Position Summary
GSK is making an $800M+ investment in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility that will strengthen future supply, advance pharmaceutical innovation, and help set a new benchmark for operational excellence. This is a rare opportunity to work on $650MM+ capital project from the ground up and contribute to a transformative program with strategic importance for GSK and the patients we serve.
The Portfolio & Program Manager will provide program-level leadership for end-to-end readiness planning and execution for new facility introduction. This role will integrate complex cross-functional workstreams into a single, executable readiness plan; drive governance discipline; identify acceleration opportunities; and establish the GPS, digital, and operating system foundations required for operational excellence from day one. Working in close partnership with construction, commissioning, quality, supply, procurement, technology transfer, automation/digital, and operations leaders, the role will ensure the site is prepared for handover, PPQ, and facility approval through disciplined execution of SOPs, training, tech transfer alignment, incoming materials readiness, procurement delivery, and proactive risk management.
This role is designed for a leader who can bring clarity, pace, and accountability to a complex manufacturing start-up environment. The successful candidate will influence 9 different workstreams and cross functions, translate strategic priorities into executable plans, and enable a safe, compliant, and sustainable transition from project delivery to operational performance. Key responsibilities include:
1. Integrated Operational Readiness Planning & Schedule Leadership
Develop, maintain, and govern the integrated operational readiness master schedule across SOPs, technology transfer, GPS, incoming materials, procurement, digital readiness, and related workstreams, ensuring alignment with the Integrated Master Schedule and critical path.
Drive schedule convergence and acceleration by identifying dependencies, sequencing conflicts, resource constraints, and pull-forward opportunities; lead weekly lookahead planning and escalation of overdue or at-risk deliverables.
Establish readiness stage-gates, define entry and exit criteria, and align stakeholders on evidence-based readiness decisions at critical program milestones.
2.Cross-Functional Workstream Integration
SOPs & Document Readiness
Lead prioritization, drafting, field shakedown, review, and approval planning for SOPs and supporting documents required to enable shopfloor readiness.
Define clear document strategy and ownership across SOPs, eBR/MES content, and local instructions; maintain an integrated document tracker aligned to the master schedule.
Oversee closure of safety, HAZOP, and risk assessment actions, ensuring accountable owners, timely completion, and appropriate escalation where required.
Coordinate across functions to ensure outstanding safety, compliance, and risk-related actions are resolved and communicated effectively.
Tech Transfer / Readiness Interface
Ensure operational readiness deliverables remain aligned with technology transfer plans, donor site inputs, QC method transfer planning, and facility approval requirements.
Integrate key technology transfer and QC readiness milestones into site governance, leadership reporting, and decision forums.
Provide oversight of change control readiness to ensure regulatory alignment, efficient execution, and delivery against established timelines.
Continuously improve change management practices by reinforcing ownership, decision quality, and timely execution in support of program objectives.
Incoming Materials & Supply Readiness
Coordinate supplier transparency, material master data readiness, BOM redlines, and incoming materials strategy to support commissioning, start-up, and PPQ readiness.
Ensure materials readiness is integrated with eBR/MES requirements, procurement lead times, and facility start-up sequencing.
Procurement & Package Readiness
Track procurement readiness for critical packages, identify readiness blockers, and coordinate mitigation where procurement timing may affect the critical path.
Partner with engineering and project teams to ensure procurement deliverables support FAT/SAT, commissioning, start-up, and operational readiness requirements.
Smart Manufacturing Deployment
Integrate smart manufacturing and digital readiness activities across workstreams to improve process visibility, data-driven decision-making, automation readiness, and operational control.
Collaborate with IT, engineering, automation, and operations partners to deploy advanced manufacturing systems, including MES/eBR, real-time analytics, IoT-enabled capability, and digital twin foundations where applicable.
3. Risk, Issue, and Dependency Management
Lead the operational readiness risk and issue management rhythm, including identification, assessment, mitigation planning, ownership, and escalation.
Maintain and govern the project risk register, ensuring mitigations have clear owners, due dates, escalation paths, and schedule integration.
Facilitate recurring risk reviews and ensure lessons learned are translated into stronger schedules, training plans, controls, and readiness deliverables.
4. Successful handover - Manage and track all handover process and documentation from global capital team.
5. Dashboards, Metrics, and Tier Governance
Develop and maintain readiness dashboards, tier boards, and scorecards covering safety, quality, supply, schedule conformance, and critical path performance.
Define and implement KPI reporting discipline for weekly governance and monthly leadership updates, ensuring data integrity and clear linkage to decisions and actions.
Track readiness KPIs such as right-first-time execution, schedule adherence, critical path health, and risk mitigation progress; drive countermeasures through tier governance.
Key Deliverables
Integrated Operational Readiness Master Schedule that is workstream-aligned, dependency-mapped, and critical-path aware.
Workstream dashboards and tier governance reporting package for weekly execution reviews and monthly leadership forums.
Operational readiness risk register stewardship, with mitigation tracking, ownership, and escalation discipline.
Readiness stage-gates, criteria, decision forums, and readiness review facilitation.
Executive-ready summaries covering RAG status, critical path impacts, top risks, key dependencies, and decisions required.
Success Measures
Conformance to schedule: late task percentage and adherence to weekly plan / tier commitments.
Critical path milestone adherence: no overdue items impacting critical path.
Right-First-Time execution across readiness execution activities (e.g., readiness reviews, transfers, start-up preparations).
Risk closure rate and timely mitigation execution; reduced number of unmitigated high risks.
Quality and compliance readiness at key stage-gates (audit/inspection readiness indicators as defined by the program).
Why You?
Basic Qualifications
We are looking for a senior and experienced program leader who can operate effectively in a complex, regulated manufacturing environment and translate strategy into disciplined execution. Required qualifications include:
BS/BA in Engineering, Business, Life Sciences, Operations, Supply Chain, or a related field; MS or MBA preferred for senior-level scope.
6+ years of experience in project, portfolio, or program management, ideally within manufacturing, operations, supply, quality, or regulated technical environments.
3+ years of experience in effective planning, managing and tracking projects and portfolio in Microsoft Projects, Power-BI Dashboards and other PMO software.
Preferred Qualifications
The following capabilities would further strengthen success in this role:
Experience of working in pharmaceutical companies.
New facility introduction, expansion, or capital project experience, with operational readiness executed in parallel with construction and commissioning.
Demonstrated program or portfolio management experience, including integrated schedules, dependency management, critical path governance, and leadership reporting.
Experience leading cross-functional readiness, launch, or operationalization programs in regulated manufacturing environments.
Strong risk and issue management discipline, including risk registers, mitigation ownership, escalation, and decision tracking.
Executive-ready communication skills, including concise dashboards, narrative updates, decision framing, and clear escalation messaging.
Familiarity with tier-based management systems, shopfloor governance, GPS, and performance management cadence.
Lean or Six Sigma experience, particularly where continuous improvement, deployment, or standard work is expected.
Exposure to digital manufacturing readiness, including MES/eBR coordination, master data, automation, analytics, or related digital foundations.
What We Value
At GSK, we value integrity, respect, quality, and the ambition to keep improving for patients. This role requires a leader who can operate with enterprise thinking, build trust across functions, simplify complexity, and create momentum in a fast-moving environment. We are looking for someone who brings ownership, sound judgment, inclusive collaboration, and the ability to turn strategy into measurable execution.
Ready to Apply?
If you are motivated by the opportunity to lead operational readiness for a strategically important new manufacturing facility and help define how it performs from day one, we would welcome your application. Please share how your experience can help deliver a safe, compliant, inspection-ready, and operationally excellent facility introduction.
Skills
Communication, Cross-Departmental Collaboration, Decision Making, Financial Acumen, Innovation, Leadership, Project Controls, Project Management, Project Management Governance, Project Planning, Project Tracking, Risk Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Leadership
Please visit GSK US Benefits Summary to learn more about the comprehensive benefits program GSK offers US employees.
Why GSK?
Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.
GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale.
People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.
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