R&D Portfolio Manager
What this job does:
Oversees the strategic management of a company's drug development pipeline, making or informing high-stakes decisions about which programs to advance, deprioritize, pause, or terminate based on scientific, clinical, commercial, and financial data. Day-to-day involves synthesizing information from across therapeutic programs, building portfolio dashboards and decision frameworks, facilitating governance meetings with senior leadership, and conducting scenario analyses including resource allocation, risk-adjusted NPV, and probability of technical success. Fundamentally a strategic synthesis role - integrating complex, multi-dimensional information to support enterprise-level investment decisions.
This job is similar to these lab/research tasks:
Evaluating incomplete and contradictory data across projects, assessing probability of success for research directions, synthesizing evidence from multiple sources, making strategic recommendations under uncertainty
Typical starting salary range
$110k to $155k
Salary estimate represented as 25th to 75th percentile. Gathered from recent job postings, Glassdoor.com, and Salary.com
Daily task breakdown
- Portfolio analysis, strategic planning, and scenario modeling (35%)
- Cross-functional data synthesis and decision support (25%)
- Governance meeting facilitation and leadership communication (20%)
- Stakeholder coordination and project management (15%)
- Other: process improvement, tool and dashboard development (5%)
Skills you'll use in this job:
Strategic thinking and big-picture synthesis; deep understanding of drug development (preclinical through commercialization); financial modeling and portfolio analytics (NPV, eNPV, probability of success); strong analytical and quantitative skills; advanced PowerPoint and data visualization for executive communication; cross-functional fluency (clinical, regulatory, CMC, commercial); stakeholder management and executive influence; portfolio management tools (Planisware, ServiceNow SPM); ability to synthesize ambiguous data into clear strategic recommendations; decision analysis frameworks
Talk about these PhD skills in your resume and interview:
Talk about evaluating incomplete and sometimes contradictory data across projects to make strategic recommendations - the rigorous evidence-based synthesis that R&D Portfolio Managers perform daily. Talk about assessing evidence strength, making go/no-go decisions on research directions, and communicating complex tradeoffs to senior stakeholders.
Alternative job titles to search:
Pipeline Portfolio Manager; R&D Strategy Manager; Portfolio Strategy Manager; Director - R&D Portfolio Management; R&D Portfolio Analyst; Strategic Portfolio Manager; Head of Portfolio Management; Pipeline Strategy Manager; R&D Investment Strategy Manager
*Note:
-Job titles are inconsistent between companies. Try various keywords.
-PhDs tend to undershoot seniority level. Target higher than you think.
