IT Program Manager

Kite, a Gilead company, is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of

innovative cancer immunotherapies with a goal of providing rapid, long-term durable response
and eliminating the burden of chronic care. The company is focused on chimeric antigen
receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor (TCR) engineered cell therapies designed to empower the
immune system's ability to recognize and kill tumors. With an unrelenting drive and a singular
focus on cell therapy, the Kite team is executing on their strategy to bring life-saving therapies
to patients.

There is an immediate need to on-board an IT Program Manager to support the development

and oversight of the Global Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Electronic Batch Record
(EBR) program and roadmap. The program/roadmap will consider all of Kite’s existing and
planned Manufacturing Sites. In addition to the application itself, scope would include (but not
limited to) the required infrastructure, disaster recovery, peripheral systems, business
processes, change management, operationalization and support model required for the
successful implementation, deployment and support of MES EBR to all required sites.

The Position
The position is a 12 month contract opportunity for a highly experienced IT Program Manager
based at Kite’s headquarters in Santa Monica. The candidate will work with technical and
business project stakeholders to define the MES EBR program and roadmap and identify the
critical interdependencies with existing/planned projects as well as site specific activities.

As the global program manager, the candidate will have oversight of the program both at a
global level and at the local level for individual MES site rollouts. The program manager will
work closely with the local and global project teams to drive governance, structure and
alignment across the program.

The candidate will be the key point of contact to ensure that interdependencies are tracked and
risks escalated in a timely manner to the correct stakeholders. The candidate will report at a
program level on the status of all workstreams, the interdependencies and the risks.

The candidate must be highly experienced in the delivery of large-scale MES EBR programs to
GxP Manufacturing Sites at a global level.

The candidate must possess excellent communication skills and must be savvy working with
both technology and business partners across the organization in a collaborative way.

As an experienced IT program manager, the candidate must be comfortable with ambiguity and
have a strong ability to bring order and discipline to programs/ projects that engage many
stakeholders and delivery partners.

The position will require the candidate to liaise and manage teams on-site and remotely. Some
international travel may be required.
Job duties include:
• Development, maintenance and communication of MES EBR Global Roadmap, Milestones
and Schedule
• Development, maintenance and communication of IT Program Dashboard(s)
• Development, maintenance and communication of IT Program Governance Structure,
Escalation Path(s) and Communications Plan
• Support the development, maintenance and communication of the Governance Structure,
Escalation Path(s) and Communications Plan for individual projects within the Global
Program
• Facilitate scope and requirements definition at a Global and Local level
• Identify program and project resource needs and facilitate the on-boarding of these
resources
• Ensure alignment of critical milestones across all program workstreams, perform risk and
schedule impact assessment for any technology or business schedule changes due to
movement of any of the critical or interdependent milestones
• Facilitate PM, IT, or cross-functional meetings for discussion, issue resolution, action items,
agreements
• Facilitate and drive the definition and approval of vendor contracts for program/ project
delivery
• Manage executed vendor contracts, purchase orders and invoicing for program/ project
deliverables
• Stringent financial management of the program with monthly/ quarterly tracking and
reporting of program financials
• Provide project management guidance to the PMs working across the project workstreams
• Escalate issues and risks to appropriate steering committees, IT leadership, or governance
groups
• Manage a diverse group of stakeholders across different geographical regions

Knowledge, Experience and Skills:

• Professional IT Program Manager with a proven track record of delivering complex, cross-
functional MES EBR programs
• Proven professional project/ program management experience
• Excellent knowledge and understanding of project management methodologies, tools and
techniques
• Proven financial management experience of multi-million dollar program budgets
• Extensive experience in stakeholder management
• Extensive experience in vendor management
• Extensive experience in dealing with senior management up to executive level
• Ability to communicate in a precise, professional, efficient and transparent manner to all
levels within an organization
• Ability to work with dispersed and global teams and locations
• Experience in the life-science industry required
• Experience in the delivery of GxP projects required
• Relevant professional qualification would be advantageous if combined with practical
experience
• Fluency in the English language is required

Behaviours
• Resilient profile with the ability to deliver in an ambiguous environment
• Ability to engage and manage multiple stakeholders to achieve the objective
• Curious with learning agility
• Operationally excellent
• Organized with systematic approach to prioritization
• Process orientated to achieve the business objective