Strategic Foresight & Scenario Planning Director

Takeda; Wien; On-site; EUR 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Takeda in Austria is seeking a Strategic Scenario Planning Lead to establish and head a repeatable scenario-planning capability for the PDT unit. You will help leaders test plans against plausible futures, translate evidence into options, and embed scenario insights into PDT strategy and long-range forecasting.

You will report to the Head of PDT Strategy Integration and collaborate with global teams, driving cross-functional work and delivering executive-ready materials to support strategic

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, economics, finance, strategy, science, engineering, public policy, or related field; an advanced degree is preferred.
• At least 10 years of overall professional experience, preferably including five or more years in corporate strategy, strategic planning, business transformation, management consulting, strategic foresight, or comparable decision-support roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional strategic work and influencing senior leaders in a global, matrixed organization.
• Proven ability to develop scenarios, assess uncertainty, challenge assumptions, and connect analysis to strategic decisions.
• Experience with long-range planning, strategic reviews, business cases, investment decisions, or enterprise transformation.
• Ability to synthesize market, competitive, operational, supply, manufacturing, portfolio, and strategic information into clear recommendations.
• Working understanding of financial analysis and the ability to partner effectively with Finance on relevant models and evaluations.
• Executive communication, facilitation, presentation, and stakeholder management skills, with clear written communication, including concise executive presentations.
• Ability to distinguish clearly among facts, trends, assumptions, uncertainties, scenarios, implications, and recommendations.
• Digital and artificial intelligence fluency, with sound judgment in applying approved tools and technologies to improve strategic work.
• Comfort working with incomplete information, adapting scenarios as conditions change, and maintaining clear, traceable assumptions and evidence.
• Experience in life sciences, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, plasma-derived therapies, manufacturing, supply chain, or another complex global value-chain industry is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Establish, implement, and continuously improve PDT’s strategic scenario-planning framework, annual agenda, standards, tools, and processes.
• Lead the development of a focused set of plausible, coherent, and materially different scenarios that test critical uncertainties, assumptions, risks, opportunities, dependencies, capabilities, and strategic choices.
• Stress-test PDT’s baseline plans, strategic priorities, investment choices, and operating choices against alternative futures, identifying vulnerabilities, no-regret actions, contingent options, and capability investments.
• Independently challenge prevailing assumptions and narratives, surface blind spots, and help leaders reframe strategic questions where perspectives or priorities are not aligned.
• Convene and facilitate cross-functional work with stakeholders across plasma sourcing, manufacturing, supply chain, commercial plasma portfolio, research and development, Finance, Data, Analytics and Insights, and other relevant functions.
• Translate qualitative and quantitative evidence into clear scenario narratives, enterprise implications, trade-offs, strategic options, and recommendations for senior leaders and governance forums.
• Define early-warning indicators, signposts, and decision trigger points so leaders can identify when assumptions have changed and when strategic choices should be revisited.
• Ensure scenario-planning outputs inform PDT strategy development, annual strategy refresh, long-range forecasting, priority initiatives, and major end-to-end decisions.
• Partner with Data, Analytics and Insights and DDT (Data Digital & Technology) to apply appropriate data, digital, and artificial intelligence-enabled tools that improve scenario quality, transparency, collaboration, reuse, and decision support.
• Build scenario-planning capability across PDT by enabling leaders and teams to ask better strategic questions and apply common principles in planning and decision-making.
• Prepare compelling executive-level materials that make complex uncertainty understandable and support clear, timely decisions.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Facilitation

Stakeholder management

Decision support

AI fluency

Adaptability

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business, economics, finance, strategy, science, engineering, public policy, or related field

Advanced degree preferred

Job description

Takeda in Austria is seeking a Strategic Scenario Planning Lead to establish and head a repeatable scenario-planning capability for the PDT unit. You will help leaders test plans against plausible futures, translate evidence into options, and embed scenario insights into PDT strategy and long-range forecasting.

You will report to the Head of PDT Strategy Integration and collaborate with global teams, driving cross-functional work and delivering executive-ready materials to support strategic