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Director, Launch Excellence

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Job Description Summary

Novartis is poised to launch numerous innovative medicines across four therapeutic areas, driven by a foundation of robust strategy, flawless field execution, and impact-driven performance vigilance metrics. The Director, Launch Excellence will ensure enterprise governance and frameworks for new product launches are implemented with quality and timeliness to elevate Novartis’ launch discipline. Reporting to the VP, Launch Excellence, the Director, Launch Excellence will partner closely with cross-functional launch teams to establish consistent tools, processes, and KPI dashboards, ensuring launch excellence against specific business deliverables.

This position will be located at East Hanover, NJ and will not have the ability to be located remotely. This position will require 10-15% travel as defined by the business (domestic and/or international.) #LI-Hybrid

Job Description

Key Responsibilities:

Serve as the owner of launch processes, disciplines, and toolkits including blueprints, frameworks, archetypes, playbooks, sharing and disseminating these across launch teams.

Create a community of practice across disease areas for upcoming launches to be able to gather, aggregate and share best practices and cross-functional perspectives across teams, ensuring that teams are building on launch learnings across the organization

Ensure internal and external best-practice sharing exists across launches, identifying within/outside pharma industry best-practices and market insights

Manage a consistent and robust product launch process and governance as a "control tower" structure to provide oversight and to ensure consistency of tracking and incorporating best practices across launches

Work with internal launch stakeholders to ensure launch process management and successful completion of launch readiness tasks (standardized approach across brands – including Blueprint/ Playbook, Governance, and KPIs specific to the product archetype)

Work with brand leads to schedule and prepare for governance meetings, launch readiness review meetings, coordinate training sessions at key points during development and planning journey

Coordinate Launch Readiness Review assessments across launch brands to ensure strategic and tactical plans are reviewed and aligned with senior leadership

Establish reporting dashboards to manage reporting of key metrics and KPIs including leading and lagging indicators to ensure launch success, providing mechanism for teams to share critical updates for oncology leadership team

Leading overall business planning (aligned to innovative medicines approach) working with the Planning & Launch Lead as well as cross-functionally to ensure that strategic planning & financial-planning deliverables are created at a high-level and in a timely manner

Best practice-sharing creating a community of practice for the Portfolio & Customer Experience Marketing Teams regarding strategy, tactical execution, insights as well as overall transformation and new ways-of-working

Essential Requirements:

Education: Bachelor degree-required; advanced degree, i.e., MBA, PhD, MA preferred
8+ years in pharmaceutical, biotech, medical devices, med-tech, healthcare, or healthcare consulting industry
At least 5 years’ commercial background with US market, launch and product lifecycle stages experience

Desirable Requirements:

Cross-functional life-sciences launch experience
Multi-functional experience in a pharmaceutical, biotech, or life-sciences consulting environment

The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $185,500 and $344,500/year; however, while salary ranges are effective from 1/1/25 through 12/31/25, fluctuations in the job market may necessitate adjustments to pay ranges during this period.  Further, final pay determinations will depend on various factors, including, but not limited to geographical location, experience level, knowledge, skills and abilities. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including a sign-on bonus, restricted stock units, and discretionary awards in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and parental leave), dependent on the position offered. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of employment. If hired, employee will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors. 

EEO Statement:

The Novartis Group of Companies are Equal Opportunity Employers. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Accessibility and reasonable accommodations

The Novartis Group of Companies are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, or to perform the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to us.reasonableaccommodations@novartis.com or call +1(877)395-2339 and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.

Salary Range

$185,500.00 - $344,500.00

Skills Desired

Agility, Agility, Asset Management, Business Development, Business Strategy, Commercial Excellence, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Cross-Functional Team Leadership, Customer Orientation, Digital Marketing, Healthcare Sector Understanding, Influencing Skills, Inspirational Leadership, Joint Ventures, Key Account Management, Market Access, Marketing Strategy, Market Share, Market Trend, Medical Affairs, Negotiation Skills, People Management, Priority Disease Areas Expertise, Product Launches, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) {+ 3 more}

Novartis Glassdoor Company Review

3.9

Novartis DE&I Review

No rating

CEO of Novartis

Vas Narasimhan

Approve of CEO

Average salary estimate

$265000 / YEARLY (est.)

min

max

$185500K

$344500K

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What You Should Know About Director, Launch Excellence, Novartis

At Novartis in East Hanover, we’re on the verge of launching some groundbreaking medicines, and we need a visionary Director of Launch Excellence to lead the charge! This isn’t just any director role; you’ll get to shape the launch strategy for innovative therapies that will impact countless lives. You’ll be the driving force behind our launch processes, ensuring that we stick to our commitments with a robust governance framework. Collaborating closely with cross-functional teams from various therapeutic areas, you’ll streamline best practices and share insights that will elevate our game across the board. This position requires a proactive leader who is as comfortable developing strategic KPIs as they are mentoring launch teams on effective execution. Plus, we believe in work-life balance, so while this role is based in East Hanover and involves a bit of travel, there’s a hybrid aspect to it that supports a good work environment. Your mission will be to guarantee launch readiness through meticulous management of products and a keen eye for best practices. If you have over eight years of experience in the pharmaceutical or healthcare sectors and a passion for leading teams towards excellence, you’ll fit right in at Novartis. Join us, and let’s change the future of medicine together!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Director, Launch Excellence Role at Novartis

What are the key responsibilities of the Director, Launch Excellence at Novartis?

The Director, Launch Excellence at Novartis will oversee the launch processes, develop toolkits, and create a community of practice across disease areas. This involves managing product launch consistency and governance, coordinating readiness assessments, and establishing KPIs to track launch success.