Manager, Alliance Management

The Alliance Management (AM) group sits within BioPharma Clinical Operations and is accountable for setting the sourcing strategy across R&D and managing our suppliers to ensure that they deliver what the organisations need; and develop strong, beneficial partnerships with key suppliers. 

The remit of the Manager within Alliance Management is to support our alliance organisation to simplify, harmonize and streamline processes and ways of working across the Alliance Management suppliers, models and service lines. 

This role will be responsible for contributing and/or managing a variety of activities enabling the Alliance Management team to partner with their internal stakeholders and external suppliers  efficiently and effectively; driving value across the business and enabling the strategic partnerships with suppliers to be successful.

Responsibilities:

As a member of the Alliance Management (ClinOps) team, the incumbent will have the opportunity to build knowledge and experience across a variety of area and will be responsible for supporting and coordinating a variety of tasks and activities across suppliers, models and service lines, ensuring delivery to quality and timelines. These may include:

• Supplier Governance

• Support the AM governance framework and coordinate operational activities within Alliance Management for supported suppliers and model governance teams (e.g. scheduling, agenda planning, material prep, minutes, action plans and follow-ups (e.g. OSC Summaries)

• Gather, collate & report on risks & issues (AIR,RAID)

• Support delivery of Supplier Health Checks

• Maintain AM reporting systems/tools (e.g. dashboards, trackers) to support accurate & timely supplier performance reporting

• Supplier Portfolio Quality management

• Support activities to ensure processes, SOPs and guidelines are being adhered to and documents supporting Supplier Governance are completed and stored in proper repositories in a timely manner ensuring inspection ready

• Supplier Portfolio Risk management

• Maintain risks & issue logs utilising Risk Management Framework & Tools enabling reporting & trending

• Portfolio & Capacity management

• Support the use of tools & processes to assess demand/supply to enable portfolio & capacity discussions with our suppliers

• Supplier Performance

• Gather, collate & report on portfolio supplier performance (eg. Metrics/KPIs/rKPIs)

• Contribute to the content & accuracy of AM reporting systems/tools (e.g. dashboards, trackers) used to run/showcase reports, insights and trends

• Issue and escalation management

• Support triage of issues and escalations

• Process Integration with Suppliers

• Ensure compliance monitoring & tracking of suppliers use of AZ processes

• Supporting identifying opportunities to simplify & standardise processes, systems and services utilized across Alliance Management

• Communications & Information Sharing

• Support activities to support AM communication & engagement plans; including developing of materials to optimise information sharing needs internally and externally

• Develop & maintain information repositories (e.g. SharePoint)

• Training;

• Support supplier ‘training compliance’ reporting to support inspection readiness

• Support development of high-quality fit for purpose training materials for new or updated ways of working

• Deliver training to ensure high understanding of our models and/or service lines that we support and how AZ & our suppliers work together for optimal partnering

• Continuous Improvement

• Conduct Lessons learned & trending;  identify opportunity for simplification & continuous improvement

• Support development and maintenance of model and service line handbooks

• Supplier audits

• Support supplier audits by performing audit coordinator activities

• Various Operational Support Activities:

• Support various operational setup of new models/suppliers (e.g. SharePoint, Onboarding CRO users)

• Identify and suggest technology and tools that enable the Alliance Management team to operate efficiently and expand capacity AND support fostering a culture that accelerates technology adoption

• Utilize project management skills to support various initiatives both Alliance Management and/or cross-functional including planning (incl business cases as required), project management and implementation

• Represent AM and/or lead various networks and forums

Requirements:

• University degree in related discipline, or equivalent experience

• Pharmaceutical industry or clinical research organization experience, preferably in a clinical operations role

• Ability to work collaboratively; proven organizational and analytical skills

• Able to communicate effectively with ease and confidence, both written and verbal

• Ability to understand business strategy and goals and execute against associated objectives.

• Good presentation skills; able to effectively present messaging to their stakeholders

• Excellent organization and time management skills, with excellent eye for detail, and ability to manage multiple projects/tasks simultaneously in a high-volume environment with shifting priorities without day to day direct supervision

• Ability to work with multiple customers and on multiple

• projects simultaneously; flexibility and willingness to work across a diverse range of tasks; ability to work well under pressure and to respond quickly to shifting demands and opportunities

• Proficient in Microsoft Office tools and other business tools

• Strong interpersonal skills (tact and diplomacy), including the ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with customers, peers, stakeholders & external suppliers

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.