Associate Director, Field Sales Capabilities Employee Experience - West

About the role

The role of the Associate Director of Field Sales Capabilities at Novo Nordisk Inc serves as a strategic performance and leadership development partner to an assigned Area Commercial Lead (ACL) and their leadership team.

Responsibilities

• Create strong synergy between Sales and Employee Experience through effective delivery of the P&O operating model strengthening internal client partnerships and transforming field capabilities.
• Serve as the primary capability partner for the design, implementation, and sustainment of leadership focused learning and enablement solutions that support field sales onboarding, product launches, organizational expansions, and leadership transitions.
• Translate enterprise and commercial strategy into clear, field-ready leadership capability standards, defining what good looks like and how leaders are expected to operate, coach, and drive results in a portfolio-based environment.
• Ensure all leadership and field capability initiatives are aligned to short-term execution priorities and long-term strategic objectives, enabling scale, consistency, and sustained behavior change.
• Oversee the execution of workshops to ensure effective development and evaluation of leadership competencies.
• Partner with Sales Leadership and Commercial stakeholders to act as a bridge between strategy and execution, ensuring leaders are equipped not just with knowledge, but with the skills, routines, and accountability mechanisms required to deliver outcomes.
• Design and lead scalable learning journeys that strengthen portfolio-based leadership, coaching effectiveness, decision-making, and accountability, moving leaders from activity-focused execution to outcome-based performance.
• Oversee the execution of leadership and sales capability workshops, ensuring intentional development, reinforcement, and evaluation of leadership, coaching, and selling competencies aligned to defined capability standards.
• Act as a Center of Expertise for leadership capability development, serving as a subject matter expert for individual contributor, first-line, and second-line leader curricula.
• Lead the design, delivery, evolution, and sustainment of Emerging Leader and second-line leadership programs, ensuring alignment to simplified leadership standards (Leading Self, Leading People, Leading Business).
• Contribute to enterprise critical initiatives within the Sales Innovation & Deployment Strategy, including Innovation Regions, Portfolio Teams, and Virtual Sales, ensuring leadership capability is embedded.
• Monitor and assess the effectiveness of leadership capability initiatives using behavior-based measurement frameworks, coaching quality indicators, leader routines, and performance insights—moving beyond training satisfaction to observable behavior change.
• Report impact, insights, and recommendations to senior stakeholders, using leading and lagging indicators to demonstrate progress toward clarity, accountability, and sustained performance at scale.
• Stay current on leadership development trends, learning science, and digital enablement to continuously enhance capability strategies and ensure relevance in a rapidly evolving healthcare and commercial landscape.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required. Advanced degree preferred.
• 12+ years in pharmaceutical sales, management, and/or sales training experience.
• Experience in building organizational capabilities, with demonstrated depth in leadership development, curriculum design, and behavioral capability building preferred.
• Proven experience leading sales management and leadership development interventions across first-line and second-line leaders preferred.
• Strong knowledge of leader development adult learning theory, and modern L&D trends, with the ability to translate learning into sustained behavior change.
• Strategic & Business Acumen: Proven ability to interpret complex business challenges, identify root causes, and recommend effective, scalable solutions and best practices.
• Strong strategic planning and business analysis skills, with the ability to translate enterprise and commercial priorities into clear operational plans and leader-ready execution.
• Demonstrated ability to balance short-term delivery with long-term capability sustainability in a fast-moving commercial environment.
• Proven track record of sales performance results and credibility with senior commercial leaders.
• Leadership Presence & Collaboration: Executive presence with the ability to influence, challenge, and partner effectively with senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strong cross-functional leadership, communication, and negotiation skills, with experience operating in complex, informal, and matrixed environments.
• Ability to build trust and operate as a trusted advisor through insight, foresight, and delivery of measurable value.
• Execution, Project & Vendor Management: Demonstrated ability to manage multiple initiatives and priorities simultaneously, with strong organizational discipline and attention to impact.
• Experience adapting plans and priorities to address resource, operational, and change management challenges.
• Experience managing external vendors and partners to support leadership development, instructional design, and specialized capability needs.