Executive Director, Medical Affairs - COPD

This position resides in the Value & Implementation (V&I) organization, which includes Global Medical & Scientific Affairs (GMSA) as well as Outcomes Research. The Executive Director, Value & Implementation Global Medical & Scientific Affairs (V&I GMSA) for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is accountable for the alignment and execution of the GMSA portion of the Global V&I Plans for their assigned therapeutic area (TA). This role allocates 50% of strategic focus to support the United States and 50% to the rest of the world. The TA EDMA may also serve as a V&I Lead for their disease/asset area(s), including additional organizationally aligned responsibilities.

The TA EDMA fosters relationships with global scientific leaders and key decision-makers to inform V&I priorities, bringing subject-matter expertise and a global view to strategically partner with internal stakeholders. This role leads and inspires a high-performing team, exemplifying leadership skills such as acting as a change catalyst, taking ownership, and displaying emotional intelligence.

Responsibilities

• Accountable for generating the global strategic V&I plan, its execution, and facilitating rollout to countries, guiding the bidirectional, tactical execution of the V&I GMSA portion in partnership with Outcomes Research to guide real-world data generation.
• Aligns with Big Country Markets, ensuring robust two-way communication with U.S., China, and Japan Executive Directors (Eds) or equivalents to capture market-specific needs and insights while guiding local execution.
• Integrates into the EDMA Tandem model to foster strategic clarity and executional excellence, demonstrating enterprise leadership across geographies.
• Dedicates 50% of 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, Health Systems EDs, Product Development Teams (PDT), and/or Asset Development Teams (ADT) to align payor strategies, precision-medicine initiatives, congress deliverables, clinical-development plans, and brand strategies.
• Ensures team contributions as relevant members to PDT/ADT sub-teams (V&I, Value Evidence, Clinical, Commercial, Publications, and Label teams).
• Integrates end-to-end knowledge gaps across countries and regions to inform Global V&I plans, enabling successful implementation of country or regional priorities.
• Applies expertise in country medical systems and clinical practice standards to guide Global/Regional Directors Medical Affairs and partners with Regional Strategy Leads to anticipate challenges and support adoption of new innovations.
• Monitors external clinical trends and scientific developments through systematic insight collection from group input meetings, congresses, and other platforms.
• Demonstrates business acumen by guiding the team to ask insightful questions, challenge the status quo, and integrate actionable medical insights into 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 emerging science.
• Ensures all scientific exchange for their TA(s) aligns with a single global scientific-communications platform.
• Collaborates across V&I, including U.S. EDMAs, Regional Leaders, and Outcomes Research, embedding within PDT/ADT frameworks to provide subject-matter expertise and drive accountability.
• Collaborates with Global Human Health (commercial) leaders to inform and execute GMSA portions of V&I plans.
• Organizes regular management reviews to assess team 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 collaboration, professional growth, and continuous improvement.
• Implements talent-management and development plans, proactively addressing team challenges.
• Champions the company’s Ways of Working, emphasizing innovation, medical modernization, and patient impact.
• Manages assigned budget with strong financial stewardship, ensuring delivery within a 3% variance and making informed decisions when budgets change.

Requirements

• M.D., Ph.D., DDS/DMD, or Pharm.D. (M.D. strongly preferred) with recognized medical expertise.
• Therapeutic Area specialization and recognized scientific expertise, with 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 the pharmaceutical industry.
• Track record of successful team leadership and global experience.
• Strong prioritization, decision-making, and ability to align decisions with broader corporate strategies.
• Demonstrated ability to motivate, mentor, manage, and set clear expectations for teams.
• Ability to collaborate and influence partners across divisions in a matrix environment.
• Excellent interpersonal, analytical, and communication skills (written and oral), along with results-oriented project-management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

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

Skills

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
• Clinical Development
• Clinical Research
• Enterprise Leadership
• Leadership Management
• Medical Affairs
• Organizational Leadership
• Pharmaceutical Medical Affairs
• Resourcing Strategies
• Scientific Communications
• Strategic Leadership

Pay

The salary range for this role is $255,800.00 - $402,700.00. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on factors including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs. The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family).
• Retirement benefits, including 401(k).
• Paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days.

Schedule

• Requires up to 30% travel, both within the U.S. and internationally.