Country Medical Affairs Head

Job Description Summary

The Country Medical Affairs Head serves as the lead medical representative in the country and a trusted advisor to the Country Leadership Team. The role defines and executes the near and long-term medical strategy, drives scientific and medical excellence across disease areas, ensures best in class launch readiness, shapes the external healthcare environment, and fosters partnerships with the healthcare communities and governmental entities that improve patient outcomes. The position leads, develops, and transforms the medical organization to meet evolving business, scientific, and ecosystem expectations. The position is accountable for integrated and innovative evidence plans, developed and executed early, to ascertain optimal access and patient outcomes in the real world, transforming the standard of care.

 

Job Description

Job Dimensions:

Financial responsibility: Medical budget incl. evidence generation, capability building, launch investments, external engagement activities.

Decision making: Strategic decisions on medical resource allocation, talent, and capability build; Oversight and prioritization of the Country Medical Tactical Plan; Decisions related to evidence generation, compliance, and external engagement.

External/internal stakeholders Interface:

External: KOLs, scientific/medical societies, regulatory bodies, HTA organizations, patient associations, policymakers, investigators, universities

Internal: Country President, TA Heads, Value & Access, Regulatory Affairs, Public Affairs, EE, ERC, Patient Engagement and communications, regional, international and global Medical teams

Impact on the organization: Member of the Country Leadership Team; High organizational impact shaping medical strategy, product success, scientific positioning, and policy environment across TAs

Major accountabilities:

• Strategic Leadership & Country Medical Strategy

  • Shape, lead, and execute the country medical strategy aligned with global & international priorities

  • Serve as the scientific, ethical, and medical authority on the Country Leadership Team

  • Influence health policy, guidelines, and care standards through proactive engagement with authorities, payer bodies, scientific societies, and ecosystem partners

  • Translate complex scientific and market insights into strategic recommendations and impactful actions

  • Create trusting relationship and shape regional/international and global medical strategy

• Medical Governance, Excellence, Evidence Generation & Scientific Leadership

  • Ensure full scientific integrity and medical accuracy across all internal & external engagements

  • Lead integrated evidence generation plans addressing local data gaps (incl. RWE, observational studies, IITs)

  • Collaborate on execution of global clinical research locally with CRMA and Development

  • Oversee local data generation activities (IITs, non-interventional studies)

  • Oversee MAPs requests and programs

  • Ensure early implementation science plans to support HTA submissions, guideline shaping, and clinical adoption

  • Champion innovative and digital approaches for data generation, insights, and stakeholder engagement

• Launch Leadership & Product Lifecycle Support

  • Drive early, end-to-end launch readiness (diagnostics, biomarkers, KOL mobilization, medical education, evidence requirements)

  • Co-lead launch excellence with commercial, access, and regulatory teams‑lead launch excellence with commercial, access, and regulatory teams

  • Ensure medical contribution to pricing, reimbursement, and HTA strategies

• External Engagement & Ecosystem Partnership

  • Build bold, innovative partnerships beyond traditional HCPs (e.g., payers, policymakers, digital health partners, patient groups)

  • Represent Novartis at key medical, governmental, and scientific events

  • Shape external perceptions and scientific leadership of Novartis in the country

  • Build collaborative networks to accelerate quality of care, reimbursement, and health system innovation

• Organizational Transformation & Capability Building in collaboration with EE

  • Lead ongoing transformation toward a future ready, agile, digitally enabled medical organization

  • Define capability strategy based on future TA needs, scientific trends, and evolving healthcare dynamics in close collaboration with EE

  • Drive medical excellence frameworks, quality standards, and operational efficiencies

  • Ensure robust governance, compliance, and risk management

• Leadership & Culture

  • Lead and coordinate cross-functional teams to execute strategic priorities

  • Build a high-performance culture, manage recruiting, performance, and coaching; develop critical capabilities and talent pipelines

  • Attract, develop, and retain top talent; strengthen succession plans and capabilities across the country organization

  • Role-model Novartis Leadership Expectations & Behaviors, inspire transformation and performance, and demonstrate self-awareness with a growth mindset

Key performance indicators:

• Strategic & Medical Excellence

  • Execution rate of Country One Brand Plan KPIs

  • Quality, scientific rigor, and compliance metrics (audit readiness, risk indicators)

  • Field excellence and customer engagement metrics

• Evidence Generation

  • Timely initiation and execution of local studies in line with portfolio needs

  • Quality and impact of evidence generation and RWE initiatives

• Launch Success

  • Launch readiness metrics across TAs (diagnostic availability, scientific engagement, KOL readiness)

  • Contribution to reimbursement & HTA outcomes

• Ecosystem Collaboration

  • Impact of external partnerships on policy, access, and guideline evolution

  • Medical engagement quality and reach (incl. new models & digital channels)

• People & Culture

  • Talent development, retention, and internal mobility

  • Succession bench strengths (both internally & externally)

  • Medical capability uplift and training completion

  • Engagement and leadership index scores

• Operational Excellence

  • Budget adherence, process efficiency, and operational improvements

  • Effectiveness of medical governance & compliance processes

Ideal Background:

Education:

• MD preferred; PhD/PharmD or comparable advanced scientific degree acceptable depending on country regulation

Languages:

• Fluency in English

• Local country language required

Experience/Professional Requirement:

Experiences:

• 10+ years of experiences in Medical Affairs, including 3–5 years in senior medical leadership roles (e.g., Medical Director, Medical Unit Lead, TA Medical Lead).

• Demonstrated leadership of 10–20+ associates in medical or scientific roles, with a track record of building and developing high performing teams.

• Experience working in an above country role and/or across different market archetypes preferred.

• Deep knowledge of local healthcare systems, payer dynamics, policy frameworks, and therapeutic area science.

• Proven success leading multiple pre‑launch and launch strategies across therapeutic areas.

• Experience shaping HTA, reimbursement, pricing and access strategies, including integration of local evidence requirements.

• Strong experience in evidence generation (IITs, MAPs, RWE, observational studies) and collaboration with Development on clinical trials.

• Extensive engagement with KOLs, scientific societies, policymakers, payers, regulatory bodies and broader healthcare ecosystem partners.

• Experience leading organizational transformation, including digital enablement and capability building within Medical Affairs

Functional & Leadership skills:

• Navigating Complexity: ability to translate complex data into clear and strategic relevant insights, executive presentation skills and ability to build compelling scientific narratives to support internal alignment and external advocacy; and strong knowledge of product LCM.

• Delivering Impact: Demonstrating TA depth with ability to interpret and communicate clinical trial results, RWE and guidelines updates and strong knowledge of the regulatory and compliance frameworks such as GCP, PV, promotional vs non promotional standards; fully immersed in the business landscape demonstrating high business acumen, leverage data driven insights to inform decisions and cross-functional collaboration.

• Leading People: demonstrated ability to lead transformations and changes while leading continued efforts on managing resources, performance and launch preparations; expertise
  of building and maintaining relationships with medical experts, medical societies, regulators, guideline boards, and policy makers.

 

Skills Desired

Agility, Agility, Clinical Practices, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Data Analysis, Drug Development, Employee Development, Healthcare Sector Understanding, Health Sciences, Influencing Skills, Innovation, Inspirational Leadership, Integrated Evidence Generation, Medical Affairs, Medical Communication, Medical Education, Patient Care, People Management, Pharmaceutics, Priority Disease Areas Expertise, Product Launches, Product Strategy, Real World Evidence (RWE), Regulatory Compliance, Research Methodologies {+ 4 more}