Director, AIRx External Partnership Management Lead

About the Team

Takeda Research is constructing a Lab of Tomorrow built on AI, automation, new ways of working, and talent with the singular vision of delivering differentiated medicines to the clinic at speed and cost. To catalyze these efforts, Takeda is creating two complementary units: the AI Research Accelerator (AIRx) and Discovery Automation & Robotics (DAR).

AIRx operates as a dedicated group of experienced drug hunters, combining the autonomy of a biotech with the resources of a leading pharmaceutical company. It is designed to incubate future AI-powered operating models and deliver candidates to the clinic at industry-leading speed and success rates.

About the Role

The Director, AIRx CRO & External Partnerships serves as the single accountable owner of all CRO relationships for AIRx. This role is critical because AIRx executes the majority of its wet-lab work externally; its speed, cost, and quality targets depend entirely on CROs operating as a true extension of the team.

This is not a traditional contracting role. It requires actively managing CROs with clear expectations, frequent direction-setting, real-time performance management, and direct accountability for milestones and quality. The successful candidate will drive this through daily coordination with CRO teams, regular on-site presence at key partners (including periodic visits to domestic and international CROs), and tight integration with AIRx scientific leads.

You will own the full external execution lifecycle—from partner identification and contracting to data specification and ongoing performance management. A key part of the day-to-day involves ensuring CRO outputs feed AIRx data systems in a format ready for AI/ML decision-making. The ideal candidate brings deep CRO landscape knowledge, an established external network, and the operational rigor to run multiple parallel partnerships at AIRx's pace and quality bar.

Hiring Process

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Equal Opportunity

Takeda is proud in its commitment to creating a diverse workforce and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, parental status, national origin, age, disability, citizenship status, genetic information or characteristics, marital status, status as a Vietnam era veteran, special disabled veteran, or other protected veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws, and any other characteristic protected by law.