Director, Central Lab Alliance Lead in Cambridge

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Director, Central Lab Alliance Lead

Are you an experienced central laboratory alliance leader, central lab operations expert or biosampling strategist who can combine forward-looking strategy with hands-on partnership governance? This individual-contributor role will provide strategic oversight for one of GSK's established central laboratory partnerships, helping to shape the future direction of the relationship while ensuring strong day-to-day delivery.

The role is approximately balanced between strategy and delivery. You will help embed a new operating model and ways of working, anticipate changing portfolio demands, identify opportunities for continuous improvement, and ensure that GSK and its central laboratory partner are positioned to respond effectively. Alongside this, you will manage governance forums, monitor partnership health and study delivery, and support the resolution of urgent operational challenges.

For candidates seeking to be located at our Stevenage site, this role will temporarily be based at Stevenage. However, the Company plans to relocate its offices to Cambridge, UK. The location of this role will therefore subsequently change to Cambridge, UK in accordance with timelines to be set by the Company. The relocation is currently proposed to take effect by early 2029.

Key responsibilities

In this role you will

• Act as the alliance lead and primary relationship owner for an assigned, established central laboratory partner, building a trusted and collaborative partnership.
• Contribute to the strategic direction of the central laboratory relationship, monitoring future portfolio demand and translating it into practical partnership priorities.
• Play a central role in embedding a new operating model and new ways of working, while continuing to identify process improvements after implementation.
• Lead and coordinate governance meetings, preparing clear materials for senior leaders on partnership health, study delivery, risks and priorities.
• Monitor KPIs, identify trends and use data to provide insight into performance, assay usage and kit usage.
• Maintain regular interaction with the central laboratory partner and communicate relevant developments, risks and issues across GSK operational stakeholders.
• Support the timely escalation and resolution of critical delivery, quality or operational challenges, working calmly and constructively with internal teams and outsourced partners.
• Help manage urgent situations before they become crises, recognising the potential impact of delivery challenges on patients and clinical studies.
• Use AI tools, such as Claude or equivalent AI agents, to help analyse large datasets and generate insights that support decisions and continuous improvement.
• Promote harmonised ways of working across central laboratory partnerships while recognising that each partner relationship may require a tailored approach.

What success will look like

• A healthy, trusted and transparent relationship with the assigned central laboratory partner.
• Successful implementation and adoption of a new operating model and associated ways of working.
• Effective governance, clear escalation routes and timely resolution of delivery issues.
• Meaningful insight from partnership data and KPIs, enabling informed decisions and proactive improvement.
• Readiness for changing portfolio demands, with the central laboratory partner aligned to future needs.

Why you?

We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:

Basic Qualifications & Skills:

• Bachelor's degree in a life science, medicine, pharmacy or a related discipline.
• Experience working in clinical trials, with direct knowledge of central laboratory operations and how central laboratories support study delivery.
• Demonstrated experience in an alliance lead, strategic partnership or comparable external partner-management role.
• Strong stakeholder and relationship-management skills, with the ability to work across complex, cross-functional and multicultural environments.
• Excellent communication skills, including confidence presenting to large audiences and the ability to communicate calmly and constructively during urgent or high-pressured situations.
• Experience managing escalations, resolving complex delivery challenges and maintaining a level-headed approach where patient or study impact may be at risk.
• Strong analytical capability, including experience using an AI agent such as C

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