Director, Technical Project Management (R&D)

Sabin Vaccine Institute is committed to making vaccines more accessible and improving lives through immunization. The Director, Technical Project Management, Vaccine Research & Development (R&D) is responsible for leading a team of technical Project Managers and ensuring effective project management practices in vaccine development programs.

Responsibilities:

• Lead, manage, coach, and develop a team of technical Project Managers supporting integrated vaccine development activities by fostering a high-performance culture rooted in accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement
• Set expectations for Project Management excellence, including planning discipline, meeting management, decision documentation, issue escalation, risk management, budget tracking, and reporting
• Build team capabilities through training, knowledge sharing, and cross-program learning opportunities
• Build individual capabilities within the team through mentoring, feedback, performance management, career development, and consistent use of tools and templates
• Foster a collaborative, accountable, inclusive team culture that supports transparency, constructive challenge, and continuous learning
• Serve as a role model and uphold principles of Program Governance
• Provide clear direction and feedback, supporting individual development plans and career progression
• Provide leadership oversight for direct reports interfaces with CDMOs, CROs, testing laboratories, consultants, academic partners, global health organizations, federal agencies, and other external stakeholders
• Partner with Program Managers and functional leaders to ensure technical Project Managers develop and maintain fit-for-purpose integrated plans, schedules, milestones, budgets, assumptions, risks, issues, dependencies, and decision records
• Provide review and feedback of team outputs to ensure high-quality and appropriate integration of functional, external partner, budget, schedule, and decision inputs
• Serve as an escalation point and thought partner for direct reports as well as Program Managers on complex planning, stakeholder alignment, and delivery challenges
• Guide direct reports in using scenario planning, dependency management, critical path analysis, trade-off assessment, and operational readiness planning
• Drive consistent use of project management tools, dashboards, templates, and operating rhythms to ensure alignment, visibility, accountability, and performance
• Ensure technical Project Managers provide timely, accurate visibility to deliverables, risks, issues, assumptions, and variances to support Program Manager decision-making and escalation
• Provide hands-on support and coaching for proposal planning, basis-of-estimate development, budget assumptions, and project controls, while building these capabilities within the team
• Contribute to strategic planning activities, providing insights into program performance, resource utilization, and potential implications for new opportunities and R&D initiatives
• Support the planning and delivery of organizational objectives/goals to ensure successful R&D-wide evolution in support of our mission
• Support R&D-wide efforts, including but not limited to routine and ad-hoc meeting planning and execution, reporting, and system/infrastructure building
• Participate in the development and refinement of project and program management tools which foster alignment, communication, and performance

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in a scientific field
• 12+ years of relevant biopharma, vaccine, biologics, or pharmaceutical experience, including significant project/program management and integrated product development experience
• Demonstrated experience leading, coaching, and developing Project Managers, including performance management, mentoring, and capability building
• Broad understanding of vaccine/biologic development across nonclinical, clinical, regulatory, and CMC disciplines, with sufficient technical fluency to identify dependencies, risks, trade-offs, and integration needs
• Strong financial acumen, including program budgeting, forecasting, accruals, variance analysis, basis-of-estimate development, earned value management/project controls, and schedule/cost performance tracking
• Experience with third-party vendors and partners, including CDMOs, CROs, testing laboratories, consultants, and academic or government collaborators
• Experience with pharmaceutical or vaccine governance practices, risk management, issue escalation, and executive-level reporting
• Advanced proficiency with MS Project and Smartsheet tools; strong proficiency with Microsoft 365 applications
• Excellent people leadership, communication, facilitation, influencing, and stakeholder management skills; ability to coach others to lead through ambiguity and operate effectively in a matrixed environment
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage competing priorities, confidential information, and time-sensitive deliverables; dependable and able to prioritize competing demands to meet deadlines
• Commitment to furthering Sabin's mission and contributing to a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and collaborative workplace
• Ability to travel approximately 10-20% domestically and internationally with notice
• Subject to a criminal background investigation
• Request for three professional references
• Verification of education/degrees
• Advanced degree and/or PMP certification strongly preferred
• Experience with programs funded by U.S. Government agencies, global health organizations, foundations, and/or non-profit funders preferred; familiarity with contractual deliverables, funder reporting, and audit-ready documentation highly valued