The Senior Director, Digital & AI R&D Transformation shapes Fresenius Kabi’s future Digital & AI agenda for Research & Development.
With senior R&D, Medical, Clinical, Regulatory, Quality and Business Unit leaders, the role defines the digital vision for discovering, developing and sustaining products beyond 2030, enabling increasingly AI-first, data-driven, connected and digitally enabled R&D.
As R&D leadership’s strategic Digital & AI partner, the role owns the R&D Digital & AI Trend Radar, continuously assessing emerging technologies, scientific advances, industry developments and disruptive innovations over a 3-5 year horizon. It translates trends into actionable recommendations on organizational implications and opportunities to improve speed, quality, evidence generation and portfolio value.
The role provides end-to-end Digital & AI portfolio transparency across R&D, serving as the primary reference for ongoing, planned and emerging initiatives. It identifies, prioritizes and sequences opportunities across discovery, formulation and product development, clinical development, regulatory affairs, medical evidence and R&D knowledge management, guiding investment and recommendations to continue, scale, evolve or stop initiatives.
Through an agile team of AI & Digital Innovation Acceleration Managers and Business Unit partners, the role translates R&D challenges and ambitions into Digital & AI use cases, guiding strategic advisory, opportunity identification and proof-of-value pilots, with recommendations and decision support for investment and scaling.
With the Digital & AI Capability and Workforce Strategy & Engagement teams, the role strengthens digital capabilities, adoption and workforce transformation for AI-enabled R&D. As an external ambassador, it represents Fresenius Kabi’s Digital & AI perspective in relevant life-science forums, innovation networks and strategic partnerships, aligned with Group and segment stakeholders.
Main Responsibilities:
Shape the Future of R&D
Define the Digital & AI vision for R&D across the end-to-end product development lifecycle.
Continuously assess external market trends, emerging technologies, scientific advances and leading practices in life sciences R&D.
Identify future capability requirements needed to improve development speed, scientific quality, regulatory readiness and portfolio competitiveness over the next 3-5 years.
Develop strategic roadmaps that balance long-term ambition with practical execution in a regulated and heterogeneous R&D environment.
Trend Monitoring & Innovation Scouting
Establish a systematic process to identify and assess emerging technologies through an R&D Trend Radar, and regularly communicate findings across R&D and Digital governance bodies.
Build partnerships with technology providers, start-ups, academic institutions, research networks and relevant industry consortia.
Assess each trend against maturity, scientific and business relevance, GxP and regulatory implications, responsible AI requirements, cross-Business-Unit scalability and value, with a clear recommendation to act, pilot, monitor or discontinue.
Digital Portfolio Ownership & Synergy Realization
Own the portfolio view of Digital & AI initiatives across R&D and maintain transparency of the digital maturity landscape across functions and Business Units as the foundation for scaling decisions.
Identify duplication, capability gaps and synergies; recommend consolidation, reuse or scaling opportunities; and prioritize investments based on strategic importance, scientific impact, business value and feasibility.
Connect related initiatives across R&D, Quality, TechOps, Commercial, Data & Analytics and Kabi IT to strengthen reuse and end-to-end value.
Big Bets, Use Cases & Proof of Value
Identify high-value AI and digital opportunities across scientific knowledge discovery, formulation and process development, clinical development, evidence generation, regulatory authoring and intelligence, and R&D…