Senior Director, PDS, Learning

At Bristol Myers Squibb, our employees often ask, “Who are you working for?”—a question that fuels collaboration, accountability, and urgency in our work. Our purpose-driven culture inspires us to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines to prevail over serious diseases. We offer uniquely interesting and meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and a supportive environment that values inclusion, wellbeing, flexibility, and comprehensive benefits. This is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it.
Position Summary
The Senior Director, PDS Learning is accountable for the enterprise learning strategy, operating model, governance, and execution that enable Product Development & Supply (PDS) colleagues to build and sustain the capabilities required to deliver medicines safely, compliantly, and efficiently. This leader sets the global direction for GxP and business learning, translates PDS priorities and regulatory expectations into scalable learning solutions, and partners with site and functional learning teams to ensure consistent standards with fit-for-purpose local execution.
The role leads the continued evolution of learning from a process-centric training model to an integrated business capability system grounded in risk, performance, simplification, digital enablement, and measurable outcomes.
The Senior Director also advances AI-enabled learning, strengthens inspection readiness and learning governance, and builds a high-performing global organization that develops talent, enables subject matter experts, and drives a culture of learning, quality, growth, and continuous improvement. This position reports to the Chief Learning Officer and serves as an active senior member of the Enterprise Learning leadership team.
Key Responsibilities:
Define and lead the global PDS Learning strategy, multi-year roadmap, operating model, and portfolio, aligned with PDS and enterprise learning priorities.
Own the global GxP learning strategy and risk-based framework across PDS ensuring learning requirements are compliant, role-based, effective, and proportionate to business and patient risk.
Translate business strategy, quality priorities, inspection trends, technology changes, and workforce capability needs into an integrated learning agenda with clear outcomes, investment choices, and measures of impact.
Establish and sustain governance, standards, decision rights, and accountabilities across central, functional, and site learning teams to enable global consistency, local ownership, and reliable execution.
Serve as the senior PDS point of accountability for GxP learning during audits and regulatory inspections; ensure rapid access to accurate learning evidence and lead remediation and sustainable corrective actions for learning-related observations.
Partner with Quality, Compliance, Human Resources, Digital/IT, functional leaders, and site leadership to identify capability risks, remove systemic barriers, and embed learning into business processes and performance improvement.
Lead the design and deployment of scalable, role-based capability solutions, including onboarding, qualification, reskilling, leadership development, and critical technical and quality capabilities across roles, levels, functions, and geographies.
Create an ecosystem that equips subject matter experts and learning partners to design, develop, deliver, and maintain effective learning solutions in accordance with common standards, approved methods, and lifecycle governance.
Advance the shift from completion-based training to performance-focused learning by using human performance, adult learning, and continuous improvement principles to reduce time to proficiency, errors, rework, and non-value-added training.
Shape and execute the digital learning strategy, including responsible use of AI and GenAI, automation, analytics, and modern learning technologies to improve personalization, access, productivity, content quality, and learner experience.
Establish performance measures, scorecards, service levels, and governance routines that provide visibility to compliance, quality, capability, operational performance, customer experience, and value realization; use insights to drive decisions and continuous improvement.
Own portfolio prioritization and resource allocation for PDS Learning, balancing regulatory commitments, business-critical capability needs, enterprise programs, site demand, capacity, cost, and risk.
Lead annual and long-range planning for the function, including goals, workforce and succession plans, vendor strategy, technology needs, and budget recommendations; ensure disciplined execution and transparent progress reporting.
Define learning strategies for major business transformations, product and technology introductions, system releases, organizational changes, and integrations, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and network changes.
Provide learning leadership for system and process releases by assessing impacts, segmenting audiences, defining qualification needs, and converting technical and process documentation into effective, sustainable learning and performance support.
Build external partnerships and benchmark against regulators, industry peers, professional networks, and leading practices to anticipate emerging requirements and continuously improve the PDS Learning model.
Lead, coach, and develop a diverse global team of leaders and professionals; establish clear accountabilities, build critical capabilities and bench strength, and foster an inclusive, high-performing, and service-oriented culture.
Influence senior stakeholders across a complex matrix, resolve competing priorities, communicate risk and trade-offs, and mobilize cross-functional teams to deliver enterprise outcomes without relying solely on direct authority.
Champion the BMS Values and a strong Safety and Quality Culture, ensuring learning decisions and solutions support patient safety, data integrity, compliance, and sustainable business performance.
Qualifications & Experience:
Candidates should have significant experience and a demonstrated record of leading global learning, capability, or operational excellence organizations in a complex, regulated, matrixed environment. The successful candidate will combine enterprise strategy, GxP and quality acumen, operational discipline, digital fluency, and people leadership. They must be able to lead through significant change, build credibility with senior executives, and convert strategy into scalable execution and measurable outcomes.
Additional professional and personal requirements include:
At least 15 years of experience in learning, training, quality, operations, organizational capability, development, or related disciplines; biopharmaceutical or life sciences experience strongly preferred.
Bachelor's degree in business administration, operations management, engineering, life sciences, education, or a related field. An advanced degree in organizational development, human resources, business, learning, or a related field is preferred.
Strong knowledge of GxP learning, quality systems, inspection readiness, risk-based training, data integrity, and the regulatory expectations relevant to a global biopharmaceutical organization preferred.
Demonstrated experience defining and leading an enterprise learning strategy, operating model, governance framework, and portfolio across multiple functions, sites, and geographies.
Proven success leading organizational transformation, centralization, service delivery, change management, continuous improvement, and adoption across a complex matrix.
Demonstrated ability to connect learning and capability investments to compliance, quality, workforce performance, productivity, time to proficiency, and business outcomes.
Experience leading learning technologies and operations, including LMS governance, digital learning, analytics, automation, and responsible application of AI and GenAI.
Strong business and financial acumen, with experience in strategic planning, portfolio prioritization, resource allocation, vendor management, budgeting, metrics, scorecards, and value realization.
Exceptional executive communication, judgment, and influencing skills, including the ability to frame risk, make recommendations, navigate competing priorities, and escalate critical issues appropriately.
Successful record of building, leading, and sustaining high-performing global teams, including leading leaders, coaching, succession planning, and developing organizational bench strength.
Ability to influence outcomes beyond direct authority, establish trusted partnerships, and align senior stakeholders across PDS, Global Quality, Research and Development, enterprise functions, and sites.
Strategic agility and execution discipline, with the ability to make timely decisions while balancing patient, compliance, quality, business, people, cost, and delivery considerations.
Strong program and change leadership capabilities, with experience directing complex, cross-functional portfolios from strategy through implementation and sustainment.
External orientation and learning agility, with the ability to anticipate regulatory, technology, work