Associate Director, International Contract Lead, Agile Sourcing

Working with Us
Challenging. Meaningful. Life-changing. Those aren’t words that are usually associated with a job. But working at Bristol Myers Squibb is anything but usual. Here, uniquely interesting work happens every day, in every department. From optimizing a production line to the latest breakthroughs in cell therapy, this is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. You’ll get the chance to grow and thrive through opportunities uncommon in scale and scope, alongside high-achieving teams. Take your career farther than you thought possible.

Bristol Myers Squibb recognizes the importance of balance and flexibility in our work environment. We offer a wide variety of competitive benefits, services and programs that provide our employees with the resources to pursue their goals, both at work and in their personal lives. Read more: careers.bms.com/working-with-us.

Bristol Myers Squibb Ireland

Bristol Myers Squibb is a leading global biopharma company focused on discovering, developing and delivering innovative medicines for patients with serious diseases in areas including oncology, haematology, immunology, cardiovascular and neuroscience. Our employees work every day to transform patients’ lives through science.

Bristol Myers Squibb has been in operation in Ireland since 1964, employing over 650 people across a range of activities and business units. Many of the global business services, including the European Treasury Centre, Market Supply Operations and Commercial Operations have a presence in Ireland. 

Ireland is also home to External manufacturing’s global headquarters, the business unit responsible for the management of manufacturing contract operations (CMO’s) and ensuring reliable supply of product to patients across the Bristol Myers Squibb global network.

Located in Dublin, Cruiserath Biologics Campus, a one billion Multi-Product Cell Culture Biologics Manufacturing facility plays a central role in the Global Product Development and Supply (GPS) network as the company’s first European biologics manufacturing facility.  This state of the art facility will produce multiple therapies for the company’s growing biologics portfolio. Global Biologics Laboratory (GBL) responsible for the release testing of Biologics Drug product for the network, is also based on the Cruiserath Biologics Campus.

For more information about Bristol Myers Squibb, visit us at BMS.com/ie

Introduction

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is looking for an experienced sourcing and contracting professional to join its Agile Sourcing team. BMS is a global BioPharma company firmly focused on its mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. We focus on the needs of health care professionals, patients, employees, shareholders and our communities, giving maximum priority to developing innovative medicines, accelerating pipeline development, delivering solid growth, continuing to manage costs, and adhering to high standards of business conduct and ethics. We are looking for an experienced sourcing and contracting professional who can be successful within our fast-paced, adaptive and focused culture.

Description

The Contract Lead, Associate Director, Agile Sourcing will lead a team that delivers an industry-leading contracting capability across the functions through efficient contract review, issue identification and analysis, redlining, negotiation and management of escalations to the legal department.  It will be key for this individual to manage and drive effective collaboration across multiple international markets (APAC and EMEA) with cross-functional stakeholders, including Legal, Process Owners, and other important cross-functional teams. The candidate will need to be able to handle a workload with sometimes short and/or expedited deadlines. The individual must have excellent communication skills and must work quickly, diligently, independently and efficiently. The individual in this role must also be able to resolve complex negotiation issues in a timely manner and push a deal through to execution. This individual must be able to build strong relationships of mutual trust and accountability with the internal business clients, contracting teams and legal department. The Contract Lead will ensure effective negotiating and contracting activities to achieve desired procurement outcomes in support of our company’s goals. This position will report to the Director,  Agile Sourcing, Enabling Services and International.

The key competencies for this role include:

• Procurement and Contracting Fundamentals
• People Management
• Project and Stakeholder Management 
• Strategic Planning & Organization 
• Future Oriented Growth Mindset 
• Change Management & Communications 
• Business Process & Performance Management 
• Strong Mission & Values Alignment 
• Company & Industry Expertise 
• International contracting expertise
• Problem solving
• Critical thinking

Key Responsibilities

• Source, on-board, lead, manage and develop a team in support of contracting operations across multiple categories
  • Monitor team performance and identify opportunities for continuous improvement to ensure successful development and implementation of contracting strategy
  • Assist direct reports with professional development planning and enable flexibility across Agile Sourcing organization to foster cross-functional proficiencies of resources and procurement categories
  • Assist in the creation of training materials leveraging a deep knowledge of contract terms and conditions, negotiation best practices and BMS Standard Operating Procedures
  • Establish clear performance expectations, provide proactive feedback and be a hands-on manager who provides close leadership and support to their team
• Drive and manage the end-to-end contracting process in support of operations across the multiple markets with cross-functional stakeholders located in multiple markets
  • Perform appropriate due diligence by issue spotting and assessing risk mitigating options
  • Execute contracts in a timely manner with appropriate legal support to ensure compliance with company standards
  • Coordinate and perform contract analysis to negotiate business/commercial terms to advance BMS’ interests and goals
  • Understand the contractual terms and be able to explain their risks and implications to the internal business stakeholders to help drive appropriate decision-making

• Manage multiple, complex projects independently
• Ensure applicable written guidelines and company policy are followed and required SME input is obtained where required (i.e., privacy, finance, international and domestic taxation, customs and trade, information security, systems quality, software asset management)
• Maintain awareness of pre-contracting steps, including underlying BMS policies and procedures related to the contracts and the contracted activities within scope
• Assist in the creation of training materials leveraging a deep knowledge of contract terms and conditions, negotiation best practices and BMS Standard Operating Procedures 
• Drive and manage the end-to-end contracting process

• Partner directly with adjacent stakeholders and deliver on complex, high-risk issues or projects
  • Act as a trusted advisor to international category/country managers and their leadership to ensure procurement strategies can be delivered against the expectations of the business
  • Act as an expert facilitator to fully manage and lead complex contract negotiations in partnership with business stakeholders, international procurement category/country managers, legal and other participants in the contracting process, including various subject matter experts
  • Coordinate with cross-functional and stakeholders to ensure timely, compliant and efficient facilitation of contracts
  • Identify points of escalation for Agile Sourcing to interface with relevant stakeholders regarding contracting and procurement policy and related operational questions
• Performance Management & Continuous Improvement for Source to Contract
  • Partner and share best practices and learnings with Agile Sourcing team to ensure business needs are proactively met in an aligned, consistent and collaborative manner across functional areas and in a manner that is complaint with BMS Standard Operating Procedures and protocols
  • Work with procurement and legal to develop and maintain contracting guidance documents to continually improve on an efficient and effective contracting function
  • Support continuous improvement initiatives towards an industry-leading contracting capability within Agile Sourcing by participating in, creating and participate in developing training to provide opportunities for expansion of contracting skillsets
  • Participate in continuous improvement initiatives within procurement to strengthen our contracting and sourcing outcomes
  • Explore new procurement technologies with a focus on AI/ML opportunities

Qualifications & Experience

• Legal training/qualifications/experience e.g. LLB or Juris Doctorate (JD)
• Minimum of 7-10 years prior related experience, including relevant procurement, sourcing and contracting experience, including but not limited to drafting, redlining, reviewing and negotiating procurement / business contracts, procurement negotiations and familiarity with Master Services Agreements within international markets
• An additional language is a plus i.e. French, German, Spanish, Italian, or Japanese
• Prior experience managing a cross-functional contracting team, with ability to provide close leadership and support to large groups of cross-functional, multi-cultural professionals
• Experience leading, collaborating with and participating on cross-functional and international teams and demonstrated ability to work and influence within a matrix structure
• Expertise in contract construction, terms and conditions, with strong preference for working knowledge of facilitating, drafting and negotiating buy-side and other in-scope contracts in the pharma/biotech industry
• Experience in contracting in international markets including any local nuances that may impact contracting
• Direct people management experience with demonstrated competencies in growth mindset strategies, mentoring and coaching, performance expectations and a strong proven desire to share knowledge and experience to promote the professional development of others 
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and diplomacy to convey information and influence others with a strong customer focus
• Demonstrates a high level of adaptability in dealing with ambiguous and complex work environment and balances multiples demands on role in a responsive and professional manner and proven ability to engage teams and inspire them to sustain high levels of performance in a constantly changing environment
• Strong management and team leadership skills, demonstrated by a record of accomplishment of success leading projects and other problem-solving initiatives with cross functional teams 
• Experience with Contract Lifecycle Management technology (e.g., Icertis) to automate and streamline processes

Why you should apply

• You will help patients in their fight against serious diseases
• You will be part of a company that encourages excellence and innovation, respects diversity, develops leaders and values its employees.
• You’ll get a competitive salary and a great benefits package including, but not only, an annual bonus, pension contribution, family health insurance, 27 days of annual leave , access to BMS Cruiserath on-site gym and life assurance

#LI-Hybrid

If you come across a role that intrigues you but doesn’t perfectly line up with your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway. You could be one step away from work that will transform your life and career.

Uniquely Interesting Work, Life-changing Careers
With a single vision as inspiring as “Transforming patients’ lives through science™ ”, every BMS employee plays an integral role in work that goes far beyond ordinary. Each of us is empowered to apply our individual talents and unique perspectives in a supportive culture, promoting global participation in clinical trials, while our shared values of passion, innovation, urgency, accountability, inclusion and integrity bring out the highest potential of each of our colleagues.

On-site Protocol

BMS has an occupancy structure that determines where an employee is required to conduct their work. This structure includes site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design jobs. The occupancy type that you are assigned is determined by the nature and responsibilities of your role:

Site-essential roles require 100% of shifts onsite at your assigned facility. Site-by-design roles may be eligible for a hybrid work model with at least 50% onsite at your assigned facility. For these roles, onsite presence is considered an essential job function and is critical to collaboration, innovation, productivity, and a positive Company culture. For field-based and remote-by-design roles the ability to physically travel to visit customers, patients or business partners and to attend meetings on behalf of BMS as directed is an essential job function.

BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to [email protected]. Visit careers.bms.com/eeo-accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.

BMS cares about your well-being and the well-being of our staff, customers, patients, and communities. As a result, the Company strongly recommends that all employees be fully vaccinated for Covid-19 and keep up to date with Covid-19 boosters.

BMS will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.

If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information: https://careers.bms.com/california-residents/

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