PDT R&D, Technology & Innovation Lead

AUT - 7430 Baxalta Innovations GmbH; Wien; On-site; EUR 127,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. in Austria seeks a senior leader to guide the PDT R&D technology transformation.

This role shapes an integrated strategy across R&D functions, enterprise enabling teams, and external partners, translating vision into a multi-year roadmap aligned with business priorities and lifecycle needs. You will drive governance, portfolio performance, and scalable platforms, balancing innovation with compliance, and ensuring value realization through cross-functional collaboration,

Qualifications

• Degree in engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, life sciences, or related discipline.
• Senior leadership experience in Research/CMC/Manufacturing or Information Technology domains.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end lifecycle leadership from research through manufacturing and quality.

Responsibilities

• Lead PDT R&D technology strategy and integrated transformation.
• Establish governance, prioritization, and cross-functional collaboration across PDT R&D and enterprise enabling functions.
• Drive portfolio performance with measurable value realization and lifecycle readiness.

Skills

Leadership

Portfolio management

Cross-functional leadership

Strategic planning

Data-driven decisions

Regulatory compliance

Education

Degree in engineering or life sciences

Job description

Job Description Objectives/Purpose fo the role This is a senior business, scientific, and technology leadership role in PDT R&D, accountable for shaping and maintaining an integrated PDT R&D technology transformation strategy and translating it into a prioritized multi-year roadmap aligned to business priorities, life-cycle needs, and enterprise objectives. The role provides leadership across PDT R&D technology innovation, platform strategy, and implementation, ensuring that critical technology capabilities, standard platforms, and innovation opportunities are advanced in a coordinated, scalable, compliant, and value-focused manner across PDT R&D. The role serves as the integration point across PDT R&D functions, enterprise enabling functions (e.g. DD&T, MSAT, Quality), and external partners to connect innovation, technology development, standardization, and deployment into a coherent portfolio that supports pipeline progression, industrialization, lifecycle robustness, and long-term capability build. Working closely with senior stakeholders within and beyond the PDT R&D leadership team, the role ensures that technology and innovation strategies are anchored in business outcomes and supported by fit-for-purpose governance, cross-functional collaboration, strong network partnerships, and measurable adoption and value realization.

Accountabilities Act as the primary PDT R&D integrator across functions, enterprise enabling teams (e.g. DD&T), and delivery partners to ensure that technology solutions, digital enablers, and data capabilities are aligned to business needs, scalable, compliant, and sustainable. Drive the PDT R&D technology portfolio from early opportunity identification and external/internal scouting through prioritization, piloting, maturation, standardization, implementation, scale-up, and lifecycle adoption, ensuring innovation efforts are connected to practical business value and sustainable deployment. Provide leadership for implementation aspects of innovation by connecting scientific opportunity with operational readiness, industrialization requirements, manufacturability, platform deployment, and business adoption across the development lifecycle. Maintain the integrated PDT R&D technology and innovation strategy across key domains (e.g., DS/DP processing, analytical/PAT/APC, device and packaging technologies, platform capabilities, transactional digital-enabled workflows, and knowledge/data-enabling capabilities) and translate it into a prioritized multi-year roadmap aligned to business priorities and lifecycle milestones. Establish and run cross-functional governance for PDT R&D technology and innovation initiatives, including intake, prioritization, resource and investment planning, dependency management, decision cadence, and escalation with clear options and trade-offs. Drive portfolio performance management across technology and innovation initiatives by defining success metrics, tracking value realization, monitoring business outcomes (e.g., speed, robustness, right-first-time, risk reduction, productivity, readiness, quality, sustainability), and integrating reporting into the broader performance management framework. Ensure interface alignment across PDT BU and/or Global R&D, the wider Enterprise and external partners so that innovation and technology solutions are feasible, scalable, inspection-ready, and supportive of lifecycle robustness. Build and maintain a strong internal and external collaboration network across vendors, academia, consortia, peer companies, and enterprise partners, and translate these relationships into actionable partnership models, technology choices, capability build, and strategic opportunities for PDT R&D. Support PDT R&D functional leaders by providing common frameworks, playbooks, and decision tools for technology selection, readiness, scalability, manufacturability, regulatory risk, lifecycle cost, sustainability impact, implementation planning, and value realization.

CORE ELEMENTS RELATED TO THIS ROLE Strategic leadership: sets direction, governance, and portfolio discipline, while also ensuring innovation and platform choices are translated into practical implementation and scaled use Balanced innovation and technology management: connects scouting, piloting, external collaboration, standardization, and deployment into lifecycle-ready technology choices Platform-level thinking across core technology domains with explicit focus on harmonization, reuse, and scalable standards Networked leadership across scientific functions, enterprise enablers, and external ecosystem partners to accelerate innovation, capability build, and business impact

DIMENSIONS AND ASPECTS Technical/Functional (Line) Expertise Strong end-to-end understanding of the Plasma derived Therapies Product lifecycle, ideally spanning the Research/CMC interface through development, scale-up, tech transfer, manufacturing, quality, and regulatory implications. Strong understanding of technology strategy, platform development, and implementation, including how innovation opportunities are translated into robust, scalable, and lifecycle-ready capabilities. Significant understanding and practical application of advanced processing concepts, including process technologies relevant to development, industrialization, manufacturability, control strategy, and lifecycle robustness. Strong knowledge of technology platform standardization, operational readiness, implementation pathways, and the balance between innovation flexibility and cross-functional harmonization. Good understanding of digital and data-enabling capabilities, including where they accelerate innovation, strengthen execution, and support scalable platform deployment in a regulated environment. Deep familiarity with industrialization and lifecycle readiness, including operational feasibility, control strategy implications, compliance expectations, and scalable implementation paths. Leadership Sets direction and aligns senior stakeholders around a coherent integrated technology and innovation roadmap tied to business and pipeline outcomes. Demonstrates credible leadership across scientific, technical, operational, and strategic environments, including leadership of lab and/or operations teams. Leads across both direct authority and influence models, connecting functions, sites, enterprise partners, and external collaborators around shared platform and innovation priorities. Drives change at scale through governance, communication, implementation support, capability building, and performance visibility. Decision-making and Autonomy Makes complex trade-off decisions across value, risk, speed, technical feasibility, compliance, capacity, standardization needs, and lifecycle implications. Operates with high autonomy within agreed governance and escalates with clear options, rationale, and business impact. Resolves cross-functional conflicts and dependency bottlenecks and ensures decisions translate into implementation and measurable outcomes. Interaction Extensive engagement with PDT R&D functional leaders, interface stakeholders, Quality/Compliance, Manufacturing interface groups, Regulatory, Supply, Procurement/External, Finance, and relevant enterprise enabling teams. Represents PDT R&D in selected external industry, technology, academic, and regulatory forums. Innovation Applies a structured technology advancement approach that links opportunity scouting, collaboration networks, piloting, evidence generation, implementation, and scale decisions to the broader PDT R&D technology and innovation strategy. Evaluates emerging technologies, external capabilities, and new ways of working with focus on practical value, scalability, lifecycle fit, and cross-site or cross-program leverage. Promotes knowledge sharing, standard platform adoption, and reuse of learnings across functions, sites, and programs. Complexity Operates across multiple technical domains, geographies, and governance layers with competing priorities, enterprise dependencies, and varied maturity across functions and sites. Balances innovation speed and business urgency with regulated environment expectations, inspection readiness, lifecycle robustness, and long-term scalability. Integrates business, scientific, technical, operational, data, and external ecosystem considerations into decisions that affect both immediate delivery and long-term operating model maturity.

EDUCATION, BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS Degree in engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, life sciences, or related discipline, or equivalent experience. Demonstrated senior leadership experience in the Research, CMC, Manufacturing or Information Technology domain, including leadership of lab-based and/or manufacturing-based teams and credible engagement across technical, operational, and strategic topics. Mandatory: strong domain-specific understanding, including end-to-end lifecycle leadership from the Research/CMC interface through development, manufacturing, and quality. Mandatory: significant understanding and application of advanced processing concepts and their implications for development, scale-up, manufacturability, robustness, and control strategy. Mandatory: demonstrated experience leading technology innovation, platform development, standardization, and/or implementation in complex regulated environments. Mandatory: robust understanding and demonstrated application of DDT/IT operations and product delivery frameworks, including enterprise architecture, SDLC, agile/product delivery models, and operating constructs required to deliver and sustain digital products at scale. Strong understanding of how digital, data, and enabling capabilities support innovation, platform deployment, and lifecycle execution, including ability to work effectively with enterprise delivery and governance frameworks. Proven experience translating complex business, scientific, and operational needs into scalable technology and innovation roadmaps delivered through cross-functional and enterprise organizations. Strong portfolio/program leadership capability, including prioritization, governance, dependency management, stakeholder alignment, value realization, and adoption at scale. Strong business case framing and decision-making capability across value, risk, feasibility, compliance, readiness, standardization, and lifecycle impact. Proven ability to build and manage internal and external partnerships, collaboration networks, and technology ecosystems. Demonstrated change leadership, including capability building, implementation support, training programs, and adoption playbooks with measurable uplift.

Salary range EUR 127,200 - 174,900

Locations AUT - Wien - Industriestrasse 72

Worker Type Employee

Worker Sub-Type Regular Time Type Full time

Takeda is an industry-leading, global pharmaceutical company with an unwavering dedication to putting patients at the center of everything we do. We live our values of Takeda-ism – Integrity, Fairness, Honesty, and Perseverance – and are united by our mission to strive towards Better Health and a Brighter Future for people worldwide through leading innovation in medicine. Here, everyone matters and you will be a vital contributor to our inspiring, bold mission. At Takeda, you will make an impact on people’s lives – including your own. Takeda is an equal opportunity employer.