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Salary: USD 180,000 - 190,000 / annual
Ascendis Pharma, a dynamic global biopharmaceutical company advancing programs in Endocrinology Rare Disease and Oncology, seeks an Associate Project Director for its Global Regulatory Affairs & Patient Safety (GRAPS) function.
This senior project-management role translates GRAPS strategic priorities into disciplined execution across Global Regulatory Affairs, Global Patient Safety, and enterprise partners. You will establish fit-for-purpose governance, integrated plans, decision pathways, performance reporting, and risk management for a portfolio of strategic and operational initiatives.
Working with the Chief Regulatory & Safety Officer, GRAPS Leadership Team, functional leaders, and cross-functional stakeholders, you will lead small-to-medium complex projects and selected larger workstreams requiring coordination across functions, geographies, vendors, and systems. The role combines strategic perspective with hands-on delivery, requiring influence without formal authority, improvement of ways of working, and strengthening of quality, compliance, predictability, and organizational scalability.
Key responsibilities include: leading assigned GRAPS projects and programs from definition through closeout with clear charters, scope, objectives, and success measures; partnering with GRAPS leaders to translate strategic priorities into integrated roadmaps aligned with portfolio and enterprise objectives; maintaining consolidated view of the GRAPS project portfolio and highlighting capacity constraints and interdependencies; establishing and running proportionate governance including core teams, steering forums, decision logs, and escalation pathways; developing and maintaining integrated project plans, critical paths, resource assumptions, budgets, RAID logs, and change controls; monitoring execution against scope, schedule, quality, cost, and outcomes; preparing executive dashboards, status reports, decision memos, and recommendations; coordinating stakeholders across Regulatory Affairs, Patient Safety, Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Quality, IT, Finance, HR, Legal, Procurement, and external partners; creating clarity on roles, accountabilities, interfaces, and handoffs using RACI tools; facilitating complex workshops that align stakeholders and convert discussion into decisions; identifying opportunities to standardize, simplify, and scale GRAPS processes, templates, and tools; ensuring project deliverables support applicable GxP, regulatory, pharmacovigilance, documentation, and records-management requirements; coordinating resource planning and surfacing trade-offs; supporting vendor selection, statements of work, and performance monitoring; developing stakeholder and change-impact assessments and communication plans; and providing direction and coaching to workstream leads and junior project-management colleagues.
Travel: Approximately 10% domestically and internationally. Location proposed as US or EU remote or hybrid role, with travel to Ascendis locations and business-critical meetings as needed.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in life sciences, business, project management, engineering, or related discipline; advanced degree preferred.
- Typically 8 or more years of relevant experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or other highly regulated industry, including substantial responsibility for cross-functional project or program delivery.
- Demonstrated experience leading small-to-medium complex projects or major workstreams with functional-management stakeholders and limited day-to-day supervision.
- Working knowledge of drug development and commercialization, with experience in Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance/Patient Safety, Quality, Regulatory Operations, or adjacent functions strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated command of project and program management practices, including scope, schedule, resource, budget, dependency, risk, issue, change, governance, and benefits management.
- Experience preparing executive-ready dashboards, status reports, decision materials, and presentations using Microsoft 365 and relevant project-management or reporting tools.
- Project-management certification such as PMP, PRINCE2, or equivalent preferred; Agile or change-management training an advantage.
- Enterprise mindset and patient focus, with sound judgment about business, quality, compliance, and reputational risk.
- Advanced stakeholder-management and influencing skills, including ability to establish alignment and accountability without formal authority.
- Highly structured, analytical, and detail-oriented while maintaining focus on strategic intent and outcomes.
- Able to simplify complexity, frame options, recommend a path forward, and communicate decisions clearly.
- Comfortable operating in ambiguity, managing competing priorities, and adapting plans as conditions change.
- Collaborative, inclusive, culturally aware, and effective in global matrix environment.
- High integrity, discretion, ownership, and commitment to transparent communication and follow-through.
