Director, Thought Leader Liaison - Midwest

Duties & Responsibilities

• Translates the national Thought Leader Liaison strategy into clear regional priorities, engagement plans, and execution expectations aligned with approved brand, disease-state, pre-launch, launch, and in-market objectives.
• Leads regional KOL identification, mapping, segmentation, and engagement planning in partnership with appropriate internal stakeholders.
• Identifies regional opportunities, educational needs, and emerging external trends, ensuring consistent execution of the national strategy while adapting engagement plans to relevant regional needs.
• Leads, coaches, develops, and retains a team of Thought Leader Liaisons. Establishes clear role expectations, objectives, and compliant ways of working while providing regular field coaching, performance feedback, development planning, and succession planning.
• Builds team capabilities in KOL engagement, business acumen, insight generation, strategic communication, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Supports the recruitment, onboarding, and ongoing readiness of TLL talent while fostering an inclusive, accountable, and high-performing culture aligned with BI behaviors.
• Provides leadership and direction for the development of compliant, long-term commercial relationships with national and regional KOLs, healthcare professionals, institutions, and relevant professional organizations.
• Ensures TLL engagement is based on approved commercial objectives, documented educational needs, and appropriate customer segmentation.
• Supports TLLs in developing strategies for complex or high-priority KOL relationships while maintaining direct engagement with a limited number of strategic KOLs to strengthen relationships, gather insights, and stay connected to evolving customer needs.
• Ensures that all engagement remains distinct from scientific exchange led by Medical Affairs and from activities owned by Stakeholder Relations, Patient Advocacy Relations, Value & Access, Sales, or other functions.
• Ensures TLLs capture accurate, meaningful, and timely market, customer, educational, competitive, and executional insights through approved systems and processes.
• Reviews and synthesizes regional insights to identify themes, emerging needs, and potential business implications, and communicates actionable findings to the TLL Head and appropriate internal stakeholders.
• Partners with Marketing, Medical Affairs, Value & Access, Customer Engagement, and other functions to support coordinated stakeholder engagement while maintaining clear functional responsibilities and effective feedback loops between field and headquarters teams.
• Performs all Company business in accordance with all regulations (e.g., EEO, FDA, OIG, PhRMA, etc.) and Company policy and procedures.
• Demonstrates high ethical and professional standards with all business contacts to maintain Boehringer's excellent reputation.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required. Advanced degree such as an MBA, PharmD, PhD, or other relevant graduate degree preferred.
• 10+ years US pharmaceutical sales, patient services and reimbursement, market access, account management or marketing experience; previous TLL experience preferred.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience within a complex matrix organization.
• Demonstrated success developing and managing KOL relationships and executing strategic and tactical engagement plans in a field based or customer facing role.
• Broad business acumen in Marketing, Sales, Managed Markets and Medical Science.
• Practical knowledge of pharmaceutical marketing that includes FDA regulatory and legal environment.
• Ability to gather, synthesize, and communicate marketplace insights that inform commercial strategy, brand planning, customer engagement, and leadership decision-making.
• Strong understanding of customer and industry contracting practices and trends, territory planning, prioritization, and organizational skills.
• Ability to travel 50-75%.
• Valid Driver's License and an acceptable driving record.

Eligibility Requirements

• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without restriction.
• Must be willing to take a drug test and post-offer physical (if required).
• Must be 18 years of age or older.