Director, Scientific Product Delivery & Operations

Salary Range:
£70,983.50 - £131,826.50
Job Description Summary
Director, Scientific Product Delivery & Operations
#LI-Hybrid
Location: London, UK
This role is based in London, UK. Novartis is unable to offer relocation support for this role. Please only apply if this location is accessible for you.
100,000+ unique, curious, and empowered individuals inspired by our purpose.
The Scientific Product Engineering team serves quantitative scientists who analyze and report clinical trials as the organization adopts open-source tools and agentic AI workflows. Reporting to and partnering closely with the Head of Scientific Product Engineering, the Director translates agreed product strategy and portfolio priorities into coordinated delivery plans, governance, resource recommendations, and measurable outcomes.
Working with Product Owners, technical leads, business stakeholders, and end users, the Director operationalizes the portfolio direction set by the Head of Scientific Product Engineering. The role provides delivery insight and constructive challenge, establishes delivery discipline and portfolio visibility, and coordinates resource planning and operational improvements to enable value realization, transparency, and scalable execution
Job Description
Your responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Product Delivery Leadership
Facilitate integrated planning for pilots, releases, and rollouts with diverse stakeholders, aligning scope, readiness, timing, dependencies, adoption, and success measures.
Oversee execution of pilot, release, and rollout plans, maintaining clear visibility of progress, readiness, changes, risks, dependencies, decisions, and corrective actions.
Portfolio Planning & Governance
Establish and maintain portfolio planning processes and delivery governance.
Reinforce expectations for product owners to maintain current roadmaps, delivery plans, and success measures aligned with the portfolio priorities.
Facilitate portfolio planning cycles and provide delivery evidence, capacity insight, and recommendations to support priority and investment decisions by leadership.
Develop and maintain executive dashboards and portfolio reporting including “cost of ownership”.
Manage cross-team dependencies and identify opportunities for alignment.
Monitor risks, dependencies, and delivery issues and drive mitigation plans.
Manage relationships with strategic vendors and delivery partners.
Support resource allocation and prioritization decisions.
Adoption & Value Realization
Ensure success measures are defined and tracked for each portfolio activity.
Work with product teams to build a culture of tracking adoption, business outcomes, and delivered value during rollout phases.
Product Owner Enablement
Coach product owners on planning, stakeholder management, execution discipline, and delivery practices, while reinforcing their accountability for product decisions and outcomes.
Encourage consistent standards across product teams.
Help develop leadership capability and strengthen ownership within the organization.
Promote accountability and operational excellence across the product portfolio.
Minimum requirements:
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Life Sciences, Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or related discipline.
Extensive experience leading complex technology, product, or portfolio initiatives, including accountability for delivery across multiple teams and senior stakeholders.
Proven experience driving execution across multiple products, teams, and stakeholders.
Proven experience establishing delivery governance, portfolio management, and operational processes.
Strong experience with Agile product development and modern software delivery practices.
Experience supporting product organizations or digital transformation initiatives.
Experience using product KPIs to assess adoption, usage, delivered value, and continuous improvement opportunities.
Strong leadership and influencing skills in matrix organizations.
Demonstrated ability to align diverse stakeholders around common goals and outcomes.
Excellent communication, facilitation, and organizational skills.
Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with a focus on execution and continuous improvement.
Strong sense of ownership and accountability for outcomes, not just plans or deliverables.
Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous and rapidly evolving environments.
Desirable
Experience operating in regulated environments and applying quality management principles to digital product delivery.
Experience developing portfolio reporting frameworks and executive dashboards.
Background in life sciences, healthcare, analytics, scientific computing, or enterprise technology environments.
Benefits & Rewards
At Novartis, we’re committed to reimagining medicine together - and rewarding the people who make it happen.
Expected Annual Base Salary Range for role: 70,983.50 - 131,826.50 GBP
The base salary offered is determined based on gender-neutral objectives, such as relevant skills, competencies and experience in accordance with the Novartis pay setting policy and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically.