R&D Operations Associate, R&D Buying & Program Management

Summary of the position:

The purpose for this role is to support the business goals and objectives through efficient and effective execution of key business initiatives. Works independently on most initiatives but may require some strategic direction on those with higher complexity, wide stakeholder groups, or a brand new to the business. May provide mentorship and/or coaching to more junior associates in a coordinator role.

Scope: Act in support of R&D objectives and initiatives focused within R&D with potential stakeholders outside of R&D, produce short to mid-range budget projections, decision making with Operations Lead or Project Lead oversight (where needed) on projects and programs in scope; may lead smaller scale initiatives

• With initiative sponsors, ensure clarity on scope, impact, budget, resource needs, and timing for all initiatives assigned

• Plan, schedule and coordinate all internal meetings, workshops, etc. that may be needed to fully execute against the plan leveraging established technology and tools for collaboration; Facilitate meetings with agendas, minutes, and action items

• Partner with cross-functional teams to develop project plans, forecasts/budgets, and timelines (milestones)

• Provide periodic reporting to initiative sponsors, escalating issues and/or risks as needed

• Evaluate and report project team activities against project plan to identify deviations from planned timing, budget or scope

• Develop stakeholder analysis and engagement plan

• Develop and execute against communication plans to ensure that all stakeholders are informed of initiative status; may leverage other Communications professionals in the development of materials

• As needed, contributes to special initiatives and projects including requirements analysis, planning and tracking, development of programs and deliverables.

• Manage requestors and vendors through processing of contracts, SOWs, PRs, POs, invoices, accruals and forecasting expenses

• Develop and maintain contracts and supplier data in related contract management systems

• Create reports and data analysis as per business requirements

• Manages or performs strategic sourcing work to manage risk and optimize the value/resilience of materials/services sourcing, negotiate contracts, coordinate supplier integration plans with internal clients

• Identify and act on opportunities to streamline and simplify current ways of working with potential to impact R&D cross-functional stakeholders

• Provide guidance to other Operations coordinators or specialists as needed

Experience requirement:

Minimum: Bachelor s Degree or equivalent years of directly related experience, 5 years directly related experience

Preferred qualifications:

• Degree in Business, Communications, Project Management

• Project Management experience

• Vendor management, contracting, and procurement experience

• Good working knowledge of project and/or program management principles

• Good working knowledge of process excellence concepts

• Good working knowledge of collaboration platforms (MSOffice 365, SharePoint, etc)

• Good working knowledge of ERP platforms (SAP, etc)

• Experience in stakeholder engagement analysis, communications plans

• Excellent written and oral communication

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Alcon is an Equal Opportunity Employer and takes pride in maintaining a diverse environment. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, or any other reason.