Takeda

Director, Strategy & Operations GI2

Takeda$177K — $278K *
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree preferred (MBA, MS, or related graduate degree).
  • Minimum of 10 years relevant business experience in strategy, operations, or commercial leadership.
  • Experience in U.S. pharmaceutical, biotech, rare disease, specialty, or complex healthcare markets.
  • Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and manage complex projects.
  • Strong financial acumen with expertise in budgeting, resource allocation, and performance tracking.
  • Excellent executive communication skills for developing presentations and strategic narratives.

Responsibilities

  • Serve as a strategic advisor to the SVP, providing insight on BU priorities and operational effectiveness.
  • Drive the operational cadence, including team agendas and governance processes.
  • Lead planning and execution of strategic initiatives, ensuring clarity in ownership and deliverables.
  • Monitor strategic priorities, identifying risks and opportunities while developing metrics for tracking.
  • Coordinate external engagement activities with HCPs and advocacy to enhance business relations.
  • Collaborate with Finance and BU leaders for effective budget management and resource allocation.
  • Develop clear communications for executives, translating complex strategies into understandable messages.

Benefits

  • Hybrid work model based in Cambridge, MA.
  • Periodic domestic and international travel (up to 20%).
  • Opportunities for professional development and leadership coaching.
Full Job Description
Job Description

About the role:

The Director, Strategy & Operations reports directly to the SVP, Head of Gastrointestinal & Inflammation Business Unit and serves as a strategic advisor and operating partner to the GI² leadership team. This role drives the operating framework, governance, prioritization, and execution of key BU-wide strategic initiatives to enable effective decision-making, operational discipline, and cross-functional alignment across the business. The Director ensures visibility to critical priorities, risks, dependencies, financial considerations, and execution progress, while leading integrated planning and operational management for the Business Unit. This is a hybrid role based in Cambridge, MA.

How you will contribute:

Serves as a strategic advisor and operating partner to the SVP, Head of GI², providing thought partnership on BU priorities, operating model effectiveness, strategic initiatives, budget considerations, and leadership team decision-making.
  • Drives the GI² operating cadence, including leadership team agendas, governance forums, decision-making processes, follow-up actions, and integration of BU priorities into USBU executive planning and reporting.
  • Leads the planning, coordination, and execution of BU-wide strategic initiatives and special projects, ensuring clear ownership, milestones, deliverables, and escalation pathways.
  • Monitors progress against strategic priorities, identifying risks, dependencies, gaps, and opportunities; develops metrics, dashboards, and executive-level updates to enable timely decisions and course correction.
  • Leads executive external engagement activities, partnering with cross-functional teams to execute congress and conference strategies, coordinate HCP and patient advocacy engagements, and oversee field visits that strengthen stakeholder relationships and support business priorities
  • Partners with Finance and BU leaders to support budget planning, resource allocation, financial tracking, and effective management of investments across the GI² BU.
  • Develops executive-level communications that translate business strategy, priorities, performance, and organizational updates into clear, consistent messaging for internal and cross-functional audiences.
  • Builds strong cross-functional partnerships across USBU, Finance, HR, Communications, and other key functions to remove barriers, align stakeholders, and advance enterprise priorities.
  • Leads, coaches, and develops direct reports, ensuring clear priorities, accountability, capability building, and effective delivery of strategy and operations support across the BU


Technical/Functional (Line) Expertise
  • Demonstrated experience translating business priorities into actionable strategies, operating plans, and measurable execution outcomes.
  • Proven ability to partner with commercial, medical, finance, HR, communications, and cross-functional teams to drive strategy implementation and operational improvements.
  • Strong project management, financial acumen, analytics, reporting, and executive dashboard capabilities, including resource planning, budget tracking, and performance measurement.

Leadership
  • Strong enterprise mindset with the ability to influence across a matrixed organization and align senior stakeholders around shared priorities.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity, exercise sound judgment, and drive disciplined execution in a dynamic business environment.
  • Proven people leadership capability, including setting direction, coaching talent, building capability, and fostering accountability.

Decision-making and Autonomy
  • Ability to manage multiple high-priority initiatives simultaneously while maintaining a clear view of strategic implications, risks, dependencies, and tradeoffs.
  • Uses sound judgment and business insight to assess complex issues, recommend options, and support timely executive decision-making.
  • Proactively seeks diverse input and data-driven insights to inform strategy, improve execution, and solve complex business challenges.

Interaction
  • Builds trusted relationships with senior leaders and cross-functional partners to influence decisions, resolve barriers, and enable effective execution.
  • Fosters a culture of accountability, simplicity, collaboration, empowerment, external orientation, and curiosity.

Innovation
  • Identifies opportunities to improve operating processes, governance, reporting, and systems to increase leadership team effectiveness and BU performance.


Minimum Requirements/Qualifications:

Required
  • Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree such as MBA, MS, or related graduate degree preferred.
  • Minimum of 10 years of relevant business experience, including strategy, operations, commercial leadership, project management, or business planning experience.
  • Experience in the U.S. pharmaceutical, biotech, rare disease, specialty, or complex healthcare market environment.
  • Demonstrated success leading cross-functional initiatives, managing complex projects, and influencing senior stakeholders in a matrixed organization.
  • Strong financial acumen, including budget planning, resource allocation, performance tracking, and business case development.
  • Excellent executive communication skills, including ability to develop clear presentations, leadership updates, and strategic narratives.


Preferred
  • Experience working directly with senior executives or leadership teams in a strategy, operations, chief-of-staff, or business planning capacity.
  • People leadership experience with demonstrated ability to coach, develop, and manage talent.
  • Strong business intelligence, analytics, reporting, and visualization capability.
  • Demonstrated ability to operate independently, anticipate business needs, manage ambiguity, and drive results in a fast-paced environment.
  • Strong judgment, enterprise mindset, discretion, and ability to manage confidential and sensitive information.


TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS: Periodic domestic and international overnight travel may be required up to 20%

For Location:
USA - MA - Cambridge - Kendall Square - 500

U.S. Base Salary Range:
$177,000.00 - $278,080.00

The estimated salary range reflects an anticipated range for this position. The actual base salary offered may depend on a variety of factors, including the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, specific and unique skills, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. The actual base salary offered will be in accordance with state or local minimum wage requirements for the job location.

For information about our benefits, please click here.

Locations
USA - MA - Cambridge - Kendall Square - 500

Worker Type
Employee

Worker Sub-Type
Regular

Time Type
Full time

Job Exempt
Yes

About Takeda

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited is a global pharmaceutical company that develops and markets pharmaceutical products. The company's products are used to treat a wide range of medical conditions, including cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, respiratory diseases, and cancer. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited was founded in 1781 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company has operations in more than 80 countries and employs more than 49,000 people worldwide.
Learn more about Takeda
Size
47,347 employees
Market Cap
$48.2 billion
Industry
Founded
1781
5 Year Trend
+15.6%
NASDAQ

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