Associate Director, Portfolio Project Management

Bicycle Therapeutics is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing a novel class of medicines, referred to as Bicycle® molecules, for diseases that are underserved by existing therapeutics. Bicycle molecules are fully synthetic short peptides constrained with small molecule scaffolds to form two loops that stabilize their structural geometry. This constraint facilitates target binding with high affinity and selectivity, making Bicycle® molecules attractive candidates for drug development. The company is evaluating nuzafatide pevedotin (formerly BT5528), a Bicycle® Drug Conjugate (BDC®) targeting EphA2, a historically undruggable target; a pipeline of Bicycle® Radioconjugates (BRCs) and imaging agents;; zelenectide pevedotin (formerly BT8009), a BDC® targeting Nectin-4, a well-validated tumor antigen; and, through various partnerships, the use of Bicycle® technology to develop therapies to treat diseases in a range of therapeutic areas.

Bicycle Therapeutics is headquartered in Cambridge, UK, with many key functions and members of its leadership team located in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA. For more information, visit bicycletherapeutics.com

Culture is key and all Bicycle employees actively embrace and role model our company values:

• We are Adventurous. We believe it’s the way to deliver extraordinary results for our patients.  
• We are Dedicated to our Mission. You can’t change the world if you don’t have determination.
• We are One Team. We only succeed when we work together.

At Bicycle, we benefit from a hybrid style working arrangement, allowing employees where possible the opportunity to collaborate and engage with their coworkers in person while also benefiting from the flexibility of remote working. A typical hybrid arrangement for this role is 3 days onsite per week at our Cambridge, UK office, with the remainder of your working week remote.

Your mission is to serve as the operational engine of our cross-functional pipeline, seamlessly bridging Research & Innovation (R&I) and Clinical Development. Working under the guidance of the VP, Portfolio Strategy & Scientific Affairs and our Director-level project management leadership, you will oversee the day-to-day coordination, tracking, and operational management of our therapeutic portfolio. By maintaining highly accurate integrated Gantt charts, orchestrating clear meeting agendas, capturing precise action-oriented minutes, and tracking project interdependencies across departments, you will enable our scientific and clinical teams to execute seamlessly, mitigate risks, and deliver the next wave of novel Bicycle® therapeutics on time and within budget.

Portfolio Tracking, Planning & Operational Excellence

• Master Timeline & Gantt Chart Management: Create, maintain, and continuously optimize integrated master project plans and detailed Gantt charts across both Research & Innovation (R&I) and Clinical programs, identifying critical paths and key interdependencies.
• Meeting Administration & Governance Support: Coordinate and administer project team meetings. This includes driving the preparation of collaborative, objective-focused agendas, capturing high-quality, action-oriented minutes, and systematically tracking follow-up deliverables to closure.
• Portfolio Dashboards & Reporting: Maintain portfolio-level tracking tools, dashboards, and risk registries under the guidance of Director leadership to provide senior stakeholders with high-visibility, real-time access to program statuses.
• Documentation & Repository Stewardship: Ensure all project-related documentation, decision logs, and collaboration portals (e.g., SharePoint, MS Teams) are meticulously organized, up-to-date, and standardized across R&I and Clinical teams.
• Publications Support: Support publications tracking, timelines and maintaining a publications repository across R&I and Clinical.

Pipeline Delivery & Operational Execution

• Cross-Functional Execution: Collaborate with team members across nonclinical, translational, clinical, regulatory, and CMC functions to ensure that project objectives and milestones leading to IND/CTA filings and clinical trial milestones are executed within scope and budget.
• Resource & Timeline Optimization: Proactively identify timeline variances, operational inefficiencies, and resource bottlenecks, escalating them with constructive mitigation recommendations to project leaders and Director-level sponsors.
• Risk Tracking & Mitigation: Facilitate risk identification workshops/discussions at the project team level, capturing risks within the project risk register and tracking the execution of agreed-upon mitigation plans.

Stakeholder Engagement & Business Partnership

• Operational Business Partnering: Act as a reliable operational partner to R&I and Clinical Project Leaders, helping to translate complex scientific and clinical strategies into tangible, trackable plans.
• Functional Alignment & Communication: Foster clear, proactive, and transparent communication across functions, bridging communication gaps and ensuring that interdependencies are visible and managed.
• External Partner Coordination: Assist in managing PM activities for alliance partnerships, CROs, and external scientific collaborations, ensuring meeting agendas, minutes, and deliverables are aligned with contract milestones.

nowledge

• Core Expertise: You bring substantial experience and recognised domain expertise in portfolio and project management. You lead complex project planning initiatives, advance our project management methodologies, and understand how the PM function contributes to overall organisational performance.
• Data / Insight: You apply broad knowledge of project management principles to analyse often incomplete or evolving project information, developing insights that influence strategic direction and timelines for our therapeutic portfolio.
• Influence & Collaboration: You act as a strategic contributor and mentor on project management best practices. You build and maintain cross-functional networks to coordinate complex program initiatives and influence decisions in high-impact situations, such as scenario planning or risk mitigation.

Job Complexity

• Task / Project Delivery: You lead complex project management initiatives that span multiple teams with broader functional impact. You define clear approaches to address less-structured problems, like timeline variances or resource constraints, and ensure high-quality delivery of project plans and dashboards.
• Problem-Solving: You address complex and sometimes ambiguous portfolio challenges that affect cross-disciplinary work. You develop and refine project management policies, methods, and tools to support departmental and cross-functional objectives.
• Strategic Impact: You lead major project planning and tracking efforts with impact across multiple departments. You align project execution with functional priorities and drive the effective delivery of our pipeline programs.

Independence

• Autonomy: You operate with substantial autonomy in determining objectives and approaches for new or complex assignments, such as building a project plan for a first-in-class asset. You exercise independent judgment in both technical PM matters and operational execution.
• Decision-Making: You make high-impact decisions affecting complex project initiatives and departmental performance. You exercise judgment within broad guidelines and are accountable for the accuracy and integrity of project timelines and data.
• Leadership / Mentorship: You lead cross-functional project teams, providing direction on complex planning issues and developing the team's capability to navigate interdependencies.

Values & Behaviours

• One Team (Collaboration): You excel at building alignment across teams and departments, ensuring seamless coordination between functions like R&I, Clinical, and CMC to achieve shared portfolio goals.
• Adventurous (Innovation): You drive the adoption of innovative project management practices, such as new software tools or reporting methods, that have a long-term impact on the efficiency and visibility of our portfolio.
• Dedicated to our Mission (Accountability): You ensure that project management outcomes, such as on-time milestone delivery and proactive risk mitigation, directly support our organisational mission to deliver novel therapeutics to patients.
• Resilience: You model perseverance and adaptability under pressure, calmly navigating the complexities and challenges inherent in drug development timelines.

Qualifications

• Biopharmaceutical Project Management Expertise: Demonstrated significant experience in project management within the biopharmaceutical industry, with a solid operational understanding of both discovery research (through to IND/CTA filing) and clinical development processes.
• Portfolio & Scheduling Proficiency: A proven track record of managing project schedules, critical paths, and cross-functional interdependencies across multiple overlapping therapeutic programs.
• Advanced PM Toolset Mastery: Exceptional hands-on expertise in project management software (e.g., MS Project, Smartsheet) to build, manage, and present complex timelines and dashboards.
• Rigorous Meeting Facilitation & Administration: Outstanding organizational skills, with a demonstrated ability to construct focused meeting agendas, facilitate technical cross-functional discussions, and capture clear, action-oriented minutes.
• Adaptive Stakeholder Communication: Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguous situations and communicate effectively with stakeholders at all levels, translating complex program data into actionable project updates.
• Project Management Credentials: Formal project management training or certifications (e.g., PMP, PRINCE2) are highly desirable but not essential where equivalent practical competency has been demonstrated.

• Pension (10% employer contribution)
• Private Medical Insurance (PMI) (including optical and dental cover)
• Health Cash Plan
• Group Life Assurance (4x basic salary)
• Group Income Protection
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Access to subsidised gym membership
• Time off (28 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays & the option to buy up to 5 additional days annually)
• Competitive reward including annual company bonus
• Employee recognition schemes
• Enhanced parental leave policies
• Flexible working environment
• State-of-the-art campus environment with on campus restaurant and Montessori nursery
• Eligibility for an option grant to subscribe to shares in Bicycle Therapeutics plc.

Bicycle Therapeutics is committed to building a diverse workforce that is representative of the communities we serve. We recognize that diverse and inclusive teams build a stronger and more innovative company. Therefore, all qualified applicants will be considered for employment, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender (including gender reassignment), sexual orientation, age, disability status, marital status, or veteran status. 

Bicycle Therapeutics is committed to building a diverse workforce that is representative of the communities we serve. We recognize that diverse and inclusive teams build a stronger and more innovative company. Therefore, all qualified applicants will be considered for employment, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability status, marital status, or veteran status.