Why Patients Need You
Pfizer Worldwide Medical and Safety colleagues play a key role in connecting evidenced based, medical decision support with colleagues and stakeholders to enable better health and treatment outcomes. Whether you are creating framework necessary to ensure our evidence is scientifically sound, providing unbiased, medically necessary expertise or investigating how to close gaps in data, our mission is simple. Empower healthcare decisions regarding the safe and appropriate use of medicines for patients.
ROLE SUMMARY
Supports the Program Director in providing overall project management for Vaccine Research and Development (VRD) program teams in the development of new vaccines from Research through product registration to ensure alignment of strategic and operational objectives.
A Program Manager possesses a comprehensive knowledge of vaccine/drug development, resource management concepts, associated business processes, and project planning software and applies skills and general vaccine/drug development knowledge to contribute to the achievement of team or department goals.
A Program Manager typically works within a cross-functional team environment but may lead/co-lead moderately complex sub-team initiatives.
A Program Manager plays a key supportive role in scenario planning, supports several clinical or regulatory workstreams/ timelines within a program.
May lead operational subteams to ensure that the operational deliverables of the program are achieved on or ahead of schedule and within cost standards such that they meet the desired product profile (i.e. quality standard, value), business deliverables and/or key decision required.
A Program Manager is expected to use a variety of communication methods and reporting/analytical tools to communicate critical project information to Portfolio Operations, asset, development/project and protocol teams, partner lines and others to support information updates to enable team, line and portfolio decision making.
ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES
Program Strategy:
- Collaborates with Program Leader(s) and Program Director to develop program plan that encompasses the overall strategy for the development of the vaccine in all indications ensuring alignment among the overall strategic, operational and line plans
Program planning:
- Applies technical, team and line knowledge along with comprehensive scheduling knowledge to contribute to the achievement of work team deliverables.
- Translates team’s strategic objectives into operational plans; provides insight into operational feasibility of proposed strategies
- Drives cross-functional and cross-geographic alignment with strategic plans and goals
- Identifies and flags internal or external risks/impacts to strategies and plans; leads subteams in characterizing the impacts and revises plans, as appropriate
- Monitors progress of project activities towards next project milestone, anticipates and highlights potential variances, supports line/team in critical path analyses and understanding the impact, and partners with the Program Director and the program team to identify/recommend solutions to schedule risk
- Ensures development plans for all indications in a program are in place and kept current
- Ensures operational plans align with and support strategic plans
- Ensures that cost, time and quality parameters are clearly outlined in the plans
- Ensures plans/timelines are up to date in Pfizer systems (Planisware, Snapshot, Glue)
- Drives creation of development plans, ensuring discrete deliverables are well characterized with associated timing, resources, quality parameters, interdependencies across lines, and risk and mitigation plans in collaboration with Program Director
- Ensures plans are realistic in terms of time and resources required
- Supports the process for evaluation, optimization and planning of alternative operational options
- Performs scenario planning of project timelines to ensure efficient delivery of project milestones.
- Ensures cross-functional team commitment to the plans
- Supports negotiations in the allocation of line resources to support the endorsed development plan.
- Partners with Program Director to develop the VRD budget for the vaccine development plans, in partnership with the program team and VRD Operations
Program Execution and Delivery:
- Supports delivery of development plans in alignment with the program team strategies
- Partners with key team members (Clinical, Vaccine Research, BioTx Pharmaceutical Sciences, Regulatory, DSRD, Commercial Development, Clinical Operations, etc.) to manage the program to achieve key milestones within time, cost and quality parameters.
- Helps drive and monitor the delivery of the plans, anticipating and managing issues that arise and bringing forward options for resolution
- Contributes to risk management through the identification of operational and project/program risks for discussion with appropriate team leadership. Proposed solutions or options to de-risk projects may require developing new options to resolve moderately complex issues
- Supports Program Director to work with program teams in operational risk/opportunity and mitigation identification and ensures that such activities are conducted regularly
- Documents risk plan and communicates to all stakeholders
- Facilitates and supports program team, extended team and subteam functioning
- Coordinates and publishes agendas, minutes, and general program team meeting support
- Manages communications for the program team
- Manages meetings and communications of cross-functional subteams, as appropriate
- Participates in team goal setting and monitors progress on team goals
- Knows how to obtain information for the team on company, BioTxPS and VRD processes related to program planning
- Understands governance requirements and facilitates program team interactions with governance, as appropriate
- Monitors team performance, identifies issues and partners with Program Leader(s) and/or Program Director to recommend and develop appropriate action
Information & Communication Management:
- Communicates program and project plans to program team members, governance and VRD leadership, as appropriate
- Provides timely information related to the plans to the program team members
- Utilizes available reporting and visualization tools to support governance and team reporting needs (e.g. Onepager, Think-cell, PowerPoint, etc.).
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree required in one of the disciplines related to vaccine/drug development or business; advanced scientific or business degree is desirable.
- Knowledge of the project management discipline and its application to vaccine/drug development is desirable
- PMP is preferred
- In general candidates for this job would have the following levels of experience:
- BS 5+ years
- MS 3+ years
- At least 3 years of applicable experience in project management and at least 5 years of applicable pharmaceutical industry experience, including:
- Experience with negotiating the environment of a highly matrix-based organization to deliver against moderately complex program plans
- Knowledge of processes associated with executing vaccine/drug development plans
- Knowledge of issues that drive development of vaccine/drug products
- Demonstrated ability to effectively implement the tools and techniques of the project management discipline
- Record of achievement and delivery of personal and team goals
- Technical experience in a discipline associated with vaccine/drug development
- Experience in budgetary management
Technical Skills:
- Possesses scientific/technical knowledge in vaccine development; Required to establish credibility with program team members and senior management
- Has ability to understand:
- Organization
- Business
- Program
- Internal processes
- External processes
- Proven track record of effective team management skills
- Demonstrated oral and written communication skills.
- Must be able to create an environment for collaborative work necessary for the team to be effective (e.g. appreciating different points of view).
- Knowledge of project management discipline and its application to vaccine development
- Proven track record of planning or managing moderately complex projects
- Experience with relevant project management tools (e.g. Microsoft Project, Planisware)
- Proficiency in the use of word processing, Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint.
- **People skills** - Required to achieve the program goals in a matrix team setting
- Motivation without direct authority
- Collaborative skills
- Influence/negotiation
- Project management, e.g., facilitation
ADDITIONAL DETAILS:
- Last date to apply is July 25, 2026
- Work Location Assignment: **This is a hybrid role requiring you to live within commuting distance and work on-site an average of 2.5 days per week.**
