Senior Director - Strategic Project Lead

Business Introduction
GSK remains committed to achieving bold commercial ambitions for the future. By 2031, we aim to deliver £40 billion in annual sales, leveraging our existing strong performance momentum to significantly increase our positive impact on the health of billions of patients globally. Our Ahead Together strategy is centered on early intervention to prevent and alter the course of disease, thereby protecting people and supporting healthcare systems.

Our diverse portfolio consists of vaccines, specialty medicines, and general medicines. Through continuous innovation and a dedicated focus on scientific and technical excellence, we strive to develop and launch new, groundbreaking treatments that address critical health challenges.

Position Summary

GSK's R&D Digital & Tech (RDM DT) organization exists to accelerate the delivery of medicines and vaccines to patients by putting the right technology, data, and AI capabilities behind GSK R&D. You will act as the overall accountable leader for the Digital and Tech delivery of one or more large technology projects within the RDM DT portfolio of strategic programs — typically investments of £30m or more each — and own the governance, delivery, financial management, and value outcome reporting each program executes against. Your first program is likely to be GSK R&D's migration to, and adoption of, a single cloud capability from the two large strategic clouds in place today — a business-critical consolidation, expected to take 12–18 months, that underpins GSK's future cloud platform strategy and AI ambitions.

This is an enterprise transformation leadership role: program leadership comes first, and deep cloud engineering expertise is not required. Our cloud and technology partners will bring migration execution expertise; you will ensure delivery, quality, governance, and business outcomes, holding those partners accountable and operating with confidence alongside GSK's most senior leaders. You will define the outcomes, secure the funding, build the team, and modernize how we deliver through AI and automation, ensuring these Tech projects are delivered on time, in full (OTIF), and to budget, in turn enabling pipeline value delivery to GSK R&D.

Responsibilities

This role will provide YOU the opportunity to lead key activities to progress YOUR career. These responsibilities include some of the following:

• Partner with senior leaders and at all levels of the project team to define program outcomes and value, and gain business case approval.

• Operate with confidence at the executive level, giving CIOs, executive committees, and senior business and technology leaders the governance, status reporting, and strategic oversight they need to trust the program.

• Define the budget and secure funding, building a financial case that holds up with finance and executive sponsors, then managing spend within budget tolerance.

• Establish the governance that enables delivery — the decision rights, forums, and reporting cadence that keep stakeholders aligned and programs moving.

• Define and manage cross-functional risks and dependencies, tracking and resolving risks, issues, and dependencies across technology functions, vendors, and business partners.

• Build the project team, establishing the right structure and resourcing to deliver.

• Own major vendor relationships — selecting solution and delivery providers, defining contracts, and leading cloud providers, consulting partners, and technology suppliers with clear contract governance and commercial accountability so they deliver on their commitments.

• Hold partners accountable with credibility, navigating technical discussions with cloud providers such as Microsoft or Google and with internal technology leaders, and challenging plans, estimates, and quality where needed.

• Deliver on time and in full, partnering across technology functions to hit 100% of agreed milestones (OTIF).

• Maintain strong budget discipline, keeping project spend and headcount variance within agreed thresholds.

• Track value delivery against the approved business case, ensuring committed value is realized and reported clearly to senior leadership.

• Champion AI-enabled ways of working, adopting modern AI and automation delivery methodologies that free team capacity, drive efficiencies, and accelerate migration — and challenging vendors to deliver AI-supported efficiencies of their own.

• Ensure compliance by design, confirming that solutions delivered meet GSK policies and standards, including GxP where applicable.

• Protect information security, ensuring appropriate controls are maintained throughout the delivery of the program.

• Drive a quality transition of solutions into BAU, with ongoing support and maintenance in place.

• Role-model and promote GSK's culture, focusing on trust, psychological safety, collaboration, inclusion, and brilliant basics.

• Attract, develop, and support outstanding people, partnering to embed learning and development initiatives.

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