equivalent) preferred.
• Experience:
  • 10+ years of experience in portfolio management, enterprise transformation, strategy execution, or innovation leadership.
  • Prior experience managing multi-million-dollar initiative portfolios in a matrixed enterprise; life sciences or pharmaceutical sector preferred.
• Skills:
  • Expertise in portfolio management tools (e.g., Clarity, Smartsheet, Planview, etc.)
  • Strong business case development and financial tracking capabilities.
  • Prove