Associate Director, Medical Grants and Sponsorship (Male) / Associate Director, Medical Grants and Sponsorship (Female)

Objectives / Purpose

The role provides enterprise-level governance, portfolio, and operational leadership for medical grants, medical education grants, and sponsorships within Global Medical. It ensures that funding decisions are transparent, objective, well-documented, and aligned with enterprise Medical priorities, therapeutic area strategies, unmet scientific or educational needs, and patient-centric outcomes, while maintaining compliance with Takeda standards and applicable industry requirements.

The role establishes and maintains clear funding frameworks, decision criteria, review pathways, committee operations, documentation expectations, budget visibility, system/repository requirements, and lifecycle oversight from intake through to close-out. Collaboration with Global Therapeutic Areas, regions, LOC Medical, Ethics & Compliance, Legal, and Finance is essential to define areas of scientific and educational interest, prioritize funding, and enable consistent decision-making across geographies.

Additionally, the individual will chair and/or facilitate Global Grant Review Committee discussions, promoting objective, fair, and balanced decision-making and contributing to the evolution of a globally harmonized grants and sponsorships model.

Accountabilities

• Establish and maintain enterprise governance standards for medical grants, ensuring consistent quality, transparency, accountability, and compliance across global markets.
• Translate Medical and therapeutic area priorities into practical funding frameworks that include defined areas of scientific and educational interest and prioritization criteria.
• Shape and maintain global areas of scientific and educational interest for grants and sponsorships in collaboration with Medical leadership.
• Drive portfolio-level prioritization across therapeutic areas and strategic initiatives.
• Define and continuously refine decision criteria and governance standards for funding decisions.
• Chair Grant Review Committee meetings, ensuring structured discussions and decision documentation.
• Engage cross-functional representatives to ensure complete oversight and input in funding requests.
• Oversee lifecycle governance for funding requests, maintaining clarity and transparency throughout the process.
• Assess requests against consistent criteria to ensure alignment with funding intentions.
• Maintain governance visibility through grant-management systems and documentation standards.
• Partner with Finance and Legal to manage budget planning, tracking, and ensure compliance standards are upheld.
• Provide guidance to stakeholders on request requirements and obligations.
• Develop practical operating materials to streamline processes within the review framework.
• Support audit readiness and quality checks in collaboration with the broader Medical Governance Office.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance operational efficiency.
• Provide strategic guidance to leadership on funding strategy and governance implications.
• Represent the Medical Governance Office in discussions surrounding external funding and governance requirements.
• Capture and share insights to strengthen the governance foundation for future funding interests.

Dimensions and Aspects

This role is responsible for enterprise-level governance standards primarily covering either the US or International grants and sponsorships portfolio. Operating within a highly regulated environment, the individual will collaborate with various teams across Global Medical and Therapeutic Areas.

The role requires a keen understanding of local laws and compliance requirements across different countries, acting as a strategic partner and helping ensure consistency in standards.

Leadership

This position builds trusted, collaborative partnerships with multiple functions, encouraging alignment around funding standards and committee practices. The ability to influence across various levels and functions is essential to achieving common goals.

By translating complex governance and operational requirements into clear standards, this role fosters confidence in the grants and sponsorships model while supporting change management to facilitate the adoption of new expectations.

Decision-making and Autonomy

The individual will own grants and sponsorships governance standards, determining the appropriate funding category and review pathway for each request based on its complexity. This includes the responsibility for transparent, objective decision-making practices that are consistently documented and compliant with governance requirements.

Apply online using the form below. Only applications matching the job profile will be considered.