Vendor Alliance Lead - Associate Director FSP

Job Description Summary
Reporting to the Head Vendor Alliance FSP, the CAL Vendor Alliance Lead Associate Director is responsible for the management of outsourced clinical services and deliverables of supported External Relationship Management Teams (ERMT).

• Working within a matrix environment, the VAL Vendor Alliance Lead AD is accountable for all operational aspects of all supported ERMTs
• Supplier Service or Equipment expert for the assigned services within the ERMTs to drive value beyond cost from Novartis’ external supplier base
• Supporting the implementation of the agreed outsourcing strategies
• Responsible for supplier governance, management and issue management/escalation across global GCO and locally and cross-divisionally as required (e.g. Country, Development, NIBR, Sandoz).
• Function as a point of escalation for supplier issues which cannot be resolved at the individual Clinical Trial Teams level
• Leverage knowledge, experience and understanding of service category(s) and suppliers to provide support to the operational management within the ERMT(s)
• Lead supplier due diligence activities with ERMT

Job Description
Major accountabilities:

• 1. Lead business review meetings with vendors based on KPI and KQIs
• 2. Lead and/or support internal cross-functional ERMT meetings
• 3. Manages escalated global vendor issues, or selected country vendor issues
• 4. Identifies systemic patterns, driving root cause analysis and sustainably and effectively addresses pain points
• 5. Using technological enablers to drive automated and systematic issue resolution
• 6. Function as service category expert providing expertise and training to stakeholders
• 7. Ensures compliance with all required SOPs and business guidance documents
• 8. Provides Health Authority inspection support
• 9. CAPA management from audit & inspections
• 10. Drives value through process improvement and innovation within category
• 11. Proactive risk management within category
• 12. Supporting global and local vendor qualification if required
• Key performance indicators:
• ERMT(s) meet business objectives
• Robust processes to capture and measure the issue resolution, escalation and risk mitigation, and communication of supplier quality/performance issues
• Highly integrated and seen as supplier experts within ERMTs, and related business stakeholders like Procurement, Finance, Compliance, ESP QA.
• No deviations to Novartis specifications and Standard Operating Procedures; Supplier due diligence activities (qualifications and re-qualifications) are completed in a timely manner to minimize any delays to study startup timelines and non-compliance
• Contribute to continuous improvements/enhancements to benefit business community
• Complete and accurate documentation to facilitate successful internal and external audit / inspections
• Timely oversight, completion, and management of assigned supplier qualification and re-qualification requirements
• Accountable for quality and completeness of qualification and governance documentation in VPG systems including ERMT meeting minutes

Skills Desired
Budget Management, Clinical Trials, People Management, Project Planning, Vendor Management, Waterfall Model