Associate Director

Working with Us

Challenging. Meaningful. Life-changing. Those aren't words that are usually associated with a job. But working at Bristol Myers Squibb is anything but usual. Here, uniquely interesting work happens every day, in every department. From optimizing a production line to the latest breakthroughs in cell therapy, this is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. You'll get the chance to grow and thrive through opportunities uncommon in scale and scope, alongside high-achieving teams. Take your career farther than you thought possible.

Bristol Myers Squibb recognizes the importance of balance and flexibility in our work environment. We offer a wide variety of competitive benefits, services and programs that provide our employees with the resources to pursue their goals, both at work and in their personal lives. Read more careers.bms.com/working-with-us .

Position Summary

The Associate Director, Global Trial Acceleration is a leadership role with direct line-managerial accountability, responsible for overseeing centralized global clinical operations within the Global Trial Acceleration Centre (GTAC). This role leads and manages a team of Global Trial Acceleration Managers (GTAMs), Lead Global Trial Acceleration Associate (Lead GTAA) ensuring consistent execution, standardization, and acceleration of clinical trial start-up, regulatory, and site operational activities across complex, multi-regional global studies.

The Associate Director plays a critical strategic leadership role in shaping and driving GTAC operational direction, enabling speed, quality, compliance, and scalability across study portfolios. This is achieved through proactive risk management, data-driven decision-making, and strong cross-functional leadership, while partnering closely with Regional Clinical Operations, Regulatory Affairs, Quality, Legal, Finance, and senior study leadership to ensure aligned execution and optimal study outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for the Global Trial Acceleration Center (GTAC), ensuring alignment with Regional Clinical Operations, Global Trial Management, and enterprise priorities.
• Shape and execute GTAC operational strategy to enable accelerated clinical trial start-up, regulatory, and site operational timelines across complex global portfolios.
• Lead centralized global clinical operations, ensuring acceleration, quality, compliance, and scalability across regions and studies.
• Proactively identify portfolio-level risks, dependencies, and opportunities, driving data-driven decision-making and mitigation strategies.
• Maintain direct line-managerial accountability for Global Trial Acceleration Managers (GTAMs), Line Managers, and GTAA Leads.
• Lead and govern the annual performance management cycle, including goal setting, mid-year reviews, year-end evaluations, calibration inputs, and development planning.
• Coach and develop managers and senior team members to build leadership capability, succession readiness, and a strong talent pipeline.
• Drive a culture of accountability, inclusion, engagement, and continuous improvement across a geographically distributed and cross-cultural team.
• Ensure role-based training compliance and ongoing capability development aligned with evolving GTAC and business needs.
• Act as Point of Contact (POC) and partner to Regional Clinical Operations, Regulatory Affairs, Quality, Legal, Finance, Vendor Management, and senior study leadership.
• Lead effective collaboration across cross-cultural and multi-regional stakeholders, ensuring alignment on priorities, timelines, and execution models.
• Represent GTAC in global governance forums, leadership meetings, and cross-functional decision-making bodies.
• Provide clear, concise, and leadership-ready communication on operational performance, risks, and outcomes.
• Provide oversight and governance of external vendors and strategic partners supporting GTAC activities (e.g., site start-up activities, regulatory support, payments, insurance, Patient Engagement & Recruitment (PER), Subject-Related Injury (SRI), etc.).
• Ensure vendor performance aligns with contractual obligations, timelines, quality, and compliance expectations.
• Drive issue resolution, performance improvement, and collaboration with Procurement and Legal.
• Lead process improvement and standardization initiatives across GTAC to reduce cycle times, improve predictability, and enhance efficiency.
• Drive cost and time efficiencies through centralization, harmonized operating models, lean processes, and adoption of tools or automation.
• Establish and maintain consistent global workflows, metrics, and best practices across regions and portfolios.
• Lead internal business and transformation initiatives aligned with GTAC and enterprise strategic objectives.
• Own and oversee GTAC performance KPIs, dashboards, and operational metrics at team and portfolio levels.
• Monitor trends and performance data to inform strategic decisions, resource planning, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure strong governance, transparency, and accountability across all GTAC-supported activities.
• Provide leadership oversight to ensure compliance with SOPs, Work Instructions, GCP, and regulatory requirements across GTAC operations.
• Maintain a sustained inspection-ready state, ensuring accurate, complete, and traceable documentation.
• Lead GTAC preparedness for audits and inspections, including coordination of responses, remediation actions, and CAPA execution in partnership with Quality.
  
  

Qualifications & Experience

• Minimum of a BA or BS degree in a clinical or scientific discipline (advanced degree a plus).
• Drug/clinical development experience of 15+ years (pharma, biotech, CRO) required.
• Knowledge of ICH/GCP and regulatory guidelines/directives; understanding of the drug development process and pharma; strong organizational, time-management, analytical, and decision-making skills to efficiently evaluate, plan, and accomplish work goals.
• Scientific, financial, and business problem-solving experience desired.
• Proven experience in managing key internal and external stakeholders (including senior leaders) effectively by frequently soliciting input, gathering feedback, and incorporating feedback into processes and driving change as appropriate.
• Demonstrated understanding of stakeholder needs, with the ability to build and maintain relationships.
• Effective management of cross-functional, multicultural teams and demonstrated ability to work and influence within a matrix structure.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and diplomacy to convey information and influence others, with a strong customer focus.
• Demonstrates a high level of adaptability in dealing with ambiguous and complex work environments and balances multiple demands in a responsive and professional manner.
  
  

If you come across a role that intrigues you but doesn't perfectly line up with your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway. You could be one step away from work that will transform your life and career.

Uniquely Interesting Work, Life-changing Careers

With a single vision as inspiring as Transforming patients lives through science™ , every BMS employee plays an integral role in work that goes far beyond ordinary. Each of us is empowered to apply our individual talents and unique perspectives in a supportive culture, promoting global participation in clinical trials, while our shared values of passion, innovation, urgency, accountability, inclusion and integrity bring out the highest potential of each of our colleagues.

On-site Protocol

BMS has an occupancy structure that determines where an employee is required to conduct their work. This structure includes site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design jobs. The occupancy type that you are assigned is determined by the nature and responsibilities of your role

Site-essential roles require 100% of shifts onsite at your assigned facility. Site-by-design roles may be eligible for a hybrid work model with at least 50% onsite at your assigned facility. For these roles, onsite presence is considered an essential job function and is critical to collaboration, innovation, productivity, and a positive Company culture. For field-based and remote-by-design roles the ability to physically travel to visit customers, patients or business partners and to attend meetings on behalf of BMS as directed is an essential job function.

Supporting People With Disabilities

BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to [Confidential Information] . Visit careers.bms.com/ eeo -accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.

Candidate Rights

BMS will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.

If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information https //careers.bms.com/california-residents/

Data Protection

We will never request payments, financial information, or social security numbers during our application or recruitment process. Learn more about protecting yourself at https //careers.bms.com/fraud-protection .

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R1601475 Associate Director