Associate Director, Strategic Operations

IQVIA LLC; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 85,000 - 237,000; Full time

Job summary

IQVIA LLC is seeking an Associate Director, Strategic Operations to serve as a strategic change management advisor for external partners, guiding complex transformations across organizational boundaries. You will shape change strategies, translate objectives into scalable adoption roadmaps, and work with leaders to ensure adoption and measurable value realization.

You will recommend mitigation strategies for adoption risks, set governance and KPIs, and lead CM activities with cross-functional

Qualifications

• 3+ years Change Manager experience in pharma or life sciences.
• Pharmaceutical industry experience required.
• Prosci or ACMP certification preferred.
• Extensive program/project planning and execution in large transforms.
• Experience with multiple change management methodologies (Prosci, Kotter).
• Strong communication for trainings, facilitation and leadership presentations.
• Able to align stakeholders across external and internal teams.
• Fluent use of MS Office; Proficient with PowerPoint and Smartsheet.
• Lean / Six Sigma awareness and continuous improvement mindset.
• Experience building or formalizing CM functions and governance.

Responsibilities

• Serve as strategic change advisor to external partners across transformations.
• Shape change strategies enabling collaboration, adoption, and value realization.
• Translate objectives into scalable adoption roadmaps including governance.
• Identify adoption risks and advise mitigation to senior leaders.
• Advise on change impact, readiness, and tradeoffs with evolving partnerships.
• Design and deliver structured CM approaches: communications, training, engagement.
• Assess readiness and sequence adoption activities with stakeholders.
• Establish governance, decision frameworks, KPIs for accountability.
• Track adoption and value metrics; adjust strategies from insights.
• Coach leaders to champion change and reinforce new behaviors.
• Ensure projects are on time, in scope, on budget, aligned with priorities.
• Maintain project management templates and best practices.
• Communicate project status and risks to executive sponsors.

Skills

Change Manager

Pharma industry

Prosci/ACMP certification

Programme/Project planning

CM methodologies (Prosci, Kotter)

Executive facilitation

MS PowerPoint/Smartsheet

Lean/Six Sigma mindset

CM governance & delivery leadership

Cross-cultural collaboration

Data interpretation and analytics

Tools

MS PowerPoint

Smartsheet

Job description

The Associate Director, Strategic Operations serves as a strategic change management advisor, with primary responsibility for supporting external partners through complex transformation initiatives. This role provides expert guidance on change strategy, adoption best practices, and cross-organizational alignment to enable effective collaboration, accelerate adoption, and drive measurable value realization across organizational boundaries. The Associate Director partners closely with internal and external stakeholders to align approaches, mitigate adoption risks, and ensure change strategies are scaled appropriately as strategic partnerships evolve.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a strategic change management advisor to external partners, guiding complex transformation initiatives across organizational boundaries.
• Shape and align change strategies that enable effective collaboration, adoption, and value realization across external and internal stakeholders.
• Translate transformation objectives into scalable adoption roadmaps spanning operating models, governance, roles, and behaviors.
• Anticipate adoption risks across interdependent organizations and recommend mitigation strategies to senior leaders.
• Advise leadership on change impact, readiness, and trade‑offs associated with evolving strategic partnerships.
• Execution Design and deliver structured change management approaches supporting external partner transformations, including communications, training, engagement, and reinforcement.
• Partner with internal and external stakeholders to assess readiness, define change impacts, and sequence adoption activities.
• Establish clear governance, decision frameworks, and KPIs to drive accountability and momentum across multi‑workstream initiatives.
• Track and report adoption and value metrics, adjusting strategies based on insights and feedback.
• Act as a trusted advisor to leaders and teams navigating complex, cross‑organizational change.
• Facilitate CM upskilling and coaching of senior leaders, frontline managers and business experts to champion the change and reinforce new behaviors
• Ensure projects are delivered on time, in scope, on budget, and aligned with strategic priorities
• Help maintain standards, templates, and best practices around project management and change delivery
• Communicate clearly with executive sponsors and senior leaders on project status, risks, tradeoffs, and outcomes.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to leaders navigating complex change.

IQVIA is a leading global provider of clinical research services, commercial insights and healthcare intelligence to the life sciences and healthcare industries. We create intelligent connections to accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments to help improve patient outcomes and population health worldwide. Learn more at https://jobs.iqvia.com IQVIA is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other status protected by applicable law. https://jobs.iqvia.com/eoe IQVIA is committed to integrity in our hiring process and maintains a zero tolerance policy for candidate fraud. All information and credentials submitted in your application must be truthful and complete. Any false statements, misrepresentations, or material omissions during the recruitment process will result in immediate disqualification of your application, or termination of employment if discovered later, in accordance with applicable law. We appreciate your honesty and professionalism.

Skills required

• 3+ years Change Manager experience required
• Pharmaceutical industry experience required
• Preferential PROSCI or ACMP Certification
• Extensive programme / project planning and execution skills in handling large and complex change and transformation programs/projects
• Experience of using a variety of project and business change management methodologies (Prosci, Kotter, etc.)
• Proven adaptability skills that enhance communications, trainings and ultimately adoption
• Expert user of MS PowerPoint, Smartsheet Fluent in MS Office.
• Understanding of Lean / Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement
• Proven experience building or formalizing project and/or change management functions, not just operating within them.
• Exceptional communication skills, including facilitation and executive presentations.
• Excellent negotiation and conflict resolution skills
• Customer management with a global attitude decision-making, influencing and challenging ability
• Ability to empower others toward project goals
• Strong program governance and delivery leadership with the ability to guide project teams through CM activities when working in Agile environments.
• Proven track record of deploying Change Management in enterprise/commercial settings, with measurable business outcomes.
• Adaptability across cultures, roles, and learning needs
• Analytical mindset to interpret usage and learning data

The potential base pay range for this role, when annualized, is $85,000.00 - $237,000.00. The actual base pay offered may vary based on a number of factors including job-related qualifications such as knowledge, skills, education, and experience; location; and/or schedule (full or part-time). Dependent on the position offered, incentive plans, bonuses, and/or other forms of compensation may be offered, in addition to a range of health and welfare and/or other benefits.

IQVIA is a leading global provider of clinical research services, commercial insights and healthcare intelligence to the life sciences and healthcare industries. We create connections that accelerate the development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments. Everything we do is part of a journey to improve patient outcomes and population health worldwide. To get there, we seek out diverse talent with curious minds and a relentless commitment to innovation and impact. No matter your role, everyone at IQVIA contributes to our shared goal of helping customers improve the lives of patients everywhere. Thank you for your interest in growing your career with us.