Director, Program Management

Crinetics is a pharmaceutical company based in San Diego, California, developing much-needed therapies for people with endocrine diseases and endocrine-related tumors. We were founded by a dedicated team of scientists with the simple belief that better therapies developed from rigorous innovation can lead to better lives. Our work continues to make a real difference in the lives of patients. We have a prolific discovery engine and a robust preclinical and clinical development pipeline. We are driven by science with a patient-centric and team-oriented culture. Crinetics is known for its inclusive workplace culture. We are also a dog-friendly workplace. This is an exciting time to join Crinetics as we shape our organization into the world’s premier fully integrated endocrine company from discovery to patients. Join our team as we transform the lives of others.

Position Summary:

The Director, Program Management is a leadership role responsible for driving cross-functional execution and providing strategic operational leadership for Crinetics’ drug development programs. As a senior member of the Program and Portfolio Management organization, this role serves as a strategic partner to the Program Global Product Leader (GPL), translating program strategy into integrated, executable plans and enabling timely, high-quality decision-making across a complex matrix.

The Director owns the integrated program plan and critical path across one or more programs, leads program operating rhythms and governance forums, and proactively identifies risks, interdependencies, and tradeoffs across timeline, scope, and resourcing. The role provides clear, executive-ready visibility into program status, decisions, and delivery implications to support efficient advancement of programs from discovery through clinical development and regulatory submission.

In addition to program-level leadership, the Director contributes to the maturation and scaling of PPM processes, tools, and best practices across the portfolio, and may mentor or guide junior project management staff.

Essential Job Functions and Responsibilities:

These may include but are not limited to:

• Provide senior PM leadership and strategic oversight for one or more drug development programs, ensuring cross-functional alignment, coordinated planning, and on-time delivery of key milestones across the oncology pipeline.
• Serve as a strategic partner to the Program Global Product Leader (GPL), proactively anticipating program needs, identifying strategic options, and designing scalable, efficient team processes and operating rhythms.
• Own and drive the integrated program plan, critical path, and scenario analyses; lead program teams through complex planning exercises including regulatory submissions, clinical milestones, and portfolio-level decision points.
• Organize and facilitate Global Product Team and key sub-team/working group meetings, including agendas, attendee management, minutes, decisions, and action items.
• Accurately and efficiently maintain and track detailed integrated timelines, milestones, and deliverables across all components of program plans (e.g., clinical, regulatory, CMC, nonclinical, clinical operations, biometrics, safety, medical writing, clinical pharmacology, quality, translational/biomarkers).
• Facilitate identification of key dependencies, risks, and issues; drive mitigation strategies, decision support, escalation, and contingency planning at both program and portfolio levels.
• Maintain dashboards and reporting mechanisms for program status, risks, decisions, and critical path updates for team and senior/executive leadership.
• Facilitate cross-functional communications to gather inputs, align priorities, resolve conflicts, and share project updates; ensure clarity of owners, deliverables, and deadlines.
• Maintain an integrated program calendar identifying critical decision points, governance reviews, team events, and key milestones.
• Partner with Portfolio Management to ensure appropriate integration with overall portfolio strategy, timelines, and reporting, including alignment between development activities and portfolio-level planning.
• Lead preparation for governance reviews and executive program presentations, ensuring materials are accurate, aligned, decision-oriented, and delivered on schedule.
• Drive disciplined change control and documentation of scope/timeline changes, ensuring impacts are understood and communicated to stakeholders.
• Champion consistency of PM practices, tools, and reporting within the broader PPM team; lead the development and continuous improvement of PM tools, templates, and best practices.
• Contribute to PPM organizational development, including mentoring junior PM staff and supporting onboarding of new team members.
• Lead or support additional PPM or enterprise projects from initiation through closeout, including stakeholder alignment, risk/issue management, and status reporting.
• Manage both immediate execution needs and medium-term (2–3 year) strategic planning horizon while building scalable mechanisms that extend to future portfolio needs.

Education and Experience:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in a science-related field required; advanced degree (MBA, MS, PhD, PharmD) strongly preferred.
• 12+ years of relevant biotechnology/pharmaceutical experience with 7+ years of direct project/program management experience in drug development (clinical-stage experience required; late-stage and/or regulatory submission experience strongly preferred).
• Demonstrated experience leading and influencing cross-functional teams in a matrix organization, driving integrated planning, milestone execution, and delivery across multiple functions and programs simultaneously.
• Strong strategic thinking and ability to connect program-level activities to broader portfolio and corporate objectives.
• Proven PM fundamentals (meeting management, timeline/critical path management, risk and issue management, decision tracking, action management, governance preparation) with the ability to coach and develop these skills in others.
• Proactive, forward-thinking, and able to anticipate needs in dynamic environments with competing priorities; comfortable operating with ambiguity and making sound judgments with incomplete information.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate across functions; proven ability to influence without authority at all levels of the organization including senior/executive leadership.
• Excellent facilitation and communication skills (including executive-ready written and presentation skills) with demonstrated success influencing at all levels cross-functionally.
• Highly collaborative with outstanding relationship-building skills; ability to lead teams, navigate ambiguity, and resolve conflict effectively.
• Experience with project/portfolio management tools and systems (e.g., Planisware) and strong working knowledge of common collaboration tools (e.g., MS Office, Smartsheet, SharePoint).

Preferred:

• Formal project management training and/or certification (e.g., PMP, PgMP) is preferred.
• Oncology drug development experience preferred.
• Experience supporting regulatory submissions (NDA/BLA/MAA) preferred.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

Physical Activities: On a continuous basis, sit at desk for a long period of time; intermittently answer telephone and write or use a keyboard to communicate through written means. Some walking and lifting up to 25 lbs. may be required. The noise level in the work environment is typically low to moderate. The physical demands described above are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions and responsibilities of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions and responsibilities.

Laboratory Activities (if applicable): Biology and chemical laboratory environment experience needed. Environmental health and safety requirements also apply.

Travel:

You may be required to travel for up to 5% of your time.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Crinetics is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of sex, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity and/or expression), pregnancy, race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, religion or similar philosophical beliefs, disability, marital and civil union status, age, genetic information, veteran status or any personal attribute or characteristic that is protected by applicable local, state or federal laws.

Salary Range

In addition to your base pay, our total rewards program consists of a discretionary annual target bonus, stock options, ESPP, and 401k match. We also provide top-notch health insurance plans for employees (and their families) to include medical, dental, vision and basic life insurance, 20 days of PTO, 10 paid holidays, and a winter company shutdown.