Required Experience: • Minimum of (3-5) years relevant work experience • Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a collaborative environment with a diverse cross-functional stakeholder group • Highly organized, with excellent attention to detail and follow-through • Proven track-record of being able to manage high volume of transactional work with both accuracy and efficiency • Able to prioritize work effectively and relate daily tasks to larger project deliverables and departmental objectives • Proficient in Excel and Power BI; comfortable working with other IT tools and applications (Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, PowerPoint, Spotfire) • Adept at both data entry as well as generating reports • Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
Preferred Experience:
Pharma or Scientific Background is highly preferred • Scientifically conversant in basic in vitro biology and pharmacology principles, with industry experience as a bench Scientist • Working knowledge of Ariba and other financial systems • Experience authoring Standard Operating Guidelines/ Procedures (SOGs, SOPs) • Prior experience working in an environment with responsibilities for managing confidential information
Responsibilities:
This individual contributor role, with moderate oversight, will have responsibility for processing the transactional activities associated with executing studies at external contract research organizations (CROs) or collaborators in support of Discovery, Pre-Clinical and Translational Medicine (DPTM). • This cross-functional support position will be directly accountable to the broader DPTM Operations team, and interface with MRL benchtop Scientists and External Scientific Leads, Finance, Procurement, and Business Development & Licensing (BD&L) transaction managers to ensure that Purchase Orders (POs) are generated to initiate external work, and that invoices are reconciled for payment in a policy-compliant manner. • The responsibilities of this position will extend to utilizing a suite of IT applications and financial systems to track open requisitions and monitor payments. • In addition, it is expected that the successful candidate will develop sufficient expertise in these tools and processes to be able to effectively troubleshoot issues, propose solutions for workflow improvements, and document best practices.
Taking direction from the DPTM Operations team, based on input from the broader network of scientific and business stakeholders, the Operations Specialist will perform the following activities, and exhibit the following collaborative behaviors: • Transactional Support to enable execution of research studies at external CROs and collaborators
o Ensure that project details for work done externally are appropriately captured in relevant IT systems and tracking tools
o Verify that contracts and agreements with outside parties are in place prior to initiating any work at external suppliers
o Initiate Purchase Orders (POs) based on pre-defined scope of work and communicate to relevant stakeholders that work may proceed (e.g., Operations team, Finance, initiating scientists, and external parties)
o Upon invoicing, verify project deliverables with initiating scientist and document status in audit-compliant manner, prior to triggering payment approvals
o Maintain accurate records for all open POs, incremental payments, accruals, and close-out activities
o Manage and monitor Purchase Orders for acquisition of human biological samples and BD&L consortium agreements, and follow PO best practices
o Verify and document continued need for annual research-use licenses with MRL stakeholders
o Triage contract expiry and annual check-in notifications at direction of external collaboration manager
o Promote and adhere to corporate policies, ensuring compliance and protection of company assets, completing due diligence activities prior to initiating purchase orders, recognizing that this position is responsible for the handling of confidential and sensitive corporate information
• IT Systems /Tools
o Ensure timely updates to DPTM forecasting/financial tracking and data analytics tools to monitor and ensure data integrity
o Compile and distribute monthly BD&L reports from financial tracking tools
o Develop subject matter expertise (SME) in all tools and workflows that support the sourcing process
o Be able to troubleshoot tool or workflow issues associated with PO generation, invoice reconciliation and partner payments, engaging a network of stakeholders and partner to monitor and resolve these issues in a timely manner
o Author and update of SOGs and communicate best practices as they pertain to the sourcing PO and invoicing workflows
• Collaboration/Communication
o Develop and foster effective working relationships with the DPTM Operations team members and the broader Externalization Management Group (EMG)
o Take a customer service-minded approach to enabling the PO and invoicing activities, balancing the need to address emergent issues with other time sensitive project priorities
o Seek to find win-win solutions to problems, taking time to understand the underlying variables, and negotiate to a mutually agreeable action plan
o Keep stakeholders informed of the status and progress of transactions, especially where processing timelines may be extended
o Communicate with external parties/collaborators to ensure timely invoice submission
o Be able to collaborate with external suppliers and internal stakeholders in flexible business hours given time zone differences