Director – Growth Operations

About Us

What if…you could join an organization thats building life science bioplatform companies that are transforming human health and sustainability?

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies that change the world. We bring together the greatest scientific minds with entrepreneurial company builders and assemble the capital to allow them to take courageous leaps. Those big leaps in human health and sustainability exponentially accelerate scientific progress in areas ranging from cancer detection and treatment to nature-positive agriculture.   

 What sets Flagship apart is our ability to advance biotechnology by uniting life science innovation, company creation, and capital investment under one roof in a way that is largely without precedent. Our scientific founders, entrepreneurial leaders, and professional capital managers are each aligned around an institutionalized process that enables us to innovate and transform for the benefit of people and planet.   

Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture.  

Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that has made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. 

The Role

We are looking for a highly strategic Operations Director to join our Flagship Scaling effort. Within Flagship Pioneering, Scaling is one of the 3 core pillars, together with Pioneering and Entrepreneuring. It focuses on the development of (Growth Companies) GrowthCos and the orchestration of the Flagship ecosystem to support their development and open up new sources of value creation and recognition. In addition to being a thought partner, you will also collaborate closely with all Growth Partners, and support Responsible Partners and all teams engaged into the Growth agenda, including external partners.

We are looking for a dynamic and highly experienced leader to join Flagship Pioneering to serve in distinct capacities:

• Directly support Responsible Partners, and more specifically Growth Partners, in developing the GrowthCos’ Value Roadmaps, including the platform, pipeline, partnership, financing and organizational strategies – with all relevant scenarios and quantification necessary to develop value creation/recognition/realizations paths.
  
  
• Act as an Operational Leader, ensuring that the management of GrowthCos is robust and consistent by setting up and supporting the management of the organization – incl governance, tools, analysis, project management…- that oversees GrowthCos Value Roadmaps execution. This responsibility will also require ensuring effective networking within Flagship ecosystem to leverage existing resources, incl Growth Function Leads (HR, Finance, Legal/IP, BD, Communication, Digital), Analytics team, Value Team, Finance, Cap Formation, BD, Pioneering Medicines and International teams, to support GrowthCos’ development and value goal achievements.
  
  
• Contribute to the Growth ecosystem by supporting the development of Centers of Excellence – eg in pipeline design, clinical development, regulatory, manufacturing, medical/marketing/market access/commercial – through internal resources or with external partnerships.
  
  
• Leverage the Growth portfolio to provide useful insights, based on advanced analytics, to GrowthCos and internal/external partners in order to optimize resource allocation, target setting and more generally the development of better Value Roadmaps. This may entail working closely with the finance team to develop better budget/LRP frameworks, the Cap Formation team to better plan for funding needs, the analytics team to develop operational metrics for benchmarking, the Value Team on value plans or valuation metrics, the BD team on deal benchmarkings, the PM team or external partners on clinical development needs, the manufacturing team on CMC needs….
  
  
• Support the Flagship central functions in developing capabilities and resources that will accelerate Growth development incl strategic portfolio management activities led by the Chief Strategist, the Talent Management activities led by HR, CEO and Board development activities led by Corporate Development, the communication activities led by Communication and Public affairs team…

With success, this Leader will continually make Flagship Pioneering and Growth team faster paced, lower friction, more strategic and more effective and will continually oversee the testing, customization, and adoption of AI-based tools to improve each of Flagship’s activities.

Responsibilities

Internal Operations

• Partner with Growth Partners and Responsible Partners to support them in managing GrowthCos, developing high quality Value Roadmaps, supervising their execution, delivering on their value goals and taking all necessary measures.
• Lead the Growth Team and coordinate all Growth related resources in an optimal manner to deliver on priorities and achieve targets.
• Be a member of the Growth Partners committee and ensure that relevant topics are addressed timely, decisions are taken and follow up actions are executed.
• Support the Growth governance to ensure that all GrowthCos oversight is effectively managed and that all GrowthCo value Roadmaps are maintained by accountable Responsible Partners.
• Define and own a vision for how AI tools will fundamentally change the way Growth activities are conducted.
• Foster a culture of innovation and excellence by iterating on, synthesizing, and updating existing processes, as well as identifying areas of talent improvement
• Enhance defined governance structures that maximize value creation and speed within Growth, its interaction with portfolio companies, and Flagship leadership, ensuring the continuous evolution of the operating model for advanced scalability

Experience and Qualifications

10-15+ years’ experience building and managing multidisciplinary teams, formulating, and implementing complex development strategies and plans, and interfacing closely with individuals in critical operational functions (BD/Strategy, Finance, HR/Talent, Legal, etc.)

Qualifications

• Extraordinary IQ, EQ, personal drive, and enthusiasm for creating and leading operations for a championship team
• Either a background in the tech industry or fast paced life science realm. BA and optionally a MS/MA, MD, PhD, or equivalent time spent deep in technical/scientific topics (e.g, Engineering or Data Science)
• 5-10+ years of entrepreneurial operational experience required withing tech industry or biotech, demonstrating your deep operational expertise, desire for speed and agility, and your ability to thrive in a fast-changing entrepreneurial, technical environment
• 5-10+ years of business experience required within healthcare industry, demonstrating your ability to lead team in fast changing environments and define and deliver on priorities.
• High-level financial literacy with the ability to generate and share insight on future financing plans relating to the evaluation of creative financing strategies, driving the growth and success of our portfolio companies
• Must have strategic mindset for applying and rapidly experimenting with new AI tools that can amplify the potency of traditional startup functions.
• Cross-functional management experience (i.e., business/corporate planning, resource planning, forecasting) with ability to rapidly lead and evolve the operating model for advanced scalability as the team grows
• Energy to build a positive and success-oriented team culture; lead by example to ensure collaboration, teamwork, open communication, constructive conflict resolution and organizational flexibility
• Exceptional clarity and communication and influencing skills, with an aptitude to inspire confidence in different audiences - including investors, academic partners, management teams, and company boards - driving the success and growth of our portfolio companies

Preferred Qualifications

• Top-tier management consulting experience
• Scientific leadership experience

Benefits

• Make an impact as part of a Fortune “Change the World” company
• Be energized by an exciting startup culture
• Surround yourself with inspirational colleagues and leaders
• Support innovative breakthroughs in health care and sustainability
• Expand your horizons with opportunities for professional growth
• Enjoy unparalleled employee benefits and rewards programs

At Flagship, we recognize there is no perfect candidate. If you have some of the experience listed above but not all, please apply anyway. Experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way. We are dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams and look forward to learning more about your unique background.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.

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