Job Description
Are you looking for a patient-focused, innovation-driven company that will inspire you and empower you to shine? Join us as a Specialist, Business Operations in our Cambridge office.
At Takeda, we are transforming the pharmaceutical industry through our R&D-driven market leadership and being a values-led company. To do this, we empower our people to realize their potential through life-changing work. Certified as a Global Top Employer, we offer stimulating careers, encourage innovation, and strive for excellence in everything we do. We foster an inclusive, collaborative workplace, in which our global teams are united by an unwavering commitment to deliver Better Health and a Brighter Future to people around the world.
Here, you will be a vital contributor to our inspiring, bold mission.
OBJECTIVES
The Specialist, Business Operations, will:
- Own and evolve key OTAU business operations workflows and alliance governance infrastructure, applying independent judgment to identify operational risks, design scalable solutions, and drive work that supports unit priorities.
- Use digital tools, AI, automation, and continuous-improvement practices to simplify processes, strengthen transparency, and improve stakeholder experience across a geographically distributed organization.
Partner with Alliance Management, Business Operations leadership, and cross-functional stakeholders to translate business priorities into structured operating models, decision-ready materials, and sustainable ways of working.
ACCOUNTABILITIES
Alliance Governance & Sub-Team Operations
Governance Meeting Operational Strategy & Execution for Defined Alliances
- Own the operating model for hybrid and in-person governance meetings, accounting for meeting objectives, stakeholder needs, confidentiality considerations, venue options, technical requirements, and risk points to design an effective meeting experience and resolve execution issues in real time.
- Partner with Alliance Managers to shape governance meeting readiness, identifying gaps in materials, decision inputs, and follow-up requirements.
- Manage the master governance calendar as a strategic planning tool across active alliances, proactively evaluating cadence needs, stakeholder availability, decision timelines, and operational conflicts to recommend adjustments and prevent governance gaps.
- Create and govern a searchable decision and action-management framework for defined alliances, ensuring decision rationale, ownership, risks, and outcomes are captured in a way that enables leadership visibility, accountability, and informed follow-through.
- Coordinate end-to-end alliance governance and sub-team meetings across global time zones, using judgment to anticipate governance risks, resolve scheduling and readiness barriers, and ensure forums are structured to support timely decision-making.
Governance Infrastructure & Digital Tools
- Lead the strategy, optimization, and deployment of alliance digital infrastructure, making recommendations on Teams, SharePoint, repository design, permissions, access governance, version control, and archival practices based on alliance needs, confidentiality requirements, and stakeholder workflows.
- Design and manage the alliance digital onboarding approach for Takeda and partner committee members, determining appropriate access, tool orientation, repository structure, and ways-of-working guidance based on each alliance’s governance model, confidentiality requirements, and collaboration needs.
Alliance Health & Reporting
- Partner with Alliance Management to define, interpret, and improve recurring governance health metrics across oncology alliances, translating operational signals into actionable insights that help Alliance Managers identify friction, prioritize interventions, and strengthen alliance effectiveness.
- Manage the operational design and execution of periodic alliance health surveys, including recommending survey approach, identifying response risks, synthesizing themes, and preparing insight summaries that inform Alliance Manager review and follow-up planning.
Business Operations
New Joiner/Leaver Employee Experience Management
- Own and continuously evolve OTAU’s new-joiner, offboarding, and employee-transition strategy as an integrated unit-wide experience, independently identifying transition risks, designing scalable solutions, aligning stakeholders, and driving improvements that accelerate ramp-up, preserve business continuity, and reduce operational disruption.
- Design, evaluate, and continuously improve standardized checklists, templates, trackers, and knowledge resources, using digital tools and automation to increase transparency, reduce manual effort, and improve consistency across employee-transition workflows.
Conference and Travel Budget & Approvals Management
- Own OTAU’s conference attendance request process end-to-end, independently managing intake, evaluating completeness and readiness, identifying decision points, preparing leadership review inputs, documenting outcomes, and improving the process based on recurring stakeholder needs and business priorities.
- Analyze recurring pain points, ambiguous decision criteria, and sources of rework, then recommend and implement process, tool, template, or guidance changes that improve stakeholder experience and strengthen operational consistency.
Core Business Process Management
- Own and optimize the Preclinical Oncology Request (PCOR) operating process, independently triaging complex external support requests, evaluating routing options, identifying decision points and bottlenecks, recommending process or ownership changes, and driving cross-functional resolution to improve predictability, accountability, and stakeholder experience.
- Own the operational governance of OTAU time-reporting compliance, analyzing patterns in code usage, identifying data-quality risks, determining appropriate interventions, advising stakeholders on corrective actions, and improving guidance and tools that support reliable resourcing algorithms and operational reporting.
- Develop and manage OTAU’s internal communication infrastructure, independently evaluating audience needs, information flows, channel effectiveness, and stakeholder feedback to improve distribution-list governance, communication quality, and engagement across OTAU’s digital collaboration channels.
- Develop and govern process guides, templates, trackers, repositories, and operating norms for assigned workflows, using judgment to determine when materials require revision, simplification, retirement, or escalation based on how the work is actually performed.
- Proactively identify opportunities to simplify OTAU workflows, evaluate feedback and post-process learnings, and implement AI-enabled or automated solutions that improve consistency, reduce manual effort, and support business priorities.
- Independently identify and drive operational support for emerging OTAU business priorities, clarifying objectives, assessing stakeholder needs, structuring the work, coordinating execution, and documenting outcomes.
EDUCATION, COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS
- Bachelor’s degree.
- 2-3 years’ experience in program or project coordination, cross-functional team operations, or alliance/partnership operations within pharma, biotech, or life sciences.
- Demonstrated initiative in independently identifying process improvements and introducing new tools or ways of working, including digital tools and ways of working.
- Demonstrated ability to exercise discretion and independent judgment in ambiguous, cross-functional operating environments, including independently identifying process improvements and introducing new digital tools or ways of working.
- Strong digital fluency across Microsoft 365, with the ability to evaluate and apply AI, automation, and collaboration tools to improve business operations. Proven track record coordinating complex, multi-stakeholder meetings and program activities across global time zones.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Sound judgment in handling highly confidential information.
- Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage competing priorities to deadline.
Takeda is proud in its commitment to creating a diverse workforce and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, parental status, national origin, age, disability, citizenship status, genetic information or characteristics, marital status, status as a Vietnam era veteran, special disabled veteran, or other protected veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws, and any other characteristic protected by law.
This position is currently classified as “hybrid” in accordance with Takeda’s Hybrid and Remote Work policy.
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About Us
Takeda is an industry-leading, global pharmaceutical company with an unwavering dedication to putting patients at the center of everything we do. We live our values of Takeda-ism – Integrity, Fairness, Honesty, and Perseverance – and are united by our mission to strive towards Better Health and a Brighter Future for people worldwide through leading innovation in medicine.
Here, everyone matters and you will be a vital contributor to our inspiring, bold mission. At Takeda, you will make an impact on people’s lives – including your own.
Takeda is an equal opportunity employer.
For applicants of U.S and Puerto Rico positions: Click [here ](https://www.takedajobs.com/eeo-statement)to learn about our commitment to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO). If you are limited in the ability to use our job application tool, or otherwise require a reasonable accommodation for a disability please click [here](https://www.takedajobs.com/accommodations-statement).
