Programme Director EMEA

This job is with GSK, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.

Business Introduction

GSK remains committed to achieving bold commercial ambitions for the future. By 2031, we aim to deliver £40 billion in annual sales, leveraging our existing strong performance momentum to significantly increase our positive impact on the health of billions of patients globally. Our Ahead Together strategy is centred on early intervention to prevent and alter the course of disease, thereby protecting people and supporting healthcare systems. Our diverse portfolio consists of vaccines, specialty medicines, and general medicines. Through continuous innovation and a dedicated focus on scientific and technical excellence, we strive to develop and launch new, groundbreaking treatments that address critical health challenges.

Position Summary

The WREF EMEA Programme Director is key in supporting WREF's global strategy in developing the world's healthiest portfolio - working directly with the Head of EMEA, WREF LT and senior stakeholders across GSK. The role is accountable for delivery of projects across the complex region, leading capital projects and improvements at GSK HQ, sharing lessons learnt and cultivating strong relationships with senior stakeholders including ExCom, driving change, supporting operations, and embedding innovation to align with GSK's strategic priorities.

The role is responsible for leading and delivering a multimillion-pound portfolio of capital and facilities-related projects across EMEA with accountability for delivery and risk management for all commercial sites delivered by WREF and some non-WREF managed locations. The position oversees capital projects from initiation through completion, ensuring delivery on time and within budget, while meeting GSK safety, quality, governance, and regulatory standards. Key accountabilities include customer and stakeholder management, business case development, benefits realisation, assurance and compliance checks, effective risk and financial management, contractor performance oversight, and seamless handover to operations.

The role supports WREF cluster leads and the EMEA Head of WREF in ensuring safe, compliant, and effective service delivery across the region. It requires strong technical expertise in facilities safety, capital project safety, and real estate and facility operations. Strong leadership, communication, and influencing skills are essential to manage service partners, drive continuous improvement, and deliver strategic business objectives.

Responsibilities

• End-to-End Project Delivery: Accountable for the full lifecycle delivery of capital projects across the region, from initiation through handover. This includes budget ownership and approvals, schedule and performance management, financial and operational recovery planning, risk assessment and mitigation, and effective transition to operations. Ensure projects deliver agreed business benefits by tracking performance against KPIs and aligning outcomes with site, regional, and corporate objectives.
• Capital planning: Owns the EMEA capital plan ensuring the budget is well prioritised and funds are utilised as committed.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Working with all levels of the organisation including ExCom to define a pipeline of capital works aligned to business strategy.
• Governance, Assurance & Compliance: Conduct assurance reviews and stage-gate assessments to ensure all projects meet GSK quality, safety, compliance, and governance standards. Ensure alignment with country regulations, GSK policies, standards, SOPs, and site-specific requirements.
• Incident Management & Root Cause Analysis: Ensure adverse events related to project delivery are thoroughly investigated, with appropriate corrective and preventative actions implemented. Drive Root Cause Analysis when contractual deliverables, GSK standards, or legal requirements are not met, in collaboration with WREF Ops, EHS, and other stakeholders.
• Project Planning & Technical Development: Work closely with project sponsors, cross-functional teams, and assigned project managers to define user requirements, scope, deliverables, resources, work plans, budgets, and timelines. Develop project options and preferred schemes in collaboration with the RE and Capital Project Director, Occupancy/Space Planning, Engineering/Operations Leads, and design consultants.
• Delivery & Procurement Strategy: Work closely with the WREF Regional Leads to determine optimal project delivery and procurement strategies, including value engineering aligned with risk and compliance requirements.
• Third party Oversight & Regional Consistency: Oversee project safety, compliance, and performance across the region. Implement strategies to enhance performance, address capability gaps, and ensure a consistent service across all locations.
• Audit Readiness & Continuous Improvement: Support regional audit readiness and compliance reviews. Drive continuous improvement in project delivery and safety performance by capturing lessons learned, sharing best practices through Communities of Practice, and leveraging internal and external benchmarks.

Qualifications/Skills

Basic Qualifications: Proven ability to manage complex capital projects in a commercial/GCC environment, including planning, execution, and delivery, using established frameworks such as Project Management Framework (PMF). Ability to establish strong working relationships with senior stakeholders and external contract partners, to deliver appropriate site project investment in agreement with established contracts. Thorough understanding of statutory legislation responsibilities in a technically complex environment. Financially literate, able to analyze budget performance, project cash flow forecasts for project delivery.

Preferred Qualifications: Postgraduate qualification in programme management, real estate or business administration. Experience in workplace optimisation, laboratory masterplanning or mixed-use campus strategy. Proven change leadership in matrix or global environments. Familiarity with workplace utilisation technologies and data platforms. Experience working in regulated or scientific environments. Strong coaching and people development experience.

Work Location:

This role is based in the United Kingdom (GSK HQ, London) and offers a hybrid working model, combining on-site and remote work.

Closing Date for Applications: 13th July 2026

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases - to impact health at scale.

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.