Director, Program Management

Crinetics Pharmaceuticals

Director of Program Management overseeing drug development programs at Crinetics Pharmaceuticals. Ensuring strategic oversight and cross-functional alignment throughout the program lifecycle.

Posted 4/25/2026full-timeRemote • California • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $186,000 - $233,000 per yearWebsite

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Provide senior PM leadership and strategic oversight for one or more drug development programs, ensuring cross-functional alignment, coordinated planning, and on-time delivery of key milestones across the oncology pipeline.
Serve as a strategic partner to the Program Global Product Leader (GPL), proactively anticipating program needs, identifying strategic options, and designing scalable, efficient team processes and operating rhythms.
Own and drive the integrated program plan, critical path, and scenario analyses; lead program teams through complex planning exercises including regulatory submissions, clinical milestones, and portfolio-level decision points.
Organize and facilitate Global Product Team and key sub-team/working group meetings, including agendas, attendee management, minutes, decisions, and action items.
Accurately and efficiently maintain and track detailed integrated timelines, milestones, and deliverables across all components of program plans (e.g., clinical, regulatory, CMC, nonclinical, clinical operations, biometrics, safety, medical writing, clinical pharmacology, quality, translational/biomarkers).
Facilitate identification of key dependencies, risks, and issues; drive mitigation strategies, decision support, escalation, and contingency planning at both program and portfolio levels.
Maintain dashboards and reporting mechanisms for program status, risks, decisions, and critical path updates for team and senior/executive leadership.
Facilitate cross-functional communications to gather inputs, align priorities, resolve conflicts, and share project updates; ensure clarity of owners, deliverables, and deadlines.
Maintain an integrated program calendar identifying critical decision points, governance reviews, team events, and key milestones.
Partner with Portfolio Management to ensure appropriate integration with overall portfolio strategy, timelines, and reporting, including alignment between development activities and portfolio-level planning.
Lead preparation for governance reviews and executive program presentations, ensuring materials are accurate, aligned, decision-oriented, and delivered on schedule.
Drive disciplined change control and documentation of scope/timeline changes, ensuring impacts are understood and communicated to stakeholders.
Champion consistency of PM practices, tools, and reporting within the broader PPM team; lead the development and continuous improvement of PM tools, templates, and best practices.
Contribute to PPM organizational development, including mentoring junior PM staff and supporting onboarding of new team members.
Lead or support additional PPM or enterprise projects from initiation through closeout, including stakeholder alignment, risk/issue management, and status reporting.
Manage both immediate execution needs and medium-term (2–3 year) strategic planning horizon while building scalable mechanisms that extend to future portfolio needs.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor’s degree in a science-related field required; advanced degree (MBA, MS, PhD, PharmD) strongly preferred.
12+ years of relevant biotechnology/pharmaceutical experience with 7+ years of direct project/program management experience in drug development (clinical-stage experience required; late-stage and/or regulatory submission experience strongly preferred).
Demonstrated experience leading and influencing cross-functional teams in a matrix organization, driving integrated planning, milestone execution, and delivery across multiple functions and programs simultaneously.
Strong strategic thinking and ability to connect program-level activities to broader portfolio and corporate objectives.
Proven PM fundamentals (meeting management, timeline/critical path management, risk and issue management, decision tracking, action management, governance preparation) with the ability to coach and develop these skills in others.
Proactive, forward-thinking, and able to anticipate needs in dynamic environments with competing priorities; comfortable operating with ambiguity and making sound judgments with incomplete information.
Strong interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate across functions; proven ability to influence without authority at all levels of the organization including senior/executive leadership.
Excellent facilitation and communication skills (including executive-ready written and presentation skills) with demonstrated success influencing at all levels cross-functionally.
Highly collaborative with outstanding relationship-building skills; ability to lead teams, navigate ambiguity, and resolve conflict effectively.
Experience with project/portfolio management tools and systems (e.g., Planisware) and strong working knowledge of common collaboration tools (e.g., MS Office, Smartsheet, SharePoint).

Benefits

Comp & perks

Discretionary annual target bonus
Stock options
Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
401(k) matching
Top-notch health insurance plans for employees and their families (medical, dental, vision, and basic life insurance)
20 days of PTO
10 paid holidays
Winter company shutdown

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

project managementprogram managementdrug developmentregulatory submissionsclinical milestonesrisk managementdecision trackingaction managementtimeline managementcritical path management

Soft Skills

strategic thinkinginterpersonal skillscollaborationinfluence without authorityfacilitation skillscommunication skillsrelationship-buildingmentoringproblem-solvingadaptability

Certifications

Bachelor's degreeMBAMSPhDPharmD