Executive Director, Medical Affairs - COPD

The TA EDMA will allocate 50% of their strategic focus to support the United States (U.S.) and the remaining 50% supporting the rest of world. The TA EDMA may also be appointed as a V&I Lead for their disease/asset area(s), which includes additional organizationally aligned responsibilities. The TA EDMA fosters relationships and engages with global scientific leaders and key decision-makers to inform the V&I priorities. The TA EDMA brings subject-matter expertise along with a global view to the role that affords them to strategically partner with internal stakeholders around Global V&I priorities. This position is also a team leader who effectively manages and inspires a team to achieve high performance and deliver exceptional results.

Primary Responsibilities

• Accountable for the generation of the global strategic V&I plan, its global and regional execution, and facilitating the rollout to the countries.
• Aligns with Big Country Markets and ensures robust two-way communication with U.S., China, and Japan Executive Directors or equivalents.
• Captures market-specific needs and insights to inform global strategy, while also guiding local execution in alignment with global V&I plans.
• Integrates into the EDMA Tandem model to foster strategic clarity and executional excellence.
• Dedicates 50% of their strategic focus to the U.S., acting as a change catalyst—leading global planning while ensuring seamless integration with U.S. execution.
• Partners with U.S. EDMA and Health Systems EDs to align payor strategies, precision-medicine initiatives, and congress deliverables.
• Partners with the appropriate Product Development Team (PDT) and/or Asset Development Team (ADT), Global Brand, and V&I Outcomes Research leads to define clinical-development plans and brand strategies for assigned TAs.
• Ensures team contributes as relevant members to the PDT and/or ADT sub-teams (V&I, Value Evidence, Clinical, Commercial, Publications, and Label teams).
• Integrates end-to-end knowledge gaps across countries and regions to better inform the GMSA portion of our Global V&I plans.
• Applies expertise in country’s medical systems and clinical practice standards to guide Global Directors Medical Affairs (GDMAs) and/or Regional Directors Medical Affairs (RDMAs) and partners with Regional Strategy Leads (RSLs).
• Monitors external clinical trends and scientific developments through systematic insight collection from group input meetings (GIMs), congresses, and other platforms.
• Demonstrates business acumen by guiding the team to ask insightful, elevated questions and challenge the status quo.
• Leverages assessments to integrate actionable medical insights from various countries and regions, informing both current and future needs of the global strategy.
• Leads team engagement with international scientific leaders and key stakeholders—including therapeutic guideline committees, payers, public groups, government officials, and medical societies—on the company’s emerging science.
• Ensures all scientific exchange for their TA(s) is aligned with a single global scientific-communications platform.
• Collaborates across V&I, including U.S. EDMAs, Regional Leaders, and Outcomes Research, embedding fully within PDT/ADT frameworks.
• Collaborates with Global Human Health (commercial) leaders to inform of the GMSA portion of V&I plans to ensure alignment, while independently leading the execution of these plans.
• Organizes regular management reviews to assess team’s activities and progress.
• Supports key countries with the development of local data-generation study concepts and protocols when requested.
• Understands and supports the Investigator-Initiated Study program in collaboration with the Executive Director Scientific Affairs (EDSA).
• Leads and develops a high-performing team focused on executional excellence, fostering a collaborative environment that supports professional growth and continuous improvement.
• Implements talent-management and development plans, proactively addressing challenges to enhance team.
• Demonstrates and champions our company’s Ways of Working, emphasizing innovation, medical modernization, defining team priorities, and focusing on the impact to the patient.
• Manages assigned budget with strong financial stewardship, ensuring delivery within a 3% variance.
• Requires up to 30% travel, both within the U.S. and internationally.

Education

M.D., Ph.D., DDS/DMD or Pharm.D. (M.D. strongly preferred) and recognized medical expertise.

Required Experience and Skills

• Therapeutic Area specialization and recognized scientific expertise.
• Training or experience in pulmonology, pulmonary critical care, or infectious disease.
• Extensive experience in medical affairs or clinical development, with a minimum of 3 years in pharmaceutical industry.
• Track record of successful team leadership and global experience.
• Strong prioritization and decision-making skills with the ability to understand how decisions fit into the broader context of corporate strategies.
• Demonstrated ability to motivate, mentor, manage and provide clear, unambiguous expectations and priorities for the teams.
• Ability to effectively collaborate with and influence partners across divisions in a matrix environment.
• Excellent interpersonal, analytical, and communication skills (written and oral) in addition to results-oriented project-management skills.

Preferred Experience and Skills

• At least five years of global or U.S. medical affairs or clinical development experience with proven track record of contribution to medical or clinical-development strategies.
• Five years of leadership in the pharmaceutical industry, with teams having responsibility for scientific exchange and research support, preferably in relevant TA.
• Demonstrated successful leadership of strategic initiatives as evidenced by a successful track record of design/creation of and accountability for implementation of strategic solutions for critical aspects of medical affairs goals and objectives.
• Track record of successful team leadership and global experience.
• Customer expertise, especially of scientific leadership and other key stakeholders (payers, public groups, government officials, medical professional organizations), in the assigned therapeutic area.
• Proven ability to effectively influence company life-cycle management and data generation.
• Understanding of resourcing and budgeting.