Program Manager / Associate Program Manager

If you re excited by the idea of advancing scientific, clinical, and regulatory frontiers of vaccines and immunotherapies, spending each day developing medicines with the potential to save millions of lives, and building a generational global pharmaceutical company in India along the way - join us!

Position Overview

We are looking to hire a highly motivated Program Manager / Associate Program Manager who will play a critical role in driving execution across complex, fast-moving RD and clinical programs. This role requires someone who is proactive, forward-thinking, comfortable getting into the weeds, and able to anticipate issues before they surface. The ideal candidate is naturally curious, thrives on cross-functional interactions, and can think from first principles to understand problems deeply and propose practical solutions. They will work closely with all teams at PopVax including RD, manufacturing, QA/QC, procurement, and operations teams to ensure rapid progress of PopVax s programs. This role is highly suited for growth, with opportunities to take on increasing scope, autonomy, and leadership as the organization scales. In general, we have found that smart generalists can dramatically change the trajectory of our programs for the better, radically accelerating the advancement of critical vaccines and therapeutics into the clinic for the benefit of the millions of people across the world who need them. That generalist could be you!

Key Responsibilities

Program Planning Coordination

• Develop and maintain integrated program plans, timelines, risk registers, and resource maps.

• Proactively identify dependencies, bottlenecks, and upcoming risks forecast issues before they occur and suggest mitigation strategies.

• Coordinate regular cross-functional meetings; prepare agendas, drive discussions, capture action items, and ensure follow-through.

Execution Monitoring

• Track day-to-day execution across RD, analytical, process development, manufacturing, regulatory, and operations teams.

• Dive into the details understand experiments, processes, vendor timelines, and operational steps well enough to challenge assumptions and support problem-solving.

• Escalate delays or roadblocks early, backed by clear root-cause reasoning using first-principles thinking.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as a central point of contact across teams; build strong relationships by being naturally extroverted, inquisitive, and communicative.

• Actively seek information ( positive nosiness ) to ensure you always have an accurate picture of program status.

• Facilitate alignment between technical leads, QA, management, and external stakeholders.

Documentation Reporting

• Prepare crisp, insightful updates for leadership including dashboards, milestone summaries, and risk reports.

• Maintain rigorous documentation standards across program artifacts, ensuring decisions and data are captured accurately.

• Translate complex scientific or operational discussions into structured, actionable formats.

Vendor Partner Management

• Support external collaborations with CROs, CMOs, vendors, and consultants.

• Track deliverables, negotiate timelines, and ensure alignment between internal teams and external partners.

• Help manage SOWs, documentation, and invoicing.

Operational Strategic Support

• Contribute to building scalable PM processes, templates, SOPs, and workflows.

• Challenge business as usual approaches by applying logical, first-principles reasoning to improve how teams plan, track, and execute.

• Step into ambiguity and provide structure where needed, especially in early-stage or rapidly evolving programs.

An ideal candidate will have:

• Excellent analytical, documentation, and communication skills.

• Ability to break down complex problems using first-principles reasoning.

• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to talk to anyone at any level, from scientists to leadership to external partners.

• Demonstrated ability to be proactive, detail-oriented, structured, and responsive.

• Bachelor s or Master s degree in life sciences, engineering, management, or a related field.

• 1-3 years of experience in the industry in a scientific role is advantageous.