Associate Director, R&D Portfolio Operations and Insights

Natera

3d • Remote

About The Position

The Associate Director of R&D Portfolio Operations & Insights will lead the design, standardization, and continuous improvement of portfolio management processes across the R&D organization.
This role is responsible for enabling integrated planning, improving predictability, and driving portfolio transparency through scalable PMO frameworks, data infrastructure, analytics, and reporting.
This individual will serve as a strategic operations partner to R&D, Finance, and PMO Leadership, ensuring there is a single-source of truth to enable portfolio insights and decisions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Biology or equivalent. MS or PhD in Biological Sciences preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of program management experience in biotech space and educational background in molecular biology or genetics testing.
• Strong knowledge of creative workflows, project management tools and processes.
• Experience compiling GANTT charts and project plans.
• Experience with product development.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to establish and build productive relationships.
• Excellent communication within the project teams as well as with diverse stakeholders, including top level management.
• Excellent organization and time management/multi-tasking skills (comfortable in an ambiguous and fast-paced environment, operating at both strategic and tactical levels).

Nice To Haves

• Certification or formal training in Program or Project Management and experience using resource management tools is a big plus.
• Familiar with design control is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Portfolio Governance & PMO Standardization
• Design and implement standardized PMO processes, tools, and governance frameworks across R&D.
• Establish integrated planning processes that connect strategy, resource planning, timelines, and execution milestones.
• Drive adoption of best practices for stage-gate governance, risk management, and cross-functional alignment.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives to enhance operational rigor, predictability, and accountability.
• Integrated Planning & Predictability
• Develop and maintain enterprise-level portfolio planning models that enable scenario planning and trade-off analysis.
• Partner with R&D, Engineering, Regulatory, Finance to align roadmap assumptions and resource forecasts.
• Implement forecasting and tracking mechanisms to improve milestone predictability and delivery confidence.
• Monitor portfolio performance and proactively surface risks, dependencies, and capacity constraints.
• Portfolio Management Systems & Data Infrastructure
• Own and evolve the R&D portfolio management database, ensuring data accuracy, integrity, and usability.
• Define data standards, KPIs, and portfolio health metrics.
• Lead vision for automated dashboards and trending analyses to provide real-time insights to leadership.
• Enable scalable reporting capabilities through tools and systems optimization.
• Portfolio Insights, Prioritization & Reporting
• Create portfolio views to support investment decisions, resource allocation, and strategic trade-offs.
• Work with PMO portfolio leads to develop executive-ready reporting packages (monthly/quarterly) highlighting progress, risks, and trends.
• Translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for senior stakeholders.
• Leadership
• Serve as a thought partner to PMO and R&D leadership on operational effectiveness.
• Provide key inputs into cross-functional portfolio review forums and governance meetings.
• Influence without authority across scientific, clinical, regulatory, and commercial product management teams.
• Lead and mentor portfolio operations team members as the function scales.

Benefits

• Employee benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life and disability plans for eligible employees and their dependents.
• Additionally, Natera employees and their immediate families receive free testing in addition to fertility care benefits.
• Other benefits include pregnancy and baby bonding leave, 401k benefits, commuter benefits and much more.
• We also offer a generous employee referral program!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level