Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. 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
Skills
- 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
Benefits
- Comprehensive benefits package for eligible employees: medical coverage
- Comprehensive benefits package for eligible employees: dental coverage
- Comprehensive benefits package for eligible employees: vision coverage
- Flexible spending accounts
- Flexible vacation leave
- Sick leave
- Short-term disability options
- Long-term disability options
- 10 federal holidays
- End of the year winter break
- Employer matching 401(k) plan
- Location: Remote Work (US Only)
Company Overview