About

• Oxford Nanopore has developed a new generation of nanopore-based sensing technology for faster, information-rich, accessible and affordable molecular analysis. The technology is used to understand and characterise the biology of humans, animals, plants, bacteria, viruses, and diseases such as cancer. By enabling biological insights, we strive to improve life on Earth and beyond.
• Director, Strategic Planning
• Location: Oxford (Hybrid)

The Role

• Oxford Nanopore is seeking a highly motivated and analytically sharp Director of Strategic Planning to join its Corporate team. This role sits at the centre of ONT’s enterprise planning system, shaping how the business aligns around its strategic goals and drives execution at scale.
• You will be responsible for leading the rhythm of strategic planning, facilitating cross-functional alignment and ensuring the company’s most important priorities are clearly defined, owned, and tracked. You’ll enablie high-quality decisions, trade-offs, and coordination across functions.
• This role will focus on about building the infrastructure of strategic focus at one of the most innovative companies in genomics. The ideal candidate will have a strong analytical and systems mindset, thrive in ambiguity, and be excited to help ONT scale its impact through structured, insight-led planning.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Planning and Alignment
• Shape and run the planning calendar, ensuring alignment with board, budget, and product timelines.
• Drive integration of long-range plans and annual objectives into actionable cross-functional deliverables.
• Coordinate functional input and ensure alignment around enterprise priorities.
• Program and Initiative Governance
• Maintain the central portfolio of strategic programs and initiatives, ensuring each has clear ownership, scope, and measurable outcomes.
• Facilitate initiative prioritisation (NanoPlan), enabling transparent trade-offs across functions and business units.
• Partner with Project Management, Business Intelligence, and Finance teams to ensure resource, performance, and impact visibility across the portfolio.
• Strategic Insight & Executive Support
• Develop executive and board ready materials that clearly articulate strategic direction, trade-offs, and implications.
• Provide structured insight through targeted market, technology, and competitor analysis.
• Support scenario planning and long-range growth modelling in collaboration with Finance and BI&A.
• Act as a thought partner to the VP Strategic Planning and leadership team elevating decision quality and challenging constructively.

Candidate Profile

• 5+ years in corporate strategy, life sciences/tech consulting, commercial, or strategic roles in high-growth companies.
• Experience in genomics, diagnostics, life sciences tools, or biotech is highly desirable.
• Exceptional problem-solver with strong commercial intuition and a high bar for analytical quality.
• Proven ability to navigate ambiguity, influence without authority, and lead structured thinking across functions.
• Excellent communicator capable of simplifying complexity and delivering executive-ready materials.
• Comfortable operating cross-functionally and independently in fast-paced environments.
• Undergraduate degree in life sciences; MBA or similar is a plus.
• Please note that no terminology in this advert is intended to discriminate on the grounds of a person's gender, marital status, race, religion, colour, age, disability or sexual orientation. Every candidate will be assessed only in accordance with their merits, qualifications and abilities to perform the duties of the job.
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• Oxford Nanopore Technologies: Our goal is to bring the widest benefits to society through enabling the analysis of anything, by anyone, anywhere. The company has developed a new generation of nanopore-based sensing technology for faster, information rich, accessible and affordable molecular analysis. The first application is DNA/RNA sequencing, and the technology is in development for the analysis of other types of molecules including proteins. The technology is used to understand and characterise the biology of humans and diseases such as cancer, plants, animals, bacteria, viruses, and whole environments. With a thriving culture of ambition and strong innovation goals, Oxford Nanopore is a UK headquartered company with global operations and customers in more than 125 countries.