Director, Development Sourcing and Partnerships

Position Summary:

ultrafocused – Work together to fearlessly uncover new possibilities

The Director, Development Sourcing & Partnerships serves as a strategic partnership leader for external GCP vendors supporting the Development organization. This role is accountable for shaping and executing sourcing and vendor partnership strategy across the Development portfolio, ensuring partnership activities, sourcing approaches, and vendor engagement decisions are aligned with Development objectives, broader portfolio priorities, outsourcing strategy, and enterprise expectations.

The Director leads strategic sourcing and partnership activities across programs and vendor categories, including vendor selection, contracting alignment, governance, and performance-related partnership discussions. This leader partners with cross-functional and senior stakeholders to drive consistent sourcing approaches, support timely escalation resolution through appropriate stakeholder engagement, and promote scalable best practices across programs.

This role strengthens strategic external partnerships and advances effective, value-driven sourcing and partnership approaches across the Development portfolio.

Work Model:

Remote: Officially documented as working full-time from home, with travel to Ultragenyx's offices or other locations on occasion as needed.

Responsibilities:

1. Early engagement planning
   Define and execute sourcing strategies aligned to pipeline, portfolio priorities, and enterprise objectives.
2. Vendor selection
   Lead RFIs/RFPs, competitive bidding, vendor evaluations, bid defense strategy, and onboarding alignment for complex and high-impact initiatives to support fit-for-purpose vendor selection and successful engagement start-up.
3. Contracting alignment
   Lead alignment across scope, budget, and contracting considerations, ensuring consistency and scalability between operational requirements, financial assumptions, and vendor agreements.
4. Strategic vendor partnership management
   Serve as a senior strategic partnership lead for external GCP vendors across service categories, driving partnership alignment, performance expectations, strategic engagement, and ongoing relationship management across the vendor partnership.
5. Governance & oversight
   Lead governance forums and support timely escalation resolution through appropriate senior stakeholder engagement, while driving KPI/performance discussions, quality alignment, consistent oversight, accountability, and strategic alignment across partners.
6. Sourcing and partnership optimization
   Drive complex cross-program sourcing initiatives, vendor/category alignment activities, and partnership optimization efforts to establish consistency of sourcing and partnership approach, strengthen vendor engagement, and scale effective practices across programs and vendors.
7. Lessons learned / continuous improvement
   Drive continuous improvement by identifying cross-program insights, scaling best practices, and strengthening sourcing and partnership approaches across the portfolio.
8. Stakeholder engagement
   Engage and influence senior cross-functional stakeholders to support sourcing decisions, align vendor partnership strategy with execution needs, and drive strategic and portfolio alignment across programs and vendors.

Requirements:

1. Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Business Administration, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred.
2. Minimum of 10 years of experience in clinical vendor management, outsourcing, strategic sourcing, clinical operations, or related roles within the pharmaceutical, biotech, or CRO industry.
3. Minimum of 3–5 years of experience leading vendor relationships, sourcing activities, contracting alignment, governance, and performance oversight in a clinical development environment.
4. Experience leading RFIs/RFPs, competitive bidding, vendor evaluation, selection, and engagement start-up for complex or high-impact clinical development initiatives.
5. Experience leading alignment of scope, budget, contracting, and vendor agreement considerations for outsourced services.
6. Experience driving vendor governance, performance discussions, KPI review, issue escalation, and partnership management across programs and vendor categories.
7. Strong understanding of clinical development, clinical operations, GCP, ICH guidelines, and regulatory expectations related to vendor oversight.
8. Knowledge of quality expectations, internal SOPs, and compliance considerations applicable to vendor selection, oversight, and performance monitoring.
9. Ability to interpret KPIs, performance data, dashboards, and financial information to inform sourcing strategy, vendor partnership decisions, and portfolio-level oversight.
10. Strong leadership, cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, communication, relationship management, and influencing skills.
11. Ability to influence senior stakeholders, drive alignment across functions, support timely escalation resolution, and promote scalable best practices.
12. Strong organizational skills, sound judgment, strategic thinking, and ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
13. Travel up to 30% may be required for vendor meetings, governance forums, site visits, audits, or industry conferences.

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