Head, Oncology Alliance Management

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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 Senior Director, Head of Oncology Alliance Management 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.

Role Summary

Takeda is seeking a highly accomplished, enterprise-minded leader to serve as Senior Director, Head of Oncology Alliance Management. This role is accountable for shaping and leading the global alliance management strategy for the Oncology Therapeutic Area, ensuring Takeda maximizes the strategic, scientific, operational, and financial value of its most critical partnerships across the discovery, development, and commercialization continuum.

The Senior Director will lead a high-performing team of alliance managers and serve as a senior partner to Oncology leadership, Business Development, R&D, Legal, Finance, Program Leadership, and other cross-functional stakeholders. This leader will be responsible for setting alliance management strategy, driving governance excellence, influencing major partnership decisions, and ensuring disciplined execution across a portfolio of highly complex, business-critical collaborations.

The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in alliance management, broad pharmaceutical industry experience, exceptional executive presence, and a demonstrated ability to shape strategy, lead through ambiguity, influence senior leaders, and build scalable partnership capabilities across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Oversee a complex portfolio of research, clinical development and commercial partnerships led by a team of therapeutically aligned Alliance Managers and directly manage business-critical activities for the Oncology Therapeutic Area.
• Directly manage a limited number of partnerships, determined by complexity and strategic value to the Therapeutic Area.
• Provide strategic leadership for the Alliance Management team to:
  • Maximize the value of partnered programs by successfully operationalizing alliances and ensuring the vision, goals and strategic intent of partnerships are jointly created and executed.
  • Embed operational effectiveness across all components of the alliance, establishing measurable performance metrics, mitigating risk and facilitating speed of execution.
  • Proactively report on upcoming decision points and contractual milestones.
  • Clearly define and share the communication plan and alliance critical processes.
  • Lead joint project and governance teams; develop risk mitigation plans; and negotiate contractual amendments in partnership with Business Development as needed.
• Ensure the team is implementing Takeda’s partnership strategy in alignment with alliance management best practices across the company.
• Build and maintain key relationships across a broad sphere of influence, both internally and externally, to achieve the strategic intent of partnerships, manage conflict and ensure mutually beneficial outcomes.
• Leverage relationships with key stakeholders (team members, functional leads, external alliance counterparts, etc.) to ensure alignment and accountability for functional, program and organizational objectives.
• Actively engage with cross-functional stakeholders to influence and operationalize new deals, balancing risks and opportunities, and establish and implement effective governance structures, strategies, and processes which maximize the potential value and operational success of pending/newly executed collaborations.
• Coordinate team efforts for providing impactful presentations which succinctly summarize status updates, key risks, complex disc