Senior Director, Planning and Resource Management

ICON plc

Senior Director managing portfolio-level resource planning for ICON, a healthcare research organisation. Leading resource management and capacity planning to align clinical delivery talent with global projects.

Posted 7/15/2026full-timeDublin • 🇮🇪 IrelandSeniorWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in resource management and capacity planning within a clinical delivery portfolio, ensuring compliance with ICH-GCP standards while optimizing resource utilization and team performance. Proven ability to lead cross-functional partnerships and effectively communicate with stakeholders at all levels.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Resource ManagementCapacity PlanningDemand ForecastingICH-GCP ComplianceTeam Leadership

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Hard Skills

Resource PlanningWorkforce PlanningUtilization ManagementData AnalysisForecasting Models

Soft Skills

Excellent CommunicationOrganizational SkillsInterpersonal Skills

Tools & Technologies

Forecasting ToolsMetrics Reporting

Certifications & Qualifications

Bachelor's DegreeAdvanced Degree Preferred

Industry Keywords

Contract Research OrganisationClinical OperationsProject-Based EnvironmentBillable UtilisationResource Management Office

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Google Cloud Platform

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Direct portfolio-level resource planning and deployment, ensuring the right people are on the right studies at the right time, at the right cost.
Portfolio resource strategy — owning demand forecasting and capacity planning across the global clinical delivery portfolio, translating pipeline, bookings and study stage into resource requirements for multiple clinical delivery groups.
Challenging demand — constructively challenging business partners and functional leaders on their resource demand, using data to distinguish genuine need from over- or under-calling, and defending decisions in commercial, margin and delivery-risk terms.
Capacity & utilisation — optimising utilisation, bench and ramp-up/ramp-down across thousands of resources, balancing efficiency against delivery risk, quality and employee wellbeing.
Leading the team — leading, developing and retaining an established resource management team, adding value without disrupting what already works well.
Cross-functional partnership — partnering with Finance, Project Management, Clinical Operations, Talent Acquisition and Sales/Proposals to align resource supply with revenue forecasts, hiring plans and new business.
Systems & governance — advancing the forecasting models, tools, metrics and governance that underpin resourcing decisions, and reporting capacity health and risk to senior leadership.
Compliance & quality — ensuring resourcing practices comply with ICH-GCP, applicable regulations and internal quality standards.
Strategic leadership — providing strategic guidance to support ICON's growth and operational excellence while managing resourcing risks and trade-offs.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline; advanced degree preferred.
Proven experience leading a resource management, resource planning, workforce planning or deployment function that resourced thousands of specialist professionals across a portfolio of concurrent projects.
Industry background gained in a project-based, billable/utilisation-driven environment.
Contract Research Organisation (CRO) or clinical operations experience is strongly preferred; equally welcome is equivalent experience from a management consultancy or professional-services Resource Management Office (RMO), an IT services / systems integrator, an engineering or infrastructure consultancy, or a financial services transformation / PMO function.
Demonstrated ability to build demand forecasts and capacity models against a project pipeline, and to manage utilisation, bench and ramp-up/ramp-down across a large, distributed workforce.
A track record of constructively challenging senior stakeholders on resource demand and defending those positions with data and commercial reasoning.
Experience leading and retaining high-performing teams, including inheriting capable teams and elevating them without unnecessary disruption.
Understanding of operating in a regulated, quality-driven environment; familiarity with ICH-GCP and clinical delivery roles (PM, CTM, CRA, CTA, Data Management, Study Start-Up) is an advantage, and the ability to learn the domain quickly is essential.
Excellent communication, organisational and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build effective relationships with stakeholders at all levels, up to and including executive leadership.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Competitive base salary and performance related incentives
Health and wellbeing programmes including medical, dental, and vision coverage where applicable
Retirement and pension plans
Life assurance and disability coverage
Employee assistance programmes and wellbeing resources
Learning and development opportunities through structured training and career pathways