Senior Manager, Process Operations & Product Management

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Objective / Purpose:

Support the Head of Process Optimization & Enablement in applying operational excellence and human-centered design to evaluate, redesign, and continuously improve the processes underpinning GPT (Global Program Team) ways of working and the broader R&D Operational Excellence function. This role combines process design expertise with technical acumen to translate business needs into scalable, technology-enabled solutions — automations, dashboards, and digital products — that improve insight generation, data usability, and operational efficiency. Working closely with Data, Digital & Technology (DD&T) and business stakeholders, the role stewards a practical, Lean-based optimization framework and moves teams beyond static documentation toward integrated, user-centric, digitally enabled solutions that balance enterprise standards with business flexibility.

Accountabilities:

1) Process Design & Improvement

• Evaluate current processes and ways of working for GPTs and R&D Operational Excellence functions, and partner with the Head of Process Optimization & Enablement and function owners to redesign prioritized processes against strategic needs.

• Identify possible opportunities where AI, automation, or digital tooling can reduce manual effort, accelerate cycle time, or improve quality — recommending what to automate versus keep human-in-the-loop, and the expected value.

• Incorporate automation, analytics, and emerging AI capabilities to support self-service and system-generated insights that improve decision-making and operational effectiveness.

• Reimagine static outputs (e.g., fixed dashboards) as flexible solutions that support both standardized reporting and user-driven data exploration.

2) Technology & Data Enablement

• Collaborate with business owners, DD&T, and data teams to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions for redesigned processes.

• Embed and optimize data within process implementations for structured, reusable inputs, ensuring alignment with enterprise data standards and governance.

• Identify and evaluate data sources critical to process improvement initiatives, assessing availability, accessibility, and usability.

• Hands-on development and delivery of technical prototypes and demos to validate process improvements, demonstrate new capabilities, and drive adoption.

• Partner with DD&T and data quality SMEs to uncover barriers to data access and establish frameworks that balance end-user flexibility with a single source of truth.

• Maintain accessible, well-governed process documentation — interconnected with related resources and structured for long-term version control — so functional leads can apply Process Optimization & Enablement methods independently.

3) Continuous Improvement & Adoption

• Lead follow-up on prototypes to capture lessons learned and refine solutions before broader rollout, keeping a clear line of sight from design intent to adoption and outcomes.

• Support and ensure post-implementation assessments are completed to capture value, ROI, and opportunities for continuous improvement.

• Represent process design work in working groups and governance forums on behalf of the Head of Process Optimization & Enablement.

4) Cross-Functional Enablement & Relationships

• Provide process design support and technical reference guides across R&D Operational Excellence functions, in alignment with the framework set by the Head of Process Optimization & Enablement.

• Partner with the Operations & Digital Enablement Lead to train peers and line function teams, building an internal process design capability that isn't dependent on any one individual.

• Define simple leading and lagging indicators (e.g., cycle time, rework, adoption, quality) that support periodic process health reviews, and recommend the next round of improvements.

• Build effective working relationships with GPT Enablement, CAPTIVATE process leads, R&D line function leaders, transformation program leads, and DD&T partners to ensure designs reflect real operating constraints and surface upstream/downstream dependencies.

Education & Competencies (Technical and Behavioral):

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree preferred, with 4-6+ years of experience in process design, business operations, data/analytics, or digital transformation.

• Strong, hands-on command of operational excellence and process improvement methodologies (e.g., value-stream mapping, metric development, root-cause analysis, RACI design, and Kaizen-style improvement events).

• Demonstrated experience supporting end-to-end process redesign in matrixed organizations — from current-state diagnosis through future-state design, pilot, rollout, and sustainment.

• Systems-thinking orientation, with the ability to see how a process sits inside a wider operating model and design processes that coherently accommodate upstream and downstream impacts.

• Experience with data platforms, analytics tools, or reporting environments (e.g., Power BI, data models), including a working understanding of how AI and automation can be applied to enterprise processes.

• Understanding of data governance, data standards, and data quality principles.

• Strong analytical orientation — comfortable defining simple process KPIs and using data to diagnose issues and quantify improvement.

• Able to operate across functions without direct authority and bring senior stakeholders along.

• Preferred: familiarity with cross-functional drug development execution, GPT ways of working, and portfolio/project/resource management processes within R&D.