Associate Project Director, GRAPS

About the role

Ascendis Pharma, a global biopharmaceutical company focused on Endocrinology, Rare Disease and Oncology, is hiring an Associate Project Director, GRAPS in Princeton. The role turns GRAPS priorities into disciplined execution across Global Regulatory Affairs, Global Patient Safety and enterprise partners, establishing governance, plans, decision pathways, performance reporting and risk management for a portfolio of strategic and operational initiatives. It works with the Chief Regulatory & Safety Officer, the GRAPS Leadership Team and cross-functional stakeholders, leading small-to-medium complex projects and selected larger workstreams.

Key responsibilities

• Lead GRAPS projects and programs from definition to closeout, with charters, scope, milestones, owners and success measures.
• Partner with GRAPS leaders to turn strategy into roadmaps and sequenced execution plans, and keep a consolidated view of the project portfolio.
• Run governance including core teams, steering forums, decision logs, action tracking and escalation pathways, and maintain project plans, RAID logs, budgets and change controls.
• Monitor scope, schedule, quality, cost and outcomes, prepare executive dashboards and status reports, and drive recovery plans.
• Coordinate stakeholders across Regulatory Affairs, Patient Safety, Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Quality, IT, Finance, HR, Legal, Procurement and external partners, using RACI or similar tools.
• Standardize GRAPS processes and tools, ensure deliverables meet GxP, regulatory, pharmacovigilance and inspection-readiness requirements, and support digital project-management capabilities.
• Plan resources and vendors, manage change impact, and coach workstream leads and junior colleagues; may lead contractors or matrixed team members.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in life sciences, business, project management, engineering or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
• Typically 8+ years of experience in pharma, biotech or another highly regulated industry, including cross-functional project delivery.
• Experience leading small-to-medium complex projects or major workstreams with limited day-to-day supervision.
• Working knowledge of drug development and commercialization; experience in Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance/Patient Safety, Quality or Regulatory Operations strongly preferred.
• Project-management certification such as PMP, PRINCE2 or equivalent preferred; Agile or change-management training an advantage.

Required skills

• Command of project and program management: scope, schedule, resource, budget, risk, issue, change, governance and benefits management.
• Executive dashboards, status reports and presentations in Microsoft 365 and project-management or reporting tools.
• Advanced stakeholder management and influencing without formal authority.