Associate Director, R&D Portfolio Operations & Insights
Position Summary
The Associate Director of R&D Portfolio Operations & Insights will lead the design, standardization, and continuous improvement of portfolio management processes across the R&D organization.
This role is responsible for enabling integrated planning, improving predictability, and driving portfolio transparency through scalable PMO frameworks, data infrastructure, analytics, and reporting.
This individual will serve as a strategic operations partner to R&D, Finance, and PMO Leadership, ensuring there is a single-source of truth to enable portfolio insights and decisions.
Key Responsibilities
Portfolio Governance & PMO Standardization
Design and implement standardized PMO processes, tools, and governance frameworks across R&D.
Establish integrated planning processes that connect strategy, resource planning, timelines, and execution milestones.
Drive adoption of best practices for stage-gate governance, risk management, and cross-functional alignment.
Lead continuous improvement initiatives to enhance operational rigor, predictability, and accountability.
Integrated Planning & Predictability
Develop and maintain enterprise-level portfolio planning models that enable scenario planning and trade-off analysis.
Partner with R&D, Engineering, Regulatory, Finance to align roadmap assumptions and resource forecasts.
Implement forecasting and tracking mechanisms to improve milestone predictability and delivery confidence.
Monitor portfolio performance and proactively surface risks, dependencies, and capacity constraints.
Portfolio Management Systems & Data Infrastructure
Own and evolve the R&D portfolio management database, ensuring data accuracy, integrity, and usability.
Define data standards, KPIs, and portfolio health metrics.
Lead vision for automated dashboards and trending analyses to provide real-time insights to leadership.
Enable scalable reporting capabilities through tools and systems optimization.
Portfolio Insights, Prioritization & Reporting
Create portfolio views to support investment decisions, resource allocation, and strategic trade-offs.
Work with PMO portfolio leads to develop executive-ready reporting packages (monthly/quarterly) highlighting progress, risks, and trends.
Translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for senior stakeholders.
Leadership
Serve as a thought partner to PMO and R&D leadership on operational effectiveness.
Provide key inputs into cross-functional portfolio review forums and governance meetings.
Influence without authority across scientific, clinical, regulatory, and commercial product management teams.
Lead and mentor portfolio operations team members as the function scales.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Bachelor’s degree in Biology or equivalent. MS or PhD in Biological Sciences preferred.
Minimum of 10 years of program management experience in biotech space and educational background in molecular biology or genetics testing.
Certification or formal training in Program or Project Management and experience using resource management tools is a big plus.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:
Strong knowledge of creative workflows, project management tools and processes.
Experience compiling GANTT charts and project plans.
Experience with product development.
Familiar with design control is a plus.
Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to establish and build productive relationships.
Excellent communication within the project teams as well as with diverse stakeholders, including top level management.
Excellent organization and time management/multi-tasking skills (comfortable in an ambiguous and fast-paced environment, operating at both strategic and tactical levels).
OUR OPPORTUNITY
Natera™ is a global leader in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) testing, dedicated to oncology, women’s health, and organ health. Our aim is to make personalized genetic testing and diagnostics part of the standard of care to protect health and enable earlier and more targeted interventions that lead to longer, healthier lives.
The Natera team consists of highly dedicated statisticians, geneticists, doctors, laboratory scientists, business professionals, software engineers and many other professionals from world-class institutions, who care deeply for our work and each other. When you join Natera, you’ll work hard and grow quickly. Working alongside the elite of the industry, you’ll be stretched and challenged, and take pride in being part of a company that is changing the landscape of genetic disease management.
WHAT WE OFFER
Competitive Benefits - Employee benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life and disability plans for eligible employees and their dependents. Additionally, Natera employees and their immediate families receive free testing in addition to fertility care benefits. Other benefits include pregnancy and baby bonding leave, 401k benefits, commuter benefits and much more. We also offer a generous employee referral program!
For more information, visit www.natera.com.
Natera is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace environment, and welcome people of different backgrounds, experiences, abilities and perspectives. Inclusive collaboration benefits our employees, our community and our patients, and is critical to our mission of changing the management of disease worldwide.
All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply, and will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, age, veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with applicable laws.
If you are based in California, we encourage you to read this important information for California residents.
Link: https://www.natera.com/notice-of-data-collection-california-residents/
Please be advised that Natera will reach out to candidates with a @natera.com email domain ONLY. Email communications from all other domain names are not from Natera or its employees and are fraudulent. Natera does not request interviews via text messages and does not ask for personal information until a candidate has engaged with the company and has spoken to a recruiter and the hiring team. Natera takes cyber crimes seriously, and will collaborate with law enforcement authorities to prosecute any related cyber crimes.
For more information:
- BBB announcement on job scams
- FBI Cyber Crime resource page
Natera Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Natera and has not been reviewed or approved by Natera.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical plan choice, fertility support, and free Natera tests for employees and families are emphasized alongside dental, vision, and life/disability coverage. These elements indicate robust core health coverage.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — An Employee Stock Purchase Plan is available, and equity is described as a significant part of compensation in some roles. This accessibility to ownership can meaningfully augment overall pay.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — A flexible, no‑accrual PTO policy and parental leave are positioned as part of the package. This breadth suggests meaningful time‑off provisions are included.
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What We Do
Natera™ is a global leader in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) testing, dedicated to oncology, women’s health, and organ health. Our aim is to make personalized genetic testing and diagnostics part of the standard of care to protect health and enable earlier and more targeted interventions that lead to longer, healthier lives. Where some set out to build a test, we set out to achieve a mission: change the management of disease worldwide by using DNA testing to proactively inform treatment. Through a cfDNA technology platform approach, we've pioneered noninvasive testing in unlimited applications—each with their own potential to revolutionize care for patients. #TeamNatera includes clinicians, scientists, biostatisticians, researchers, and laboratory professionals from around the world. Our diverse teams blend a passion for patients with deep clinical, scientific, and technological roots. Natera’s tests are validated by more than 100 peer-reviewed publications that demonstrate high accuracy.
