Director, GDO Trial Performance Intelligence & Strategy

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Job Description

Are you looking for a patient-focused, innovation-driven company to inspire you and empower you to shine? Join us as a Director, GDO Trial Performance Intelligence & Strategy based in Cambridge, MA reporting to the Executive Director, GDO Business Operations.

At Takeda, we are transforming the pharmaceutical industry through our R&D-driven market leadership and being a values-led company. To do this, we empower our people to work towards their potential through life-changing work. We offer stimulating careers, and work toward excellence in everything we do. We foster an inclusive, collaborative workplace, in which our global teams are united by an unwavering commitment to provide Better Health and a Brighter Future to people around the world.

Here, you will be a necessary contributor to our inspiring, bold mission.

GOALS:

The Director, Trial Performance & Intelligence Strategy is responsible for leading efforts to operationalize insights that improve business decision-making, with the goal of accelerating trial delivery, reducing costs, and enhancing the quality of trial execution. This person will:

• Set the enterprise vision and strategy for trial performance intelligence across GDO, aligning internal priorities with external benchmarks to improve portfolio outcomes and accelerate trial delivery.
• Lead the development of scalable business intelligence capabilities, operating models, and data governance to ensure trusted, reliable, and actionable insights.
• Translate complex data into executive-level insights that inform decision-making across R&D leadership and study teams.
• Embed insights into portfolio planning and study execution to drive measurable improvements in cost, quality, and speed.
• Build strong partnerships across internal and external stakeholders to drive adoption, focus on highest-value opportunities, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Define and own the enterprise vision and execution for trial performance intelligence, establish standardized KPIs, benchmarks, and success measures aligned to GDO, R&D, and external expectations.
• Lead portfolio-level evaluation of trial performance, identifying systemic risks, opportunities, and key drivers of outcomes, and ensuring prioritization of high-impact actions.

• Proactively identify strategic and tactical trial performance needs, assessing both long-term and short-term business impact.

• Drive the generation and application of clear, actionable insights from diverse data sources to inform study planning, execution, reporting, and operational decision-making across GDO & R&D.
• Translate complex business and scientific questions into insight-driven approaches, ensuring alignment between stakeholder needs and delivered outputs.
• Partner with global stakeholders and functional leaders, including GDO, DQS, TAUs, CROs, and other R&D functions, to ensure alignment, accountability, adoption, and sustained use of performance insights.
• Oversee delivery and scaling of high-impact insight initiatives, ensuring effective execution, integration of cross-functional expertise, and measurable business outcomes.

• Lead prioritization and investment decisions across trial performance and intelligence initiatives, ensuring focus on the highest-value opportunities aligned to GDO and R&D strategy.
• Embed trial performance insights into study planning, execution, and reporting to improve cost, quality and speed outcomes.

• Partner with data governance teams to enforce enterprise data governance and stewardship practices, ensuring consistent, reliable, and trusted data to support decision-making across GDO.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

• Advanced degree in a lifescience and/or healthcare -related field.
• 10 or more years’ experience working in pharmaceutical / biotechnology / healthcare / industry.
• Strong Operational experience in pharmaceutical drug development with significant direct exposure to clinical development.
• Strong communication, management, and organizational skills.
• Ability to effectively interact with and influence all levels of management.
• Experience working with IT partners and vendors for business solutions desired.
• Strong strategic thinking, planning, execution, and communication skills, ability to act at operational and strategic levels.
• Advanced knowledge of a subset of analytical approaches.
• Entrepreneurial and innovative; takes measured risks; thinks outside the box; challenges the status quo.
• Pragmatic and willing to drive and support change.
• Is comfortable with ambiguity.
• Support a culture of continual improvement and innovation; promote knowledge sharing.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS:

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