Director, R&D Data Governance

Alkermes; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 195,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance-pay bonus

Comprehensive benefits package

Job summary

Alkermes is seeking an R&D Data Governance Lead in Boston, MA. This role shapes and oversees the governance of R&D data across the organization, collaborating with R&D, IT, and data teams to establish frameworks and standards. With a competitive salary range of $195,000 to $210,000, the position also offers a performance-pay bonus along with a comprehensive benefits package. Ideal candidates will have a strong work ethic, excellent communication skills, and a proactive approach to collaboration.

Qualifications

• Desire to shape future of data-driven R&D innovation.
• Thrives in a fast-paced, impact-driven organization.
• Ability to multitask and manage concurrent work requests.
• Direct experience with medical claims, EMR, and -omics data is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Define and communicate the R&D data vision.
• Collaborate to develop operationalise R&D data governance frameworks.
• Work with IT to align priorities and ensure governance.
• Provide training to R&D teams on data governance best practices.

Skills

Data-driven R&D innovation

Self-starter

Strong work ethic

Excellent communication skills

Job description

Position Summary

This role is the first R&D-focused data governance position within Alkermes’ new Enterprise Data Management function. It will shape how R&D data is governed, enabled, and scaled across the organization, ensuring it is trusted, discoverable, secure, and usable across discovery, preclinical, and clinical domains. The successful candidate will co‑develop the R&D data vision, multi‑year roadmap, and governance framework, and will partner closely with R&D, IT, and enterprise Data & AI teams to embed governance into day‑to‑day workflows.

Responsibilities

• Define and communicate the R&D data vision and maintain a multi‑year roadmap covering governance, architecture alignment, acquisition, curation, and data utilisation across critical R&D domains.
• Collaborate with the Director, Enterprise Data Governance and R&D leaders to co‑develop, recommend, and operationalise R&D data governance frameworks, operating models, and processes, including forums, decision rights, escalation paths, and success metrics.
• Work with R&D, IT, and Data & AI leaders to align priorities, sequence investments, and ensure governance enables scientific outcomes.
• Drive adoption of FAIR data principles through pragmatic standards, embedded workflows, and data literacy programmes.
• Partner with R&D leaders to identify, procure, and document R&D data assets and capabilities needed for priority scientific and business use cases, recommending and gaining alignment on scope, sequencing, and implementation approaches.
• Establish and lead the R&D data governance operating model and processes, implementing metrics to monitor governance effectiveness and data maturity; partner to implement stewardship policies, roles, and responsibilities.
• Define and establish policies to enable R&D data quality standards (e.g., metadata, ontologies, controlled vocabularies) with the Data Governance Committee.
• Collaborate on evaluation, selection, and implementation of data management platforms and tools (e.g., data catalogs, access control systems, data lakes), and identify opportunities to develop fit‑for‑purpose platforms using existing enterprise tools.
• Define procedures for data validation, verification, and monitoring to ensure accuracy, completeness, and traceability; implement metadata management, data lineage, and data quality practices.
• Work closely with the INDIGO program and IT to recommend and help implement data standards, metadata, quality practices, and access patterns that ensure R&D data assets are AI‑ready and suitable for intended analytical and AI/ML use cases.
• Provide guidance and training to R&D teams on data governance best practices, acting as the primary liaison between R&D, IT, and enterprise data management functions.
• Partner with data management and engineering teams to ensure effective ingestion, curation, and integration of R&D datasets (e.g., omics, imaging, clinical).
• Partner with IT and compliance teams to recommend and implement access controls that ensure appropriate data use and compliance with internal policies and external regulations, enabling self‑service data access for scientists and analysts while maintaining data integrity and security.
• Support and contribute to change management efforts to foster a data‑centric culture within R&D, and provide training and support to data users and stakeholders on data management best practices.

Qualifications

• Desire to shape the future of data‑driven R&D innovation and collaborate with leading scientists, clinicians, and digital experts.
• Thrives in a fast‑paced, impact‑driven organization where contributions are visible and meaningful.
• Self‑starter with the ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Ability to multitask and effectively manage simultaneous work requests across departments, IT, and other cross‑functional organisations.
• Willingness to learn new applications, tools, and approaches as additional needs arise.
• Strong work ethic with a proven track record of successfully achieving goals.
• Proactive communication style.
• Direct experience working with medical claims, EMR, -omics, patent, and other life‑science‑oriented data modalities is a plus.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to present to and interact with a diverse group of executives, managers, and subject‑matter experts.

Compensation & Benefits

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $195,000 to $210,000. The role is eligible for an annual performance‑pay bonus. An attractive benefits package is offered; additional details are available on the careers website.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Alkermes, Inc. is an equal employment opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any qualified applicant or employee because of race, creed, colour, age, national origin, ancestry, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression and identity, disability, genetic information, veteran status, military status, application for military service or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal law. Alkermes also complies with all work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act and IRCA, and is an E‑Verify employer.