VP and Head of Operational Effectiveness in Stevenage

As Vice President, Operational Effectiveness, you will enable accelerated, compliant and efficient delivery of clinical trial programs and studies across the R&D organization by driving operational effectiveness as a competitive advantage. You will translate the Development Operations three‑year strategy into actionable plans, ensure the pillars of performance intelligence, process redesign, and planning operate cohesively, and build capabilities across the organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Set Strategy and Roadmap for Operational Effectiveness; align to R&D and DevOps priorities and ambitions.
• Performance Intelligence and Competitive Benchmarking – Develop a framework that maximises data and analytics to improve planning quality, generate actionable insights, benchmark against targets, diagnose underperformance, and design interventions.
• Process Reimagination & Future‑State Ways of Working – Lead redesign of the end‑to‑end clinical program and trial operational process landscape to deliver step‑change improvement.
• Transformation Design and Value Realisation – Create and implement value propositions, report benefit realisation, and ensure transformational outcomes are measurable.
• Capability Building & Culture Transformation – Identify and grow capabilities, develop training plans, and drive continuous improvement across the Operational Effectiveness function.
• Operational Excellence for Select Capabilities – Own delivery for capabilities such as third‑party excellence, documentation/eTMF, and project management support; establish standards and KPI‑driven insights.
• Compliance – Drive global compliance monitoring, aggregate country‑level insights, and feed data into process improvement.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a scientific, business, or operational discipline.
• Extensive experience in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry in development, clinical operations, or operational excellence.
• Excellent understanding of clinical operations processes, ICH/GCP, and global regulatory guidelines.
• Experience designing performance frameworks, metrics/KPIs, and analytics to drive decision‑making.
• Experience leading large‑scale transformation or continuous improvement programmes with measurable value.
• Experience governing and managing third‑party vendors.
• Experience adopting technology and digital solutions in operational environments.
• Demonstrated people leadership to manage and develop teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong strategic and critical thinking, problem‑solving, influencing, and decision‑making capability at senior levels.
• Strong business and financial acumen, including business case development and benefit tracking.
• Cross‑functional collaboration experience and ability to build networks of partners and stakeholders.
• Effective communication skills at all organizational levels.

Location and Working Pattern

This role can be based in the United Kingdom, United States, Belgium, Poland, Canada, or India and follows a hybrid working pattern, balancing time between an office and site visits.

Benefits

Competitive salary range and potential annual bonus. Eligibility to participate in share‑based long‑term incentive programs.

Equal Opportunity Employer

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or other protected status.