Program Design Lead

About the role: - Own and lead decision-grade FEED definition across assigned strategic capital initiatives and programs, translating business needs, manufacturing strategy, and technology ambition into coherent, integrated technical solutions that support major investment decisions. - Lead cross-disciplinary option development, trade-off resolution, and convergence across complex capital initiatives, delivering a recommended design baseline for approval by the Design Authority. - Shape the integration of innovation, technology scouting, and novel design approaches into FEED, ensuring new concepts are assessed transparently and converted into decision-grade alternatives that enhance long-term asset value, operability, and sustainability. - Ensure FEED outputs are technically robust, fully integrated, and ready for downstream delivery, reducing technical uncertainty, minimizing late redesign, and improving predictability of capital execution. How you will contribute: Early Investment & FEED Readiness - Provide governance input during early investment decision-making (opportunity framing and concept selection) to ensure robust option screening and comparison. - Ensure early-phase work is “designed for FEED”, with clear assumptions, boundaries, option logic, and risks that enable reliable downstream convergence. - Participate in relevant Global Engineering Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and Communities of Practice (CoPs) to drive knowledge sharing, standardisation, and innovation, and initiate or lead new communities where capability gaps are identified. FEED Definition Delivery (Outcome Ownership) - Own the technical content, coherence, and completeness of FEED definition packages through to gate approval. - Translate business objectives and manufacturing strategy into integrated, decision-ready technical solutions. - Deliver a clear recommended design baseline, including risks, assumptions, and key trade-offs for decision by the Design Authority. Option Framing & Integration - Lead option framing and development, ensuring technically and commercially credible alternatives. - Integrate all disciplines (Process, Utilities, Automation, CSA, Digital Factory, C&Q) into a single coherent FEED solution. - Drive structured trade-offs and convergence toward a robust, sustainable, and reliable design solution, avoiding premature lock-in. Innovation & Technology Scouting - Drive technology scouting and innovation integration as part of FEED development. - Ensure innovative concepts are translated into comparable, decision-grade options. - Balance innovation ambition with technical maturity, operability, and lifecycle risk. Interface to Governance & Decision Authority - Apply design governance standards, decision criteria, and documentation requirements as defined by the Design Governance Lead. - Prepare FEED materials for investment decision‑making, including recommendation rationale, risks, and residual uncertainties. - Escalate unresolved technical or architectural decisions to the Design Authority for arbitration. Handover to Design & CAPEX Delivery (Pillar 2 – GCC) - Act as the FEED‑side counterpart to Head of Design Delivery and Design Delivery Leads, ensuring continuity of intent from FEED into execution. - Clearly communicate design intent, frozen assumptions, and non‑negotiables at FEED handover What you bring to Takeda: Education / Experience: - University degree in Engineering (e.g. Process, Chemical, Mechanical, Industrial, or equivalent); advanced degree (MSc, PhD) preferred. - Extensive senior‑level experience in pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical engineering environments, with exposure to global operating models and distributed organizations. - Experience working across geographies with material cultural, organisational, and time‑zone differences, including offshore or GCC‑type setups. - Demonstrated experience in FEED, frontend engineering governance, or EPCM design assurance roles. - Preferred: Worked in an Engineering company (A&E, EPCM, GC). Behavioural Competencies: - Strong personal integrity and independence of judgment. - High attention to detail combined with bigpicture system thinking. - Ability to remain firm under pressure while maintaining constructive collaboration Skills: - Ability to communicate complex topics clearly and credibly across cultures, seniority levels, and geographic boundaries. - Strong stakeholder management skills, enabling productive collaboration between GCC‑based teams, Global Engineering leadership, and project sponsors in other regions. - Capability to lead through ambiguity and cultural distance while fostering inclusion, ownership, and long‑term talent retention within the GCC organization.