Associate Director, Program Process & Portfolio Technology Product Lead (United States - California - Foster City)

This job is with Gilead Sciences Inc., an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.

At Gilead, we're creating a healthier world for all people. For more than 35 years, we've tackled diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19 and cancer - working relentlessly to develop therapies that help improve lives and to ensure access to these therapies across the globe. We continue to fight against the world's biggest health challenges, and our mission requires collaboration, determination and a relentless drive to make a difference.

 

Every member of Gilead's team plays a critical role in the discovery and development of life-changing scientific innovations. Our employees are our greatest asset as we work to achieve our bold ambitions, and we're looking for the next wave of passionate and ambitious people ready to make a direct impact.

 

We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future, you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included, developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible, together.

At Gilead our pursuit of a healthier world for all people has yielded a cure for hepatitis C, revolutionary improvements in HIV treatment and prevention as well as advancements in therapies for viral and inflammatory diseases and certain cancers. 

We set and achieve bold ambitions in our fight against the world's most devastating diseases, united in our commitment to confronting the largest public health challenges of our day and improving the lives of patients for generations to come.

This is the operational backbone and product ownership center of Medical Affairs Technology (MAT). As the Global Program Portfolio & Process Technology Product Lead, you will own the systems, governance, and processes that keep a global technology organization running with discipline and clarity. While Technology Capability Leads and Technology Product Leads focus on strategy and platform delivery, you make sure everything is tracked, every vendor relationship is coordinated, every project has visibility, and every team member operates with a consistent playbook.

Reporting to the Executive Director of Medical Affairs Technology, you will own the MAT portfolio view across all active projects, programs, and capability workstreams. You will run the governance cadences that keep leadership informed and decisions moving. You will coordinate vendor management across the entire MAT vendor ecosystem, from contract oversight to performance reviews to RFP coordination. And you will be the person who ensures consistency in how MAT operates across all capabilities.

This role also carries a direct project management dimension. When a critical initiative needs direct PM leadership, you step in. When new team members join MAT, you lead their onboarding. When the team needs stronger PM competency, you develop it. You are both the architect of how MAT works and the person who rolls up their sleeves to make sure it does.

You will coordinate global vendor partnerships within MAT, ensuring alignment with the organization's standards for quality and timeliness. You are a Smartsheet power user who builds and maintains the dashboards, reports, and workflows that give MAT leadership real time visibility into portfolio health and team capacity.

The ideal candidate comes from a program management or PMO background. You need to be someone who brings process rigor, operational discipline, and the ability to create order, consistency, and a product mindset across a diverse, global technology team.

What You'll Do

Own the MAT Portfolio View and Governance

• Own and maintain the MAT portfolio view, tracking all active projects, programs, and capability workstreams across every Technology Capability Lead and Technology Product Lead in the organization

• Run MAT governance cadences including weekly status meetings, monthly portfolio reviews, and quarterly planning cycles, ensuring leadership has a clear, current picture of progress, risks, and capacity

• Design and maintain portfolio dashboards, status reports, and capacity planning tools in Smartsheet, serving as the primary source of truth for MAT operational health

• Identify portfolio risks, resource conflicts, and delivery bottlenecks proactively, escalating to the Executive Director of MAT with clear recommendations for resolution

• Ensure all capability teams follow consistent project management standards, templates, and reporting formats across the MAT organization

Coordinate Vendor Partnerships and Portfolio Operations

• Coordinate vendor partnerships across all MAT technology partners, maintaining visibility into contracts, performance tracking, and service level alignment in partnership with IT

• Support periodic vendor performance reviews, compiling data from capability leads and product leads into structured assessments that inform investment and renewal decisions

• Serve as the central coordination point when vendor issues arise across any platform in the MAT portfolio, partnering with IT on resolution and escalation

• Coordinate vendor RFP processes when new technology partnerships are being evaluated, ensuring a structured, consistent, and well documented evaluation approach

• Identify new vendor opportunities and bring recommendations to capability leads and the Executive Director of MAT for consideration

• Partner with IT to ensure the global support vendor delivers production support, testing, and issue resolution at the quality, speed, and cost the organization requires

Drive Project Management Excellence Across MAT

• Step in to provide direct project management leadership on critical MAT initiatives when needed, managing scope, timelines, dependencies, communication, and risk

• Develop project management competency across the MAT team, establishing PM best practices, training materials, and coaching that raise the bar for how all team members manage their work

• Keep consistency in how MAT operates across all capabilities by standardizing tools, workflows, templates, and reporting so the organization runs as one team regardless of which capability is executing

• Lead onboarding for new MAT team members, ensuring every new hire or contractor understands the operating model, tools, governance standards, and cultural expectations from day one

• Build and maintain the MAT operating playbook: the single reference for how intake, prioritization, delivery, vendor coordination, and reporting work across the organization

Build and Maintain Operational Tooling

• Serve as the Smartsheet power user for MAT, building and maintaining dashboards, automated workflows, reports, and project tracking structures that the entire organization relies on

• Continuously improve and evolve MAT's operational tooling, identifying opportunities to automate intake, reporting, capacity tracking, and vendor management processes

• Evaluate and recommend new operational tools and process improvements that help MAT scale without adding headcount

• Ensure data integrity and consistency across all MAT operational systems, so leadership decisions are based on accurate, timely information

Basic Qualifications

• Master's degree + 8 years of experience OR Bachelor's degree + 10 years of experience in program management, project management, PMO operations, or technology operations in a regulated industry

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong program management or PMO background with experience managing multi project portfolios, governance frameworks, and operational reporting in a global organization

• Smartsheet power user with experience building dashboards, automated workflows, reports, and portfolio tracking systems

• Experience with vendor management including contract coordination, SLA monitoring, performance reviews, RFP processes, and issue escalation across multiple technology partners

• Demonstrated ability to create operational consistency and product thinking across diverse teams, standardizing processes, templates, and reporting so an organization operates as one cohesive unit

• Track record of stepping into project management roles when needed, managing scope, risk, timelines, and stakeholder communication with discipline and clarity

• Experience leading onboarding programs and developing PM competency within a technology or operations team

• Process rigor, operational discipline, and product ownership with a natural instinct for identifying inefficiencies and building repeatable solutions

• Strong communication skills with the ability to present portfolio status, vendor performance, and operational insights clearly and concisely to senior leadership

• Experience coordinating with managed service or outsourced support vendors, partnering with IT to ensure alignment on quality, throughput, and cost expectations

• Comfort operating across time zones and cultures in a global organization, coordinating with teams and vendors in multiple regions

• Pharma or life sciences experience is a plus but not required; candidates from other regula]]>