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The Director, Development Sourcing & Partnerships serves as a strategic partnership leader for external GCP vendors supporting the Development organization. This role is accountable for shaping and executing sourcing and vendor partnership strategy across the Development portfolio, ensuring partnership activities, sourcing approaches, and vendor engagement decisions are aligned with Development objectives, broader portfolio priorities, outsourcing strategy, and enterprise expectations.
The Director leads strategic sourcing and partnership activities across programs and vendor categories, including vendor selection, contracting alignment, governance, and performance-related partnership discussions. This leader partners with cross-functional and senior stakeholders to drive consistent sourcing approaches, support timely escalation resolution through appropriate stakeholder engagement, and promote scalable best practices across programs.
This role strengthens strategic external partnerships and advances effective, value-driven sourcing and partnership approaches across the Development portfolio.
Work Model:Remote: Officially documented as working full-time from home, with travel to Ultragenyx's offices or other locations on occasion as needed.
Responsibilities:- Early engagement planning
Define and execute sourcing strategies aligned to pipeline, portfolio priorities, and enterprise objectives. - Vendor selection
Lead RFIs/RFPs, competitive bidding, vendor evaluations, bid defense strategy, and onboarding alignment for complex and high-impact initiatives to support fit-for-purpose vendor selection and successful engagement start-up. - Contracting alignment
Lead alignment across scope, budget, and contracting considerations, ensuring consistency and scalability between operational requirements, financial assumptions, and vendor agreements. - Strategic vendor partnership management
Serve as a senior strategic partnership lead for external GCP vendors across service categories, driving partnership alignment, performance expectations, strategic engagement, and ongoing relationship management across the vendor partnership. - Governance & oversight
Lead governance forums and support timely escalation resolution through appropriate senior stakeholder engagement, while driving KPI/performance discussions, quality alignment, consistent oversight, accountability, and strategic alignment across partners. - Sourcing and partnership optimization
Drive complex cross-program sourcing initiatives, vendor/category alignment activities, and partnership optimization efforts to establish consistency of sourcing and partnership approach, strengthen vendor engagement, and scale effective practices across programs and vendors. - Lessons learned / continuous improvement
Drive continuous improvement by identifying cross-program insights, scaling best practices, and strengthening sourcing and partnership approaches across the portfolio. - Stakeholder engagement
Engage and influence senior cross-functional stakeholders to support sourcing decisions, align vendor partnership strategy with execution needs, and drive strategic and portfolio alignment across programs and vendors.
- Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Business Administration, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred.
- Minimum of 10 years of experience in clinical vendor management, outsourcing, strategic sourcing, clinical operations, or related roles within the pharmaceutical, biotech, or CRO industry.
- Minimum of 3–5 years of experience leading vendor relationships, sourcing activities, contracting alignment, governance, and performance oversight in a clinical development environment.
- Experience leading RFIs/RFPs, competitive bidding, vendor evaluation, selection, and engagement start-up for complex or high-impact clinical development initiatives.
- Experience leading alignment of scope, budget, contracting, and vendor agreement considerations for outsourced services.
- Experience driving vendor governance, performance discussions, KPI review, issue escalation, and partnership management across programs and vendor categories.
- Strong understanding of clinical development, clinical operations, GCP, ICH guidelines, and regulatory expectations related to vendor oversight.
- Knowledge of quality expectations, internal SOPs, and compliance considerations applicable to vendor selection, oversight, and performance monitoring.
- Ability to interpret KPIs, performance data, dashboards, and financial information to inform sourcing strategy, vendor partnership decisions, and portfolio-level oversight.
- Strong leadership, cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, communication, relationship management, and influencing skills.
- Ability to influence senior stakeholders, drive alignment across functions, support timely escalation resolution, and promote scalable best practices.
- Strong organizational skills, sound judgment, strategic thinking, and ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
- Travel up to 30% may be required for vendor meetings, governance forums, site visits, audits, or industry conferences.
#LI-CS1 #LI-Remote
The typical annual salary range for this full-time position is listed below. This range reflects the characteristics of the job, such as required skills and qualifications and is based on the office location noted in this job posting. The range may also be adjusted based on applicant's geographic location.
This position is eligible for annual bonus and equity incentives. Actual individual pay is determined by demonstrated experience and internal equity alignment.
Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits unlawful discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, disability, marital and veteran status, and any other status or classification protected by applicable federal, state, and/or local laws. Reasonable accommodation will be provided for all protected statuses or classifications protected by applicable law, including individuals with disabilities, disabled veterans, for pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, and based on sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants can request an accommodation prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodation in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, you may contact Talent Acquisition by emailing us at [email protected].
It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences, Business Administration, or a related field
- Advanced degree (preferred)
- Minimum of 10 years of experience in clinical vendor management, outsourcing, strategic sourcing, clinical operations, or related roles within pharmaceutical, biotech, or CRO industry
- Minimum of 3-5 years of experience leading vendor relationships, sourcing activities, contracting alignment, governance, and performance oversight in a clinical development environment
- Experience leading RFIs/RFPs, competitive bidding, vendor evaluation, selection, and engagement start-up for complex or high-impact clinical development initiatives
- Experience aligning scope, budget, contracting, and vendor agreement considerations for outsourced services
- Experience driving vendor governance, performance discussions, KPI review, issue escalation, and partnership management across programs and vendor categories
- Strong understanding of clinical development, clinical operations, GCP, ICH guidelines, and regulatory expectations related to vendor oversight
- Knowledge of quality expectations, internal SOPs, and compliance considerations applicable to vendor selection, oversight, and performance monitoring
- Ability to interpret KPIs, performance data, dashboards, and financial information to inform sourcing strategy, vendor partnership decisions, and portfolio-level oversight
- Strong leadership, cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, communication, relationship management, and influencing skills
- Ability to influence senior stakeholders, drive alignment across functions, support timely escalation resolution, and promote scalable best practices
- Strong organizational skills, sound judgment, strategic thinking, and ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, evolving environment
- Willingness to travel up to 30% for vendor meetings, governance forums, site visits, audits, or industry conferences
Ultragenyx Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Ultragenyx and has not been reviewed or approved by Ultragenyx.
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Healthcare Strength — Benefits begin on the first day with multiple medical plan options alongside dental and vision coverage. Employer-funded HSA contributions and employer-paid mental health support via Spring Health add notable depth to healthcare support.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off is broadened by two fully paid company shutdown weeks in August and December in addition to holidays and baseline vacation. Paid sick time, paid volunteer time, and a substantial paid leave program further expand time-off support.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support includes a 401(k) program with a match on employee contributions and immediate vesting. An employee stock purchase plan discount also strengthens the overall financial rewards package.
Ultragenyx Insights
What We Do
At Ultragenyx, we fundamentally believe that taking real impactful action to care for the needs of patients and our people is always the right thing to do. To achieve this goal, our vision is to lead the future of rare disease medicine. For us, this means going where other biopharma companies won’t go – challenging the status quo and creating a new model that advances our field so more patients and caregivers can benefit from life-changing treatments. We do this by following the science, applying a novel rapid development approach, making innovative medicines at fair and reasonable prices, and creating a collaborative ecosystem to reach patients in ways that are most meaningful for them.
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