Director, Portfolio Planning & Capacity Management

Director, Portfolio Planning & Capacity Management

Gaithersburg, MD

Global Portfolio & Project Management

Hybrid Work- on average 3 days/week in office

Gaithersburg is the preferred location for this role, however, applicants from Cambridge, Boston, Barcelona and Mississauga will also be considered.

AstraZeneca Oncology is leading a revolution to redefine cancer care with a portfolio of launched products providing transformative outcomes for patients around the world and a full suite of modalities fuelling future innovative treatments. In Global Portfolio and Project Management (GPPM), we play a critical role in advancing the pipeline by closely partnering with Research & Development, Commercial and Operations to support decision-making, project management, resource management and governance across the AstraZeneca portfolio. Come join a team-oriented and fast-paced environment that requires integrity, problem solving and agility!

The Director, Portfolio Planning & Capacity Management owns the Quarterly Business Review process for GPPM oncology, orchestrates the annual scorecard cycle through collaboration with the Portfolio Leads, leads forward-looking capacity planning across the Oncology pipeline, and serves as the primary GPPM partner to Clinical Operations. Reporting to the Head of Oncology Portfolio Strategy and Management, you'll ensure that portfolio ambition is always grounded in operational and financial reality, and that the Oncology R&D organisation can effectively deploy its resources aligned to the portfolio priority with agility.  

What you'll do

Portfolio Planning and Business Cycle Integration 

• Build and maintain an integrated view of planning, capacity, and resources across the full Oncology pipeline, enabling leadership to make confident data-driven decisions about where to invest, where to flex, and where to make trade-offs  

• Own the Scorecard and Oncology Quarterly Business Review (QBR) process in partnership with finance and portfolio leads, integrating inputs from portfolio leads, Clinical Operations, and Finance to produce accurate and timely outputs for Oncology leadership 

Clinical Operations Partnership and Portfolio Deliverables 

• Serve as the primary GPPM partner to Clinical Operations, working closely with the Clinical Operations analytics team to build and maintain a single source of truth for portfolio-level operational data (active patients, studies, sites) for QBR 

• Ensure clinical delivery metrics are consistently integrated into QBR and portfolio performance reporting, providing leadership with a clear, real-time picture of pipeline delivery. Partner with Clinical Operations to improve data and reporting quality 

Capacity Planning, Resource Strategy and Finance Partnership 

• Lead forward-looking R&D capacity and resource planning across the Oncology pipeline, translating milestones and portfolio scenarios into a clear view of demand and resourcing, highlighting bottlenecks 

• Act as the primary liaison between GPPM and functional capacity leads, orchestrating the processes that surface resource constraints and demand signals at portfolio level 

• Build a strong working partnership with Finance, ensuring resource and capacity planning assumptions are aligned with financial planning cycles and portfolio investment decisions 

• Provide Finance with clear, well-structured resource and capacity inputs that support Annual Business Cycle deliverables including Long-Term Planning and Phased Budget 

• Drive consistency in capacity planning methodologies, assumptions, and timelines across functions across TAs, acting as the process owner for how resource and capacity information flows into portfolio governance 

• Partner with project managers and Portfolio Leads to ensure resource plans reflect portfolio priorities and investment decisions 

Process Redesign and Enterprise Partnership 

• Work with enterprise-facing teams, including GPPM, R&D COO, Clinical Operations, Finance, and Enterprise AI teams to redesign and simplify how planning, resourcing, and reporting processes are structured and delivered 

• Find opportunities and execute on initiatives to simplify the process, leverage system and automation, increase transparency and modernise ways of working, including the thoughtful use of digital and AI-enabled tools 

• Engage senior stakeholders with confidence, translating planning complexity into clear, decision-useful outputs and narratives 

Essential for the role

• Bachelor's of Arts or Science and 8 years of experience with focus in life science or consulting
  OR 

• Master's in Science/MBA and 5+ years of experience with focus in life science or consulting
  OR 

• PhD or MD and 3+ years of experience with focus in life science or consulting

• Significant experience working within a global biopharmaceutical environment, with a strong understanding of drug development, portfolio management, and R&D business planning cycles 

• Proven ability to own and manage complex cross-functional processes, delivering integrated outputs on time and to a high standard 

• Strong analytical capability with the ability to synthesise resource, capacity, and portfolio data into clear, decision-ready insight 

• Experience working in partnership with Finance, Clinical Operations, or equivalent enterprise functions in a complex, global organisation 

• Excellent stakeholder management, able to build trusted relationships, influence, and drive alignment across functions and seniority levels 

• Strong communication skills, able to translate operational complexity into clear, executive-level outputs 

• Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity and manage multiple competing workstreams simultaneously 

• Strong business insight; commitment to the Oncology purpose; curiosity about the portfolio and understanding of priorities

• Ability to work with enterprise-facing teams to redesign and simplify processes

• Demonstrated curiosity and openness to AI-enabled tools and experience in simplifying  ways of working 

Desirable for the role

• Experience working at the interface of resource and capacity management and portfolio strategy, and experience with enterprise portfolio and capacity planning systems (e.g. PLANIT or equivalent) 

• Direct experience managing QBR, scorecard, and Annual Business Cycle processes 

• Track record of driving process redesign and simplification in a complex, matrixed environment 

Office Working Requirements
 

When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That’s why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn’t mean we’re not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

The annual base pay for this position ranges from $172,466.40 - 258,699.60 USD. Our positions offer eligibility for various incentives—an opportunity to receive short-term incentive bonuses, equity-based awards for salaried roles and commissions for sales roles. Benefits offered include qualified retirement programs, paid time off (i.e., vacation, holiday, and leaves), as well as health, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms of the applicable plans. ​

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