Director, Centralized Study Support

Career Category

Clinical Development

Job Description

Director, Centralized Study Support (CSS) 

Location: Hyderabad, India 

ABOUT AMGEN 

Amgen harnesses the best of biology and technology to fight the world's toughest diseases, and make people's lives easier, fuller and longer. We discover, develop, manufacture and deliver innovative medicines to help millions of patients. Amgen helped establish the biotechnology industry more than 40 years ago and remains on the cutting-edge of innovation, using technology and human genetic data to push beyond what's known today. 

ABOUT THE ROLE 

Role Description: 

The Director, CSS is responsible for building & leading a large Centralized Study Support team, and for shaping an inclusive, high-performing organization grounded in clear accountability and consistent delivery excellence.  This role also oversees complex, resourcing across global portfolios, optimising capacity, capability, and deployment to support study delivery.  

Roles & Responsibilities:          

Global CSS Leadership 

• Provide strategic and operational leadership to a large, multi-layered CSS organization through senior managers and managers, ensuring consistent delivery, quality, and employee engagement across the function. 

• Set the vision, priorities, and long-term operating model for centralized study support in alignment with Global Development Operations objectives and evolving portfolio needs.          

• Establish clear performance expectations, governance, and decision-making frameworks that drive accountability, consistency, and operational excellence across the organization. 

• Monitor functional performance through KPIs, capacity indicators, and quality metrics, proactively addressing risks and identifying opportunities to improve service delivery. 

Leadership Team Development 

• Lead, coach, and develop senior managers and managers to strengthen leadership capability, succession readiness, and organizational resilience. 

• Guide leaders through complex people, performance, and organizational design decisions while fostering a culture of inclusion, transparency, and continuous learning. 

• Build a high-performing leadership community that models collaboration, change agility, and strong talent stewardship across teams and geographies. 

Culture, Engagement & Performance Excellence 

• Build and sustain a culture of delivery, accountability, belonging, and performance excellence across the CSS organization, ensuring employees are connected to the mission and clear on expectations. 

• Create an environment where diverse perspectives are valued, inclusion is intentional, and leaders foster strong engagement, development, and retention across teams and geographies. 

• Model and reinforce high standards for execution, collaboration, and people leadership while recognizing performance, addressing gaps, and promoting continuous improvement at every level. 

Resource Strategy, Allocation & FSP Oversight 

• Provide strategic oversight of resource forecasting, allocation, and capacity planning for CSS roles across clinical programs, ensuring alignment with portfolio priorities, study demand, and budget considerations. 

• Oversee resource allocation governance and scenario planning, anticipating supply-demand gaps and driving timely mitigation plans, hiring strategies, and deployment decisions.          

• Lead oversight of FSP partnerships supporting CSS, ensuring external capacity, performance, and capabilities align with business needs. 

Stakeholder Partnership & Governance 

• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across Global Development Operations and serve as the senior escalation point.

• Communicate strategic updates, resource insights, risks, and recommendations clearly and persuasively to senior leadership, enabling informed portfolio and operational decisions. 

Quality, Compliance & Risk Management 

• Ensure teams and partners operate in accordance with SOPs, regulatory requirements, quality standards, and internal controls, while proactively identifying and mitigating operational and resourcing risks. 

Operational Excellence & Capability Building 

• Identify organizational capability gaps and define strategies to strengthen functional expertise, leadership depth, and scalable ways of working across CSS.          

• Lead continuous improvement initiatives across processes, tools, systems, and reporting to improve efficiency, visibility, and consistency, including thoughtful use of AI and automation where appropriate. 

Enterprise Planning Support 

• Partner across GDO to support workforce planning, hiring strategies, forecasting analysis for CSS. 

Basic Qualifications and Experience: 

• Doctorate degree, Master's degree, OR Bachelor's degree with over 18 years of experience.

• In addition to meeting at least one of the above requirements, you must have a minimum of 5 years of experience directly managing people and/or leadership experience leading teams, programs, organizational change, or directing the allocation of resources. This should include practical experience managing resourcing decisions such as capacity forecasting, prioritization of demand, and allocation trade-offs across a global portfolio of studies, programs, and geographies. Leadership experience may run concurrently with the required technical experience referenced above.                            

Preferred Qualifications and Experience:  

• 10+ years of work experience in the life sciences industry, including significant biopharmaceutical clinical research experience within a biotech, pharmaceutical, or CRO environment.          

• Experience building teams from inception, fostering an inclusive, high-performance culture with a strong emphasis on delivery and continuous improvement 

• Experience overseeing complex resourcing across global portfolios, optimising capacity, capability, and deployment to deliver against shifting strategic priorities 

• Experience leading continuous improvement initiatives and delivering positive, sustainable change across complex organisations. 

Competencies: 

• Ability to translate portfolio and operational complexity into scalable organizational strategies, resource models, and practical execution plans. 

• Strong executive presence, communication, and influencing skills with the ability to engage senior leaders, cross-functional partners, and external stakeholders. 

• Uses data, trends, and scenario analysis to guide decisions, surface risks early, and drive clear business recommendations.                   

• Demonstrated ability to lead, develop, and inspire leaders and large teams across functions, cultures, geographies, and time zones. 

• Experience balancing quality, compliance, financial discipline, and resource efficiency in a complex global clinical development environment.          

• Track record of leading continuous improvement, simplification, and change initiatives that strengthen organizational effectiveness.          

• Strong understanding of the clinical development lifecycle, study delivery principles, and the operational interdependencies across Global Development Operations. 

• Experience overseeing external partners, including FSP and vendor governance, performance management, and issue escalation to deliver high-quality outcomes. 

• Ability to navigate ambiguity, manage competing priorities, and build durable partnerships across diverse regulatory, cultural, and operational environments.          

• Demonstrated capability to build organizational talent pipelines, strengthen leadership capability, and evolve operating models to meet future business needs. 

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