Director, Development Sourcing – Partnerships

Ultragenyx

Director leading vendor partnerships and sourcing strategies for the Development portfolio in a biopharma company. Accountable for external GCP vendor engagements and sourcing decisions.

Posted 6/23/2026full-timeRemote • 🇺🇸 United StatesLead💰 $206,500 - $255,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

Google Cloud Platform

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Early engagement planning: Define and execute sourcing strategies aligned to pipeline, portfolio priorities, and enterprise objectives.
Vendor selection: Lead RFIs/RFPs, competitive bidding, vendor evaluations, bid defense strategy, and onboarding alignment for complex and high-impact initiatives to support fit-for-purpose vendor selection and successful engagement start-up.
Contracting alignment: Lead alignment across scope, budget, and contracting considerations, ensuring consistency and scalability between operational requirements, financial assumptions, and vendor agreements.
Strategic vendor partnership management: Serve as a senior strategic partnership lead for external GCP vendors across service categories, driving partnership alignment, performance expectations, strategic engagement, and ongoing relationship management across the vendor partnership.
Governance & oversight: Lead governance forums and support timely escalation resolution through appropriate senior stakeholder engagement, while driving KPI/performance discussions, quality alignment, consistent oversight, accountability, and strategic alignment across partners.
Sourcing and partnership optimization: Drive complex cross-program sourcing initiatives, vendor/category alignment activities, and partnership optimization efforts to establish consistency of sourcing and partnership approach, strengthen vendor engagement, and scale effective practices across programs and vendors.
Lessons learned / continuous improvement: Drive continuous improvement by identifying cross-program insights, scaling best practices, and strengthening sourcing and partnership approaches across the portfolio.
Stakeholder engagement: Engage and influence senior cross-functional stakeholders to support sourcing decisions, align vendor partnership strategy with execution needs, and drive strategic and portfolio alignment across programs and vendors.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Business Administration, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred.
Minimum of 10 years of experience in clinical vendor management, outsourcing, strategic sourcing, clinical operations, or related roles within the pharmaceutical, biotech, or CRO industry.
Minimum of 3–5 years of experience leading vendor relationships, sourcing activities, contracting alignment, governance, and performance oversight in a clinical development environment.
Experience leading RFIs/RFPs, competitive bidding, vendor evaluation, selection, and engagement start-up for complex or high-impact clinical development initiatives.
Experience leading alignment of scope, budget, contracting, and vendor agreement considerations for outsourced services.
Experience driving vendor governance, performance discussions, KPI review, issue escalation, and partnership management across programs and vendor categories.
Strong understanding of clinical development, clinical operations, GCP, ICH guidelines, and regulatory expectations related to vendor oversight.
Knowledge of quality expectations, internal SOPs, and compliance considerations applicable to vendor selection, oversight, and performance monitoring.
Ability to interpret KPIs, performance data, dashboards, and financial information to inform sourcing strategy, vendor partnership decisions, and portfolio-level oversight.
Strong leadership, cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder engagement, communication, relationship management, and influencing skills.
Ability to influence senior stakeholders, drive alignment across functions, support timely escalation resolution, and promote scalable best practices.
Strong organizational skills, sound judgment, strategic thinking, and ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
Travel up to 30% may be required for vendor meetings, governance forums, site visits, audits, or industry conferences.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Generous vacation time and public holidays observed by the company
Volunteer days
Long term incentive and Employee stock purchase plans or equivalent offerings
Employee wellbeing benefits
Fitness reimbursement
Tuition sponsoring
Professional development plans

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

clinical vendor managementoutsourcingstrategic sourcingcontracting alignmentgovernanceperformance oversightRFIsRFPsKPI reviewclinical development

Soft Skills

leadershipcross-functional collaborationstakeholder engagementcommunicationrelationship managementinfluencingorganizational skillsstrategic thinkingsound judgmentability to manage multiple priorities