Posted Date: Jul 18 2023
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GSK R&D and Digital and Tech’s collective goal is to deliver business impact, including the acceleration the discovery and development of medicines and vaccines to patients. The R&D Digital and Tech remit has expanded over the past 2 years, and to position GSK for the future, there is an R&D driven need to have a specific focus on the latter stages of the vaccine and medicine development cycle known as CMC (Chemistry, Manufacture and Control) to power how GSK moves from two to four assets through the mid and late stage pipeline every year. As a result, R&D Digital and Tech, need to have a significantly expanded leadership role to focus specifically on CMC across all vaccine and medicine modalities that delivers seamless data collection, data collation and presentation to meet the R&D ambition for Digital, Data and Analytics (DDA) and the transfer of information to support the commercial manufacture during New Product Introduction (NPI). The change will strengthen R&D Digital & Tech; providing more strategic impact, focus, accountability, and improved decision making in using DDA to strengthen the pipeline.
The Head, CMC Digital & Tech is responsible for delivering a Digital & Tech investment over ~£40M/annum and oversees the delivery executed by a workforce of ~270 GSK and 3rd party colleagues. Technology is business critical for R&D from both a compliance and business continuity perspective, an enabler to accelerate medicines and vaccines development for patients, as well as a driver of efficient operations within R&D CMC functions.
The Head, CMC Digital & Tech is a trusted thought leader on Tech, Digital, Data, and Analytics to R&D Leadership Team and is single point accountable owner for relationship and Tech performance in clinical manufacture and clinical supply of medicines and vaccines to R&D, including single point accountability for supporting Narendra Bam, head of Medicines Development & Supply (MDS) and the Technical R&D (TRD) group of Phil Dormitzer’s Vaccines R&D organisation.
The Head, CMC Digital & Tech collaborates with the other leaders in R&D Digital & Tech, GSC Tech, GSC and R&D to have an aligned and deliverable strategy that enables the progression of four assets a year through CMC and seamless tech-transfer for launch and commercial manufacturing. The Head, CMC Digital & Tech will provide delivery oversight of the GLT prioritized CMC Digital, Data & Analytics strategy, which is also a workstream of the GSC 2030 transformation strategy. At the CMC Digital Council, this leader will make decisions that impact both the R&D and GSC Digital & Tech delivery roadmaps.
The Head, CMC Digital & Tech is responsible for integrating digital and technology systems leveraged by scientists, engineers and supply chain professionals within GSK’s laboratories and pilot plants, that includes experiment capture technologies, registration, inventory, materials management, digital twins and analytics, and integrated data products which capture and make data available in foundational layers of the scientific data environment and inform portfolio decisions. The leader works to standardize technology used throughout the laboratories and pilot plants, facilitating, and embedding data standards into scientific capture, and collaborates with data scientist and computational research leadership to ensure data captured can provide value for secondary research. The leader will also work to enable DDA solutions which improve R&D productivity, including the efficiency and experience of scientists. Digital & Tech roadmaps that underpin critical business processes in medicine and vaccine CMC are also maintained to ensure GSK functional lines maintain their license to operate.
The Head, CMC Digital & Tech will drive the strategy for a new investment in data engineering capability for GSK focussed on CMC. This industry-differentiated investment will ensure that all data engineering and data pipelining requirements are built to expose data across this scientific diaspora. This role requires a digital literacy necessary to attract, recruit, retain and grow a new engineering capability at GSK and will work seamlessly with the product ecosystem that unlocks the power of CMC data, and delivers the rapid insights required by R&D objectives.
The Head, CMC Digital & Tech will also be accountable for enabling a network of embedded R&D teams who directly manage applications as part of their scientific process for CMC (e.g., the Computer Sciences function in SIBS), providing expertise and help manage risk and enable compliance, quality, and robust application development, leveraging a risk-based approach to action.
The leadership role will partner closely with Discovery, Laboratory, Development, Research Data Platform, Global Supply Chain and Global Quality Digital & Tech divisions to ensure compliance with rapidly growing regulations (e.g., IDMP) and to also unlock new value opportunities in the identification and supply of new transformational medicines and vaccines.
The role is focused on delivering technology, digital, data and analytics strategy and products to the Medicine Development and Supply, and Vaccines R&D’s TRD functions globally. Products delivered are leveraged to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of these multiple functions. The role is a key thought leader in leveraging technology, data, and advanced analytics to drive digital solutions including business as usual, reinvention, and disruption. The role will lead continuous improvement of our product orientated capability (e.g., agile delivery, DevSecOps) and achieve full potential out of 3rd party strategic partners. The role will be accountable for relationship management of multiple R&D leadership teams. The role builds future leaders and provides coaching and support for direct reports to influence strategically on the R&D leadership teams (e.g., Medicine Development and Supply LT). A level of agility is required to ensure coordinated support between GSC Digital & Tech and CMC Digital & Tech around the launch of new medicine and vaccines products.
The role will participate in engagement at R&D sites throughout the world and supports over 5000 R&D employee end users.
The role provides leadership for GSK employees based in R&D Hubs, Tech Global Capability Centres, and oversees the delivery of 3rd party strategic partners (e.g. TCS, Accenture) and niche suppliers (e.g. Zifo). The role is accountable for a ~300 workforce, where external CW headcount is variable based on the investment plans. The leader leads a scaled and optimized model, ensuring strategic partners are leveraged and operate efficiently and compliantly. The leader manages a foundational internal capability while scaling externally for project work.
Key Responsibilities
Single point of accountability and technology advisor to Head of Medicine Development and Supply and Vaccines R&D business leadership with global operations. Collaborates with Global Supply Chain Tech, to ensure an enterprise approach to operational systems and data, especially in the areas of CMC, and clinical supplies.
Leads technology, data, and analytics strategy development in close collaboration with R&D CMC divisions, including creating the 3-year plan and capability assessments; partners with the R&D leadership team stakeholders to calculating ROI for technology investments and uses information to facilitate prioritization and decision making and enables digital experiments, as endorsed by the MDS and Vaccines leadership team and governing bodies (e.g., Technology Review Board, Vx Digital Council, CMC Digital Council).
Contributes to R&D Digital & Tech as a strategic, collaborative, and enterprise leader; raising organizational and capability issues, challenges as well as solutions and alternatives (e.g. provides input into the future digital health strategy, engagement of R&D Digital & Tech teams in Stevenage and Poznan, engagement throughout R&D Tech sites, leadership to accelerate culture change, including improvements to diversity and inclusion).
Drives the future into all CMC Digital & Tech products, always ready with digital “art of the possible”, integrating seamlessly technology, data, and advanced analytics into products and ensures systems are current (cyber and operational technology security) and robust (redundancy, scalability) and include latest features driving compliance in a heavily regulated business area.
Delivers innovative value by surfacing insights and identifying improvements to process and information flow, and moves the current state to the future, including leveraging cloud platforms, data and advanced analytics, and intelligent automation, scientific analytics.
Leads an organisation to always do the right thing with a focus on quality by design by managing execution of technology roadmap that delivers development and validation artefacts with high quality standards, and compliance (e.g. ITMS, GXP) and audit readiness.
Orientates technology components into products and elevates team to a product management way of working including relentless customer focus, agile delivery with value in quarterly increments, and fit-for-purpose technology solutions that makes it easier to develop medicines and vaccines, and impactful for patients. Additionally directs virtual teams who manages legacy applications to scale and manage with efficiency and compliance the legacy portfolio of applications.
Manages technology platforms like a business owner (e.g. Chief Product Manager), owning portfolio forecasts, and driving efficiency into teams and utilization of resourcing including consumption of licenses and 3rd party spend.
Coordinates external engagement and external innovation; ensure market trends are integrated into roadmap and communicated to R&D and Tech leadership team.
Support the development of strategic partnerships with technology leaders, including ensuring 3rd party vendors deliver to contractual terms and conditions and value.
Minimum Level of Job-Related Experience Required
Demonstrated credibility with R&D leaders at an executive level.
Experience translating business needs into technology solutions
Experience in software engineering, at a leading biopharma, cloud, or technology SaaS company.
Experience with latest technology and cloud systems, and specifics systems and technology relevant to R&D.
Experience with latest technology solutions, including scientific data capture, high performance computing, data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain and mobile.
Experience with compliance and regulations (e.g., GxP, data integrity, IT security, privacy)
Experience with business analysis techniques including analysing value streams with various methods (e.g., lean, kanban) to identify opportunity area, leveraging analysis for data-driven priority setting.
Experience with modern design techniques, including simulations and creative design-thinking sessions to spark imagination and ideas to solve customer problems.
Strong communication, and interpersonal skills, ability to influence senior leadership and decision-making using data and market evidence.
Relentless focus on delivering valuable outcomes and simplification with a passion for science and advancing medicines to patients.
A thought leader with external/industry presence including contributions to industry consortia which are prioritized by R&D Tech LT (e.g. PRISME).
GSK is a global biopharma company with a special purpose – to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together – so we can positively impact the health of billions of people and deliver stronger, more sustainable shareholder returns – as an organisation where people can thrive. Getting ahead means preventing disease as well as treating it, and we aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of 2030.
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