Program Manager

Location

• Based in Ireland, with Dublin strongly preferred; strong UK-based candidates will also be considered
• Regular travel to the Dublin office required when not based there
• Occasional travel to consortium partner sites and governance meetings across Europe, primarily for annual consortium events and key programme meetings
• Collaboration with Deciphex teams across Dublin, Exeter, Oxford, Basel, and Chicago

We're building AI that changes how cancer is diagnosed. Come help us run the programmes that make it possible.

Deciphex is a fast-growing digital pathology company, developing AI software that helps pathologists deliver faster, more accurate diagnoses for patients. Our work sits at the intersection of life sciences, AI, and regulated software, and we're scaling rapidly.

Our Innovation Programs team manages a portfolio of EU-funded research consortia (including BIGPICTURE and VICT3R under Horizon 2020 and IHI), DTIF-funded programmes, commercial product launches, and strategic technology partnerships. It's genuinely complex, genuinely impactful work and we need someone who can bring structure, rigour, and momentum to all of it.

What this role is

This is a hands-on delivery role at the centre of our innovation portfolio. You'll own the operational tracking of multiple parallel programmes, not just attending status meetings, but building and maintaining the master delivery plan, keeping Gantt charts and dependency maps current across all active programmes, and making sure internal owners have clear accountability for every obligation.

You'll coordinate and prepare input for periodic technical and financial reports to funding bodies including DTIF, the European Commission, IMI2, and IHI, working across functions to make sure submissions are complete, accurate, and on time. You'll maintain a compliance calendar covering all reporting obligations and audit retention requirements, including the EC's five-year post-project audit window.

You'll engage directly with external consortium partners, EFPIA pharma companies, CROs, and academic collaborators to gather technical and scientific requirements, resolve data submission issues, and keep working relationships productive throughout programme delivery. You'll also contribute to scientific publications and deliverable reports, ensuring Deciphex's contributions are accurately represented.

Internally, you'll translate funded programme obligations into clearly defined requirements for our product and engineering teams, making sure deliverables are understood, appropriately prioritised, and aligned to grant timelines. The same planning rigour applies to commercial product releases, technology partnerships, and internal strategic initiatives. You'll maintain clear plans, owner maps, and milestone logs across the full portfolio.

You'll support the Director of Innovation Programs in preparing board-level innovation updates, coordinating input into governance forums, and tracking IP protection and commercialisation milestones. And you'll identify cross-functional dependencies and resource conflicts early, taking a hands-on approach to resolving blockers before they become problems.

What makes this role rare

Innovation is a buzzword everywhere. At Deciphex it's a function, with a portfolio, and an international standard behind it. We operate to ISO 56001/56002 principles, the global standard for innovation management  which puts us in genuinely rare company, particularly for a company of our size. If you want "Innovation" in your title to actually mean something, this is that job.

What we're looking for

Essential:

You've worked inside EU-funded research consortia not just around them. You understand how Horizon Europe, IMI, or IHI projects actually function: the governance structures, the reporting cycles, the consortium dynamics. You've owned deliverables and work package obligations, coordinated periodic reporting to project officers, and managed compliance requirements across a multi-partner programme.

You have at least five years of programme or project management experience, with a track record of delivering complex, multi-stakeholder programmes on time and within budget. You build and maintain detailed Gantt charts and dependency maps across parallel workstreams as a matter of course and you translate them into clear status reporting that senior stakeholders can act on.

You're a strong written communicator, capable of producing accurate, well-structured reports to both funder and internal standards. And you're comfortable operating across functions, gathering inputs, assigning actions, and following through to completion with people at all levels.

Strongly preferred:

Ideally you've made the transition from academia into industry, or are ready to. A PhD or equivalent research depth is a strong signal, particularly if you've been involved in major consortia projects and understand how they're governed and funded from the inside. That said, we care more about what you've delivered than what's on your certificate.

You'll also need to understand how software and programming work not because you'll be writing code, but because all of our work is ultimately a software product in a regulated healthcare context. Experience in life sciences, digital health, medical devices, or regulated AI is a plus. Familiarity with the EU AI Act, MDR, GDPR, or ISO 42001/27001 as they apply to software is welcome.

DTIF programme experience, a working knowledge of IP tracking and grant exploitation reporting, and a PMP or PRINCE2 certification are all desirable, though none are blockers.

The kind of person this works for:

You take full ownership of your workstreams and hold others to their commitments with consistency and good judgement. You close loops. You're comfortable when the landscape is evolving and not all answers are established upfront and you respond by bringing structure and clarity rather than waiting for someone else to define it. You have a strong sense of urgency and a genuine curiosity about the domain you're working in.

What are the benefits of working with Deciphex?

• A true sense of meaning in your work by contributing to better patient outcomes
• The opportunity to work alongside a high-performing team in a fast-growth company with real momentum
• Challenging, unique projects at the intersection of AI, pathology, and regulated software
• Regular performance feedback and significant career development opportunities
• Flexible remote working with autonomy to manage your own work-life balance
• A highly collaborative, multicultural team spread across Europe and North America

About the Company

Through the work that we do, the team at Deciphex helps pharma to accelerate the process of essential drug development and helps patients to get timely and accurate diagnosis. 

Founded in Dublin in 2017, Deciphex has scaled rapidly to a team of over 230 people and counting who are providing software solutions to address the pathology gap in research pathology and clinical areas. We have offices in Dublin, Exeter, Oxford, Toronto and Chicago and are expanding our team throughout the world. 

We are software developers, clinical specialists, AI engineers, operations professionals and so much more, all working as one team to support our customers and patients.  Our team culture is built on trust. We give our team the space they need to deliver results and the environment to ensure they can enjoy doing it.

We are looking for highly motivated  individuals who are excited to take on challenges and value making a difference in their day-to-day work. This is a unique opportunity to make a difference in the emerging Digital Pathology field.  

Read more about Deciphex here and more about our incredible team on our Careers Page here 

Deciphex is an equal opportunities employer and we are committed to the principle of equality. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age, race,  religious beliefs, political views, gender identity, affectional or sexual orientation, national origin, family or marital status (including pregnancy), disability, membership of the travelling community or any other classification protected by applicable law.

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