Senior Director, Program Lead

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Waltham (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is seeking a dynamic Sr Director, Program Lead to drive the strategy and lifecycle management for one or more assets.

The candidate will be a strategic leader with strong drug development expertise and ability to manage global programs from nomination to market. The role requires collaboration with Ono Pharma Group to align strategies and ensure timely, data-driven decisions across cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• Minimum 15 years drug development experience in biopharma.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the global program strategy from nomination to marketplace.
• Lead cross-functional program teams to define vision, strategy, goals, investments and risks.
• Communicate program status, timelines, milestones, risks and mitigations to leadership.
• Collaborate with Ono Pharma Group to align strategies across entities.
• Identify risks and mitigations; drive data-driven decisions.

Education

Minimum 15 years drug development experience in biopharma

Job description

Deciphera, a member of Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing important new medicines and providing hope to people living with cancer, neurologic and autoimmune disease. Deciphera is leveraging its proprietary switch-control kinase inhibitor platform and deep expertise in kinase biology to develop a broad portfolio of innovative medicines. In addition to advancing multiple product candidates from Deciphera’s platform in clinical studies, QINLOCK® (ripretinib) is Deciphera’s switch-control kinase inhibitor approved in many countries including the European Union and the United States for the treatment of adult patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) who have received prior treatment with 3 or more kinase inhibitors, including imatinib. ROMVIMZA® (vimseltinib) is a kinase inhibitor approved in the United States for adult patients with symptomatic tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT) for which surgical resection will potentially cause worsening functional limitation or severe morbidity, and in the European Union for adult patients with TGCT associated with clinically relevant physical function deterioration and in whom surgical options have been exhausted or would induce unacceptable morbidity or disability.

The spirit of collaboration that has brought medications to life continues to guide how we operate, grow, and discover new breakthroughs. We cultivate an inclusive culture that values curiosity, creativity, and shared accountability—empowering individuals to challenge the unknown together.

Deciphera offers competitive compensation, including equity-based compensation, and a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, 401(k) retirement plan, life insurance and a flexible spending account for either health care and/or dependent care.

Job Description

Deciphera’s cross-functional program teams drive the strategy and operations of our late preclinical, clinical, and commercial assets. We are seeking a dynamic, seasoned Sr Director, Program Lead (PL) who will be responsible and accountable for one or more therapeutic assets. The successful candidate will be a strategic leader who can leverage their strong drug development expertise, EQ, and organizational skills to develop and drive the asset strategy and for leading all development and life-cycle management projects associated with the asset.

Key Responsibilities

• Program Strategy & Execution Accountability
  • For a given asset/program, responsible for the development and execution of the overarching global program strategy. The PL leads all research and development activities associated with an asset from approximately nomination of lead candidates to the marketplace with full accountability.
  • Drive the development and execution of the strategic plan, appropriately balancing data quality, timelines and costs based on current internal corporate considerations and the external landscape.
  • Lead one or more cross-functional program teams to define program vision, strategy, goals, decision points, investments and areas of risk and associated mitigations and contingencies.
  • Partners closely with the program manager to provide strategic, process and operational leadership to the Program team
  • Identifies and communicates risks and appropriate mitigations
  • Lead data-driven decision-making processes to enable timely and objective development decisions
• Communicate
  • Holistic and confident communication: ensure PT clearly understands expectations from leadership, ensure leadership clearly understands program status, timelines, milestones, risks and mitigations
  • Focus team efforts on most critical tasks; identify and resolve communication bottlenecks
  • Participate in Portfolio Strategy Steering Committee meetings as the key representative of the program team
  • Liaise with relevant stakeholders within the Ono Pharma Group to ensure alignment across entities. Liaise with peers within the Program Leadership and Management function to maintain consistent cross-project standards, ensure aligned strategies, and to determine overlap of competing priorities.
• Promotes organizational reputation by engaging with internal and external stakeholders and collaborating actively with other Deciphera PLs
  • PLs are experienced, versatile and strong enterprise leaders
  • PLs are highly collaborative cross-functional leaders who consistently drive top performance and deliver against challenging goals
  • PLs ensure that risks and challenges are addressed proactively and collaboratively with partner functions, with joint decision making when appropriate to drive, deliver and maximize asset value.
  • PLs are effective in communicating to partners and stakeholders at an appropriate level of detail.
• Other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications

• A minimum of 15 years drug development experience in the bi