Charles River Laboratories

Associate Director Product Management

Charles River Laboratories  •  Margate, GB (Onsite)  •  4 hours ago
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Job Description

For nearly 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.

Job Overview

The Associate Director, Product Management is the first formal people-leader level in the Product Managementcareer path. This role leads a team responsible for a sub-portfolio/segment of Microbial Solutions offeringssupporting pharmaceutical QC labs and contamination control programs. The Associate Director translates broader portfolio direction into executable strategies and roadmaps, ensures disciplined lifecycle managementand launch execution, and develops product management talent while partnering cross-functionally to deliver growth and customer outcomes in regulated environments.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Lead, mentor, and develop a team of product managers and associates; set objectives, coachperformance, and build capability and succession plans.
  • Own strategy, roadmap coherence, and execution for an assigned sub-portfolio/segment, aligned to the broader contamination control vision and business objectives specifically for Software, Automation and Digital Ecosystem.
  • Set investment priorities within the sub-portfolio by shaping and reviewing business cases, tradeoffs, and resource requests; ensure decisions are data-driven and customer-led.
  • Ensure high-quality execution of roadmaps, product launches, and lifecycle management (enhancements, rationalization, obsolescence, change control) with strong cross-functional alignment.
  • Partner with QA/RA, R&D, Operations, and Supply Chain to ensure product quality, compliance, and continuity of supply; sponsor risk management and continuous improvement for the sub-portfolio.
  • Serve as a senior customer-facing leader for key accounts and strategic projects; represent product direction in technical meetings and regulated/audit contexts as needed.
  • Drive VOC discipline across the team (cadence, synthesis, actionability) and ensure insights translate into measurable product outcomes.
  • Track and report sub-portfolio KPIs (revenue, margin, adoption, quality signals, support themes) and lead quarterly reviews and corrective actions.
  • Contribute to Microbial Solutions portfolio planning activities (roadmap reviews, pricing discussions, AOPinputs) and to maturing PM processes and governance.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, engineering, or related field (required); advanced degree (MS, MBA, PhD) preferred.
  • Extensive experience in product management or closely related functions within the life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors, with a proven track record of leading complex cross-functional initiatives and strategic programs.
  • Significant experience managing, mentoring, and developing product managers and high-performing teams, with demonstrated people leadership responsibilities at scale.
  • Proven track record managing scientific/technical products/solutions in regulated environments with measurable growth and/or customer outcome impact.
  • Strong familiarity with GxP expectations and ability to partner effectively with QA/RA and Operations.
  • Strategic thinking and business acumen; comfortable with pricing inputs, investment cases, and performance analytics.
  • Strong communication and stakeholder management skills; credible with customers and senior internal leaders.

Compensation and Benefits:

Please note that this role is advertising across a number of locations and as such salaries and benefits vary based on factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, certifications and geographic location.

If you are interested in contributing to the well-being of our communities, not only across the country but around the world, please join us. This is Your Moment.

About Microbial Solutions

Our Microbial Solutions business group has a comprehensive portfolio of endotoxin testing, microbial detection and microbial identification products and services is unlike any other, and has been purposefully designed to meet the complex and ever-changing needs of the industry. We help clients to ensure product safety and quality with easy-to-use yet robust testing solutions that satisfy regulatory requirements, support critical decision making and improve operational efficiencies.

About Charles River

Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market.

With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world.

At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly worked on 80% of the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past five years.

At Charles River Laboratories, we recognize and recruit all talent. We are a company committed to the principle of diversity and inclusion and work daily in this direction.

Charles River Laboratories

About Charles River Laboratories

At Charles River, we are guided by our strong purpose—to create healthier lives—which centers around the patients who rely on the therapeutics we help to develop, the animals in our care, to our planet, and to the passionate and skilled people who are at the heart of our organization and make it all possible.

#DrugDiscovery #Biotech #Biotechnology #Pharmaceuticals #CRL

Industry
Biotech & Life Sciences
Company Size
10,000+ employees
Headquarters
Wilmington, Massachusetts
Year Founded
1947
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