Job Description
We are seeking a strategic, influential, and agile HR Business Partner Director to lead talent strategies for key Global Medicines Development (GMDA) functions at Vertex. This Director will play a critical role in achieving the GMDA vision of enhancing leadership, driving innovation, enabling top-tier execution, and integrating technology to achieve superior performance across a diverse development pipeline. This role will serve as a trusted advisor to GMDA leaders and their leadership teams, shaping organizational design, culture, and workforce strategies that enable clinical development innovation, execution and long term pipeline success. Reporting to the Lead HRBP for the Chief Medical Officer and the Global Medicines Development organization, this individual will sit on GMDA functional leadership teams and play a critical role in driving enterprise-wide HR initiatives and change leadership, enabling organizational effectiveness across clinical development functions. This role shapes and executes talent strategies that strengthen leadership, enable scientific excellence, and support Vertex’s mission to bring transformative therapies to patients.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic & Organizational Leadership
Serve as a thought partner to GMDA senior leadership; contribute to functional strategy with talent, organizational, and culture insights.
Anticipate organizational needs across development functions, recommending structure, capabilities, and workforce strategies to enable program success.
Lead organizational design efforts to support portfolio growth, regulatory milestones, country expansion, and long-range planning.
Use data and insights to influence decision-making around resourcing, span of control, efficiency, and succession.
Workforce Transformation, Automation & AI Enablement
Partner with GMDA leadership to rethink workforce design in light of emerging AI, automation, and technology, capabilities.
Assess roles, skills, processes, and organizational structures to identify opportunities for AI enabled efficiency, including workflow automation, data driven decision support, and elimination or redesign of low value manual work.
Collaborate with cross functional teams (e.g., DTE, Talent COE) to ensure GMDA organizations are future-ready with the right capabilities, spans/layers, and operating models.
Lead workforce planning efforts that incorporate AI-augmented job design, talent upskilling, and reskilling pathways to ensure teams can fully leverage new technologies.
Guide leaders through change adoption, ensuring employees have the mindset, tools, and capabilities needed to operate effectively in an increasingly automated and analytical environment.
Anticipate workforce impacts of new technology and partner closely with PX Advisors and relevant COEs when role changes may result from automation, applying all appropriate guidelines and internal processes.
Enterprise Talent Leadership
Lead annual talent cycles for GMDA functions: succession, performance, promotions, compensation, and leadership pipelines.
Ensure fair, consistent, behavior and results-based assessment practices, and partner with COEs to mitigate bias.
Coach leaders on talent investments, mobility, pipelines, and organizational bench strength.
Leader Coaching & Advisory
Serve as a trusted coach to senior GMDA leaders, enabling stronger people leadership, effective decision making, and high performance teams
Workforce Planning & Organizational Health
Lead multiyear capability planning tied to pipeline, regulatory filings, and lifecycle management
Analyze organizational health indicators, engagement data, talent flows, and workday talent insights to drive targeted action plans.
Shape GMDA workforce strategy to ensure alignment with global footprint, functional maturity, and scientific needs.
Compensation & Job Architecture Partnership
Advise leaders on job leveling, architecture, and compensation frameworks; partner with Compensation COE for annual processes.
Support consistent application of guidelines across GMDA teams, including global teams with diverse market norms.
Required Qualifications
10+ years progressive HR experience, including HRBP support for scientific, clinical, or highly regulated functions OR experience in an HR Center of Excellence (e.g. Organizational Design, Talent Development, etc.)
Deep experience advising senior leaders and leading enterprise talent processes.
Strong organizational design capability and experience navigating matrixed R&D organizations.
Ability to interpret complex business, scientific, and portfolio data to inform organizational decisions.
Demonstrated expertise in change leadership and coaching.
Excellent judgment, discretion, and relationship management skills.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience supporting global clinical development, PV/safety, biometrics, or GxP impacted teams.
Experience leading or supporting workforce transformation initiatives involving automation, digital enablement, or AI augmented work, ideally within clinical development, medical affairs, biometrics, or other scientific/regulated environments.
Background partnering with Digital/Tech, Data Science, or Analytics teams to understand technological impacts on roles, skills, org design, and future capability needs.
Master’s degree in HR, Business, Organizational Psychology, or related field.
Experience in high-growth biotechnology or pharmaceutical environments.
Pay Range:
$187,200 - $280,800Disclosure Statement:
The range provided is based on what we believe is a reasonable estimate for the base salary pay range for this job at the time of posting. This role is eligible for an annual bonus and annual equity awards. Some roles may also be eligible for overtime pay, in accordance with federal and state requirements. Actual base salary pay will be based on a number of factors, including skills, competencies, experience, and other job-related factors permitted by law.
At Vertex, our Total Rewards offerings also include inclusive market-leading benefits to meet our employees wherever they are in their career, financial, family and wellbeing journey while providing flexibility and resources to support their growth and aspirations. From medical, dental and vision benefits to generous paid time off (including a week-long company shutdown in the Summer and the Winter), educational assistance programs including student loan repayment, a generous commuting subsidy, matching charitable donations, 401(k) and so much more.
Flex Designation:
Hybrid-Eligible Or On-Site EligibleFlex Eligibility Status:
In this Hybrid-Eligible role, you can choose to be designated as:
1. Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week; or select
2. On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility.
Note: The Flex status for this position is subject to Vertex’s Policy on Flex @ Vertex Program and may be changed at any time.
#LI-Hybrid
Company Information
Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation.
Vertex is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a person's race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, or any characteristic protected under applicable law. Vertex is an E-Verify Employer in the United States. Vertex will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law.
Any applicant requiring an accommodation in connection with the hiring process and/or to perform the essential functions of the position for which the applicant has applied should make a request to the recruiter or hiring manager, or contact Talent Acquisition at [email protected]
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Vertex Pharmaceuticals and has not been reviewed or approved by Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
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Parental & Family Support — Policies provide 12 weeks of 100% paid bonding leave for all U.S. parents with additional fully paid time for birth parents. Family-forming supports include adoption and surrogacy assistance, fertility options like IVF and egg cryopreservation, breast‑milk shipping, subsidized childcare, backup care, and a DCFSA match.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off includes roughly four weeks of vacation, 13 holidays, sick time, and two companywide shutdowns (summer and year‑end). Some roles also include flexible or unlimited time off and paid volunteer time.
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Retirement Support — Programs include a 401(k) plan with employer contributions and an employee stock purchase plan. Filings describe employer contributions occurring in company stock, supporting long‑term ownership.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Insights
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What We Do
Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for people with serious and life-threatening diseases. We discovered and developed the first medicines to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (CF), a rare, life-threatening genetic disease. In addition to clinical development programs in CF, Vertex has more than a dozen ongoing research programs focused on the underlying mechanisms of other serious diseases. Founded in 1989 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, our corporate headquarters is now located in Boston’s Innovation District, and our international headquarters is in London, United Kingdom. We currently employ approximately 3,500 people in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and Latin America with nearly two-thirds of our staff dedicated to research and development. Vertex is consistently recognized as one of the industry’s top places to work by Science Magazine, The Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal and the San Diego Business Journal. Our research and medicines have also received esteemed recognitions, including the Robert J. Beall Therapeutics Development Award, the French Prix Galien and the British Pharmacological Society awards.
