Director, Core Data Management

Location: East Hanover, New Jersey. Novartis is unable to offer relocation support or visa sponsorship for this position. The preferred location is the East Hanover, New Jersey site, though remote work may be possible with restrictions. Remote employees are responsible for home office expenses and travel/lodging for periodic in-person meetings in East Hanover. Working hours and travel expectations will be defined by the hiring manager.

About The Role

At Novartis, data is the foundation for better decisions, breakthrough innovation, and transformative patient outcomes. As Director, Core Data Management, you will shape the future of enterprise data by establishing the standards, governance, and operational excellence needed to create trusted, AI-ready data products at scale. This is a high-impact leadership opportunity to influence how data is managed across the organization, partner with senior stakeholders across business and technology, and lead a talented team dedicated to delivering high-quality, governed data that powers innovation and accelerates our mission to reimagine medicine.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve enterprise standards for core data, metadata, data modeling, and data quality.
• Drive consistent adoption of data standards across certified data products enterprise-wide.
• Establish trusted, governed, and artificial intelligence-ready datasets that enable business value.
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Associate Directors across data management domains.
• Partner with data engineering and business teams to onboard and scale data products.
• Oversee post-launch data operations, ensuring performance, stability, and governance compliance.
• Maintain operational documentation, standards, reporting, and delivery performance metrics.
• Monitor service levels, identify trends, and proactively address operational risks.
• Coordinate cross-functional stakeholders, vendors, and partners to achieve successful delivery outcomes.
• Champion continuous improvement across the data product lifecycle and governance processes.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field; advanced degree preferred.
• 15+ years of data management or data architecture experience in complex organizations.
• 3+ years leading teams within a regulated industry environment.
• Demonstrated ownership of an enterprise data model or CDM at scale, with formal domain/master-data governance.
• Working fluency in ODCS, DCAT, SKOS, OWL/RDF, or equivalent semantic-web/data-contract standards.
• Experience with a modern catalog/governance platform (Data Governance platform, Open Metadata, Atlan, Collibra, or Alation).
• Familiarity with pharma commercial data sources (IQVIA Xponent/OneKey/Plantrak, Veeva) is a strong plus.
• Proven people-leadership: hiring, coaching ADs, and managing distributed/vendor surge teams to deadlines.
• Executive communication skills — able to translate architecture into board-ready narrative.

Skills

• Experience working with pharmaceutical commercial data sources, including IQVIA, Veeva, or similar platforms.

Pay

The salary for this position is expected to range between $185,500 and $344,500 per year. The final salary offered is determined based on factors like relevant skills and experience. Compensation includes a performance-based cash incentive and eligibility for annual equity awards.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, life, and disability benefits.
• 401(k) with company contribution and match.
• Generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays, and other leaves.