Research & Early Development Digital Academy Lead
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Make your mark for patients
We are looking for a Research & Early Development Academy Lead who is innovative and agile, to be based in Slough UK or Braine, Belgium.
About the role
You will lead the Research & Early Development Academy portfolio as a key capability-building pillar of UCB's digital transformation. Working in partnership with the Digital Transformation programme and Talent organisation, translate strategic priorities, future workforce needs and emerging digital capabilities into scalable learning experiences, communities and development pathways that accelerate adoption, strengthen digital behaviours and prepare the organisation for new ways of working. Drive governance, engagement and continuous improvement to ensure the Academy delivers measurable capability growth and business value.
Who you'll work with
Working with Digital, Talent and early Research and Development.
What you'll do
Define and evolve the learning strategy for Research & Early Development, translating capability and workforce needs into role-based learning pathways and development experiences.
Lead and grow a portfolio of academies, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities and expanding offerings to address emerging capability requirements.
Design engaging learner journeys that progress learners from awareness through application, delivering practical and impactful capability development.
Build and lead a community of Academy Champions, leveraging peer networks to enhance learning, mentoring, adoption, and content quality.
Oversee content strategy and curation, ensuring learning resources are relevant, high quality, and organised into coherent learning experiences.
Drive Academy engagement, communications, and brand visibility, establishing a compelling value proposition and fostering a culture of continuous learning.
Own Academy governance, platform experience, and impact measurement, ensuring effective operations, strong learner experiences, and continuous improvement through adoption, feedback, and capability outcomes.
Interested? For this role you'll need the following education, experience and skills
Strong experience in learning experience design, capability development, product management, platform ownership or change enablement
Ability to translate capability frameworks and workforce needs into practical learning experiences and development pathways
Strong understanding of scientific roles, workflows and capability needs within a research environment
Excellent communication, branding, and stakeholder management skills
Comfortable owning complex, cross-cutting initiatives end-to-end
Experience working across learning, transformation, talent or organisational development initiatives
Are you ready to ‘go beyond’ to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!
About us
UCB is a global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on neurology and immunology. We are over 9.000 people in all four corners of the globe, inspired by patients and driven by science.
Why work with us?
At UCB, we don’t just complete tasks, we create value. We aren’t afraid to push forward, collaborate, and innovate to make our mark for patients. We have a caring, supportive culture where everyone feels included, respected, and has equal opportunities to do their best work. We ‘go beyond’ to create value for our patients, and always with a human focus, whether that’s on our patients, our employees, or our planet. Working for us, you will discover a place where you can grow, and have the freedom to carve your own career path to achieve your full potential.
At UCB, we’ve embraced a hybrid-first approach to work, bringing teams together in local hubs to foster collaborative curiosity. Unless expressly stated in the description or precluded by the nature of the position, roles are hybrid with 40% of your time spent in the office.
UCB is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions will be made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable laws.
Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on EMEA-Reasonable_Accommodation@ucb.com. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments; we will not be able to support you through this channel.
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Data & Digital role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 860 comparable Data & Digital roles across 80 biopharma companies.
Salary context
267 of 860 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 860 comparable roles
+ 36 more countries
Seniority mix
557 of 860 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
30 of 860 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
Similar opportunities
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How we calculate "similar"
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Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.