Pipeline Chief of Staff

Company Information

Legend Biotech is a global biotechnology company dedicated to treating, and one day curing, life-threatening diseases. Headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, we are developing advanced cell therapies across a diverse array of technology platforms, including autologous and allogenic chimeric antigen receptor T-cell and natural killer (NK) cell-based immunotherapy. 

Legend Biotech entered into a global collaboration agreement with Janssen, one of the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson & Johnson, to jointly develop and commercialize ciltacabtagene autolecuel (cilta-cel) in 2017. Our strategic partnership is designed to combine the strengths and expertise of both companies to advance the promise of an immunotherapy in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

Legend Biotech is seeking Pipeline Chief of Staff as part of the Technical Operations team based in Somerset, NJ. 

Role Overview

The Pipeline Chief of Staff reports directly to the President of Research and Development, serving as a strategic thought partner and providing critical support in decision-making processes, overseeing strategic business initiatives, enabling seamless communication across the organization, and ensuring smooth and efficient operations. As an extension of the President, this position plays a central role in managing our cell and gene therapy R&D portfolio and driving operational integration across Research, Preclinical, Tech Development, Clinical Development, Regulatory, and Business Development. This position will also play an important role in business initiatives of top strategic priority to our pipeline. A key deliverable in this role is to provide organizational support to the President and executive team in order to facilitate and ensure their effectiveness as leaders of an increasingly complex global organization. The ideal candidate should have a proven track record of leadership, communication, and impeccable operational skills in addition to drug discovery or development experience from a leading biotech company.

This role will be located in Somerset, NJ requiring you to be onsite 3 days/week.

Key Responsibilities  

• Organize efforts across the organization as needed to provide timely and reliable information to support pipeline planning and communications. Enable effective and rapid decision making with clear risks, mitigations, go/no-go criteria as part of a holistic operational plan to achieve success.
  
• Ensure integration of pipeline project dashboard and help monitor performance of organization as a whole in collaboration with the PMO. Contribute to portfolio vision and prioritization.
  
• Manage meetings with key stakeholders and other senior leaders, including President’s Sr Staff Meetings, Pipeline Update Meetings, Quarterly Pipeline Townhall, etc.
  
• Assist leading the pipeline organization in pivots in response to emerging data, evolution of the competitive landscape, company priorities, etc.
  
• Collaborate with functional leaders and experts as a strategic partner to support the success of Legend programs.
  
• Build strong collaborative relationships with functional areas and creates a culture of transparency, unity and engagement.
  
• Track and manage tasks delegated by President to staff across the organization to ensure timely completion.
  
• Prepare materials for communications with the organization, including meeting materials and regular updates. Track action plan to ensure timely delivery.
  
• Work with pipeline leadership in developing and communicating overarching pipeline strategy and plan.
  
• Work with pipeline leadership to identify and resolve inter-project bottlenecks as well as identify and leverage synergy opportunities.
  
• Work with pipeline leadership in developing corporate goals and ensuring alignment of cascading goals across the business.
• Monitor and analyze resource and capital allocation across the department to align with pipeline strategy and plan.
  
• Identify potential operating efficiencies and help drive for solutions.
  
• Lead special projects to support pipeline decision making, often requiring inputs from multiple branches of the organization, including analysis of operating efficiencies.
  
• Interface with other corporate functions, including Finance, HR, IT, and Legal.
  
• Support ad hoc corporate opportunity analysis and decisions.
  
• Perform other strategic analyses and projects as needed.

• Bachelor degree in science with 15 years of industry experience and demonstrated leadership in project and/or operational management. Master degree in science preferred.
• 15+ years of industry experience in a biotech or pharmaceutical setting, including 5 years of industrial experience in pipeline project and operational management.
• Demonstrated experience interacting with executive leadership.
  
• Experience gathering and integrating inputs from all disciplines in the company to facilitate assessments, planning and strategy by the pipeline executive team. Able to help bring these inputs up to an appropriately high level to facilitate effective high-level communications, analysis and decision making.
  
• Strong holistic approach to working with groups of high-performance individuals. Able to pull the best from teams while at the same time being able to contribute and help synthesize.
  
• High EQ with ability to earn the respect and trust of the pipeline team, President, executive leadership, and board.
  
• Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, fast-paced environment with competing priorities while also making a strong personal impact.
  
• Ability to set and follow through goals with a sense of urgency while keeping broader strategic objectives in focus and delivering high standard outcomes.
  
• Exceptional interpersonal skills.
  
• Excellent planning, prioritization, and organizational skills.
  
• Excellent communication skills, verbal, graphical, and written, with a keen sense of how to connect with people and build trust.
  
• Effective presentation skills to key stakeholders and key decision makers.
  
• Excellent taste when it comes to communications work products.
  
• Working experience in drug discovery and development and good understanding of external landscape in relevant disease areas.
  
• Creative, strategic thinking, operational effectiveness, and strong troubleshooting skills
  
• Collaborative attitude and ability to motivate and influence others without relying on position or power.
• Language(s): English. Mandarin is a plus.

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Legend Biotech is a proud equal opportunity/affirmative action employer committed to attracting, retaining, and maximizing the performance of a diverse and inclusive workforce. It is Legend’s policy to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, national origin, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status, uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Legend Biotech maintains a drug-free workplace.