Associate Vice President, R&D Process Orchestration

The Position  

As Associate Vice President, R&D Process Orchestration, you will play a pivotal role in accelerating the way Novo Nordisk develops medicines by improving how the work flows across the entire R&D value chain; from early development strategy through protocol development, clinical studies, and submission.   

Reporting to the Group Vice President of Portfolio Strategy & Project Leadership, you will lead the newly established R&D Process Orchestration function and act as a strategic partner to the R&D Leadership Team. Your mission is to simplify complexity, improve speed, strengthen collaboration, and enable data-driven decision-making across R&D. 

You will work across organisational boundaries to redesign workflows, optimise processes, and introduce digital and AI-enabled solutions that improve productivity and reduce time to market.  
 

Position to be based in Søborg, Denmark. 

Your Key Responsibilities 

You will: 

• Define the strategic direction for process orchestration area across R&D.  

• Own and continuously improve key portfolio management processes and optimise the Global Project Framework.  

• Drive and facilitate process excellence by redesigning workflows, simplifying handovers, manage interdependencies, and improving end-to-end process efficiency.  

• Partner with senior leaders and subject matter experts across R&D, Quality, CMC, Digital, and other business areas to drive enterprise-wide alignment and change to accelerate development of asset strategy, clinical trial planning, execution and submission.  

• Work with our AI and Digital area to accelerate digital transformation of how we set asset strategy and enable seamless and fast downstream execution  

• Build organisational capability by developing a high-performing team and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.  

• Represent Novo Nordisk externally in relevant industry forums and benchmark emerging best practices in R&D operations.  

Qualifications 

To succeed in this role, you are likely to bring: 

• A master's degree or other advanced degree in Life Sciences, Engineering, Business, or related discipline, preferred.  

• Senior leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry. 

• A strong track record of leading enterprise-wide transformation and operational excellence initiatives across a complex pharmaceutical organisation 

• Demonstrated success delivering cross-functional transformation across complex value chains, aligning teams, processes, and outcomes.  

• Experience redesigning operating models, workflows, or business processes with measurable business impact for R&D functions of a pharmaceutical company 

• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and lead cross-functional initiatives without direct authority.  

• Experience implementing digital solutions such as AI, automation, process mining, or advanced analytics to improve business performance.  

• Strong program and portfolio management capabilities.  

• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and leadership skills.  

About You 

We imagine that you: 

• Are a strong communicator with excellent collaboration skills. 

• Think strategically while remaining highly execution oriented.  

• Are naturally curious, and challenge established ways of working.  

• Enjoy solving complex organisational challenges through collaboration and influence.  

• Build trust quickly and create alignment across diverse stakeholders.  

• Lead change with confidence and inspire others to embrace new ways of working.  

• Have a passion for continuous improvement, innovation, and creating lasting organisational impact.  

Deadline  

Sunday 17 September 2026.

You do not need to attach a cover letter to your application, but please include a few sentences about why you are applying in your CV. To ensure an efficient and fair recruitment process, please refrain from adding a photo in your CV.  
We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equal opportunity for all our job applicants.