Operations Lead, Digital Research and Development Data AI Products and Platforms - Vaccines

At Sanofi, we’re committed to providing the next-gen healthcare that patients and customers need. It’s about harnessing data insights and leveraging AI responsibly to search deeper and solve sooner than ever before. Join our Digital R&D Data & AI Products and Platforms Team as an Operations Lead and you can help make it happen.

Sanofi has recently embarked onto a vast and ambitious digital transformation program. A cornerstone of this roadmap is the acceleration of its data transformation and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions, to accelerate R&D, manufacturing and commercial performance and bring better drugs and vaccines to patients faster, to improve health and save lives.

The Digital R&D Data & AI Products and Platforms Team is a key team within R&D Digital, focused on developing and delivering Data and AI products for R&D use cases. This team plays a critical role in pursuing broader democratization of data across R&D and providing the foundation to scale AI/ML, advanced analytics, and operational analytics capabilities.

As the Operations Lead, you are supporting end-to-end delivery excellence of products and platforms and operating model for the product line. You will work closely with the Product Line Owner and Product Owners by ensuring that we build a robust strategy and roadmap and instill sound agile practices and ways of working. With your support, we create and quantify value with our portfolio of products and platforms, and that we measure and continuously optimize our performance. This role that requires a high level of coordination within the team, with other verticals as well as with business R&D.

About Sanofi  

We’re an R&D-driven, AI-powered biopharma company committed to improving people’s lives and delivering compelling growth. Our deep understanding of the immune system – and innovative pipeline – enables us to invent medicines and vaccines that treat and protect millions of people around the world. Together, we chase the miracles of science to improve people’s lives.  

Main Responsibilities:

Delivery Excellence and Performance Monitoring

• Support the delivery of R&D Data and AI products and platforms strategy through defining roadmap in collaboration with DPP leaders, Product Owners, vertical and business R&D SMEs

• Maintain a clear and current view of all products/components, owners, milestones, and dependencies

• Be plugged into key Agile rituals and provide a reliable, concise view of status, risks, and spend to leadership for each product/platform

Value Delivery & Benefits Realization

• Collaborate with Product Line Owners and Product Owners on all topics related to value engineering and impact delivered to business R&D

• Accountable for the quality of deliveries and OKRs/KPIs consolidation and post-launch ROI reviews to global Digital R&D scorecards, and communication to LT

Change Management & GTM Strategy& Storytelling

• Define change management / GTM strategy and framework with scrum team and execute on plan; iterate as needed based on stakeholder needs and communication requirements to drive awareness, adoption and/or utilization

• Collaborate with Delivery Leads and/or Scrum Masters to ensure release or launch readiness and conduct post-launch retrospectives

• Collaborate with the scrum team to create and own their product/platform artifacts and are fit‑for‑purpose

• Own Product Line communication and capture “win wires” and successes and channel them to internal and cross-functional and leadership forums to build visibility and support

• Promote updates & features & launches, sharing of success stories, monitoring of adoption

Risk, Issues and Interdependency Management

• Collaborate with Product Line Owners and Products Owners, to proactively manage the risks, issues and dependencies for successful delivery

• Systematically identify, log, and track risks (timelines, dependencies, blockers, GxP/quality gaps, resourcing issues, etc.)

• Drive resolution by assigning clear owners and due dates; escalate when decisions or tradeoffs are needed

Financial Management

• Collaborate with Finance and Procurement on all topics related to budget elaboration, strategic resource planning and business case reviews

• Manage and monitor budget: plan vs. committed, spend vs forecast vs variance by product/platform

• Manage and execute SOWs and POs with vendors or providers

Resource Planning and Optimization

• Collaborate with Product Line Owners, People & Culture and procurement, to ensure optimized staffing allocation to achieve product impact and support their roadmap

• Tracks internal and external resources across various products/platforms 

Leverage Deep Understanding of Agile Transformation

• Raise agile capability of the Product Line and provide coaching and mentorship in agile practices

• Define and enforce Ways of Working including roles and responsibilities across across Product Owners, Scrum Master, Tech Lead, QA, Operations, Engineers

• Establish, enhance and/or promote systems and processes to drive self-governance and management

Continuous Improvement of the Operating Model

• Improve and refine Ways of Working and Operating Model and monitoring for impact

• Identify and address structural/procedural pain points (e.g., onboarding overhead, fragmented documentation, meeting sprawl) 

• Propose and implement small, practical changes (templates, intake processes, meeting hygiene) that enhance delivery over time

About You

Education & Experience:

• 10+ years of experience in Strategy or Operations or Program/Portfolio Management, preferably in digital R&D teams and agile Ways of Working; Batchlor's degree required, master’s degree in business, science, engineering or digital field preferred.

Skills:

• Detailed planning, budgeting, and reporting capabilities and demonstrated ability to link those to strategy and vision

• Strong networking, influencing and negotiating skills and superior problem-solving skills

• Strong and confident storytelling and communication skills with the ability to convince and influence at all levels of the organization.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across technical, business, and finance teams

• Demonstrated ability to work with multiple teams to drive alignment and results 

• Continuous improvement mindset - Results oriented, and self-motivated

• Positive team player who is service-oriented and flexible

• Knowledge on agile development and product lifecycle is a plus

• Data and AI Products and Platform expertise or experience

• Pharma and/or Digital healthcare expertise is a plus; experience in or good understanding of pharmaceutical R&D

• English fluent. French, Spanish, or other languages is a plus. 

Why Choose Us?

• Bring the miracles of science to life alongside a supportive, future-focused team

• Discover endless opportunities to grow your talent and drive your career, whether it’s through a promotion or lateral move, at home or internationally

• Enjoy a thoughtful, well-crafted rewards package that recognizes your contribution and amplifies your impact

• Take good care of yourself and your family, with a wide range of health and wellbeing benefits including high-quality healthcare, prevention and wellness programs

All compensation will be determined commensurate with demonstrated experience. Employees may be eligible to participate in Company employee benefit programs, and additional benefits information can be found here.

Toute compensation sera déterminée en fonction de l'expérience démontrée. Les employés peuvent être admissibles à participer aux programmes d'avantages sociaux de l'entreprise. Des informations supplémentaires sur les avantages sociaux peuvent être trouvées ici.