Manager - R&D Strategy

Manager – R&D Strategy

Location: GSK House, Brentford UK or other GSK offices (flexible)

The R&D Strategy team is a dedicated unit within the R&D Strategy, Portfolio and Operations (SPO) function, whose “day-job” it is to think longer term about the ambition for R&D and its progress towards achieving it, as well as to identify external trends and understand the competitive landscape. We identify and provide recommendations on key questions informing the evolution of GSK’s R&D strategy. We will seek to determine current performance, set ambition and propose courses of action, through continuously accessing and interpreting external and internal data.

We are looking for an R&D Strategy Manager to work on core R&D strategy questions, collaborating with the strategy project lead, and senior leaders across GSK. Projects will vary significantly in nature and remit, though will typically last 3-4 months and result in concrete proposals and handover with a team responsible for strategy deployment. The Strategy Manager will be a core member of project teams within the Strategy team and will engage with senior R&D leaders and many groups across R&D, progressing rapidly from working within a small strategy project team to working on a project independently.

In 2022, the R&D Strategy team will be focused on:

• Delivering 2 impactful RDLT strategy retreats on most critical areas of strategy development resulting in clear, actionable plans and proposals; these strategy retreats are developed for and with GSK’s Chief Scientific Officer.
• Identifying and developing sub-strategies for specific key enablers of R&D performance, for example: 1) providing strategic guidance on portfolio shape and mix, informing technical and investment governance discussions, including on portfolio growth and size, 2) testing and refining of the R&D strategy in a specific TA, or 3) assessing how GSK identifies and develops future innovation and manage the lag between demand and ready-to-use technology.
• Ensuring endorsed recommendations resulting from past strategy work transition effectively to implementation, led by functional teams or Operations.

Career progression:The R&D Strategy Team has been a feeder group for key talent at GSK, and allows for exposure to many different parts of the business, as well as exposure to senior leaders across the organization. A successful Manager in the R&D Strategy team will have numerous progression opportunities within GSK, both within the strategy team, or with a move to other business lines.

Why you?

Basic Qualifications:

We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:

• Required Education: Degree level in Life Sciences, Business, or other relevant areas (PhD, MBA or other post-graduate degrees preferred)
• Strategy consulting experience from a top-tier strategy consulting firm, or similar experience
• Ability to both think strategically, working at a global level, and to dive deep into operational issues when required, moving quickly between the two levels of working with a sense of urgency
• Ability to manage ambiguity and develop clear, informed strategies from vast and complex datasets
• Excellent communication skills; ability to convey ideas simply and compellingly
• Solid analytical skills and the ability to manipulate complex data, propose and test hypothesis and challenge assumptions
• Rigorous project management, and ability to engage senior stakeholders with a good balance of EQ and IQ
• R&D experience, or broad understanding with strong curiosity paired with demonstrated learning agility

Why GSK?

Our values and expectations are at the heart of everything we do and form an important part of our culture.

These include Patient focus, Transparency, Respect, Integrity along with Courage, Accountability, Development, and Teamwork. As GSK focuses on our values and expectations and a culture of innovation, performance, and trust, the successful candidate will demonstrate the following capabilities:

• Agile and distributed decision-making – using evidence and applying judgement to balance pace, rigour and risk
• Managing individual and team performance.
• Committed to delivering high quality results, overcoming challenges, focusing on what matters, execution.
• Implementing change initiatives and leading change.
• Sustaining energy and well-being, building resilience in teams.
• Continuously looking for opportunities to learn, build skills and share learning both internally and externally.
• Developing people and building a talent pipeline.
• Translating strategy into action - a compelling narrative, motivating others, setting objectives and delegation.
• Building strong relationships and collaboration, managing trusted stakeholder relationships internally and externally.
• Budgeting and forecasting, commercial and financial acumen.

As a company driven by our values of Patient focus, Transparency, Respect and Integrity, we know inclusion and diversity are essential for us to be able to succeed. We want all our colleagues to thrive at GSK bringing their unique experiences, ensuring they feel good and to keep growing their careers. As a candidate for a role, we want you to feel the same way.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are open to all talent. In the US, we also adhere to Affirmative Action principles. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race/ethnicity, colour, national origin, religion, gender, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, genetic information, military service, covered/protected veteran status or any other federal, state or local protected class*(*US only).

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to discuss any adjustments to our process which might help you demonstrate your strengths and capabilities. You can either call us on 0808 234 4391, or send an email ukdiversity.recruitment@gsk.com

As you apply, we will ask you to share some personal information which is entirely voluntary. We want to have an opportunity to consider a diverse pool of qualified candidates and this information will assist us in meeting that objective and in understanding how well we are doing against our inclusion and diversity ambitions. We would really appreciate it if you could take a few moments to complete it. Rest assured, Hiring Managers do not have access to this information and we will treat your information confidentially.

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