R&D Insights & Enablement Lead (Director)

Takeda Boston, MA Updated 15 October 2026
Pharma

Job description

By clicking the “Apply” button, I understand that my employment application process with Takeda will commence and that the information I provide in my application will be processed in line with Takeda’s Privacy Notice and Terms of Use . I further attest that all information I submit in my employment application is true to the best of my knowledge. Job Description Are you looking for a patient-focused, innovation-driven company that will inspire you and empower you to shine? Join us as a R&D Insights & Enablement Lead in our Cambridge, MA office. At Takeda, we are transforming the pharmaceutical industry through our R&D-driven market leadership and being a values-led company. To do this, we empower our people to realize their potential through life-changing work. Certified as a Global Top Employer, we offer stimulating careers, encourage innovation, and strive for excellence in everything we do. We foster an inclusive, collaborative workplace, in which our global teams are united by an unwavering commitment to deliver Better Health and a Brighter Future to people around the world. Here, you will be a vital contributor to our inspiring, bold mission. POSITION OBJECTIVES: Lead R&D Insights & Enablement efforts that enable performance, accountability, and decision excellence across R&D. Generate the insights and coordinate structured forums that enable R&D leaders to make better, faster, evidence-based decisions, and ensure that what is learned at the portfolio level is translated back into how Global Program Teams operate. Serve as the orchestration point for the monthly R&D Decisions & Insights Forum (the merger of the DAC and QPI cadences), the R&D Portfolio Orchestration & Direction (POD) Team, and the R&D Risk Register — connecting senior R&D leadership, enterprise functions, as well as the GPT community so that decisions, lessons learned, and emerging trends move quickly into action. Coordinate the monthly R&D decisions & insights forum and Portfolio Orchestration & Direction (POD) Council meetings, ensuring high-quality content, decision readiness, and clear follow-through. Close the loop between insights and ways of working — translating lessons learned and trends into clear, sustainable inputs for GPT Enablement so they reach GPT communities and shape practice. Maintain the R&D Risk Register as a living instrument of portfolio risk visibility, escalation, and learning, including any governance, oversight and presentation. Lead/Co-lead the monthly Portfolio Orchestration & Direction (POD) Council — convening cross-functional R&D and enterprise leaders to advise on key initiatives and direct how we evolve core processes, tools, and change implementation. Support corporate philosophy updates and the Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) for the R&D President, ensuring high-quality preparation, narrative, and follow-through. Leverage R&D insights, pipeline & governance knowledge to inform evolution of GPT Enterprise Operating Model, embedding this in supporting resources to drive ongoing learning and continuous improvement Coordinates insights for the GPL Development Program, focused on continuously strengthening the capabilities of Global Program Leaders against a shared profile of success. Liaises with GPLs to understand development needs, procedural challenges, and shared learning priorities, translating insights to contribute to structured agendas for the GPL Exchange and GPL Forum; Curates targeted resource development plans for process and best practices to address priority gaps and accelerate execution Generates multi-disciplinary program development frameworks in partnership with key stakeholders across Therapeutic areas, business units and global commercial, embedding those frameworks into enterprise global program teams (e.g., Asset Strategy, Program Scenario Plans) Partners with key stakeholders, including but not limited to SP&E peers, TAU, Functional and Commercial leaders to prioritize and execute initiatives which drive continuous GPL and GPT effectiveness improvement. Fosters an enterprise community of program leadership inclusive of R&D, SPD, Global Oncology, and Plasma-Derived Therapies. Owns and ensures effective content and delivery of the enterprise-wide GPT Onboarding Program POSITION ACCOUNTABILITIES: R&D Decisions & Insights Forum (DAC) Design and run the monthly R&D Decisions & Insights Forum, including agenda, content curation, pre-reads, and post-meeting follow-through. Partner with R&D leadership, RMC, Governance, and program teams to surface the right portfolio and operational questions, decisions, and learning topics each month — focused on what will move performance, quality, and decision excellence. Memorialize decisions, action items, and lessons learned from each forum and track them to completion, ensuring the forum is a high-signal decision and learning instrument, not a status meeting. R&D Risk Register Stewardship Own the R&D Risk Register end-to-end — definition, intake, prioritization, mitigation tracking, and escalation pathways — keeping it current, credible, and actionable. Evolve and continuously strengthen the risk management process itself — instilling greater rigor and discipline through clear processes for collection, consistent scoring and prioritization criteria, leadership review, defined review cadences, and accountable ownership, so risks are identified, assessed, and escalated in a repeatable, evidence-based way. Partner with program, functional, and governance leaders to identify emerging risks (scientific, operational, compliance, talent, technology) and to ensure mitigations are owned and progressing. Translate risk register patterns into systemic recommendations — feeding insights into the Decisions & Insights (DAC) Forum, the R&D Portfolio Orchestration & Direction Council, and GPT Enablement so risks shape process and practice, not just reports. Leadership/Co-Leadership of the R&D Portfolio Orchestration & Direction Council Lead/Co-lead the monthly R&D Portfolio Orchestration & Direction Council — a cross-functional forum of R&D leaders with participation from enterprise functions — that advises on key initiatives, aligns on key planning cycle activities and directs how the organization evolves core processes, tools, and change implementation. Shape the Council's agenda so it focuses on the most consequential cross-cutting issues — process changes, system investments, governance evolution, and adoption priorities — and produces clear directional decisions. Connect Council direction to execution by routing decisions and recommendations to the right owners and tracking follow-through. Corporate Philosophy Updates & Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) Support Support periodic updates to the R&D Corporate Philosophy — coordinating inpu

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