Gilead Sciences, Inc. Posted July 17, 2026

Director, Patient Safety (MD)

Foster City, United States Full time
Pharmacovigilance Director

Gilead Sciences, Inc. is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

At Gilead, we’re creating a healthier world for all people. For more than 35 years, we’ve tackled diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19 and cancer – working relentlessly to develop therapies that help improve lives and to ensure access to these therapies across the globe. We continue to fight against the world’s biggest health challenges, and our mission requires collaboration, determination and a relentless drive to make a difference.

Every member of Gilead’s team plays a critical role in the discovery and development of life-changing scientific innovations. Our employees are our greatest asset as we work to achieve our bold ambitions, and we’re looking for the next wave of passionate and ambitious people ready to make a direct impact.

We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future, you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included, developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible, together.

Job Description

Summary:

We are seeking a highly motivated and strategic Patient Safety Medical Review Physician (MD) to provide medical leadership and oversight of individual case safety report review activities across marketed and investigational products. This role is critical to delivering timely, high-quality medical safety assessments that support patient safety, informed benefit-risk evaluation, and regulatory compliance.

The Director will serve as a recognized expert in medical safety assessment and play a key leadership role in advancing the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of Medical Review activities. This includes overseeing peer retrospective medical review quality control (MRQC) activities, supporting audits and inspections, and driving the continued development and refinement of medical review processes, standards, practices, efficiencies, and capabilities.

As a medical review subject matter expert, the Director will provide medical consultation and strategic guidance to cross-functional partners. The successful candidate will bring strong clinical judgment, leadership presence, and communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders, lead initiatives, and collaborate effectively across teams in a dynamic, fast-paced, and deadline-driven environment.

Key Responsibilities:

Establishes recognition as an expert on medical safety assessment of individual cases and line listings.

Performs peer retrospective medical review quality control activities.

Responds to medical review-related questions from other functions in a timely manner.

Collaborates with global safety leads and global safety strategy leads in assessment and communication of suspected unexpected, serious adverse reactions (SUSARs) reports from clinical trials.

Provides medical consultation to Patient Safety Strategic Operations functional groups including Literature Management, Coding Strategy, and Auto labeling Management on an ad hoc basis.

Makes significant contributions to the ongoing development and refinement of medical review processes, standards, practices, efficiencies, and capabilities.

May lead or contribute to develop and maintain procedural document for medical review activities and provide training.

Supports internal and external audit and inspection.

Participates in both internal and external educational initiatives.

Makes contributions to process improvement within Patient Safety , particularly with adverse event processing and operational aspects.

Initiates, leads, or contributes to functional or cross-functional projects.

Ensures own work complies with established practices, policies, and processes, and any regulatory or other requirements.

Provides mentorship and trains junior staff, new hires, and contractors to independently review adverse event reports for investigational and marketed products.

Basic Qualifications:

An MD/DO degree or equivalent.

Preferred Qualifications:

Completion of an accredited medical or surgical residency program. Board certification is preferred.

minimum of 4 years’ experience in medical review or

OR an applicable role in the pharmaceutical industry with strong knowledge of global regulatory requirements.

Excellent scientific, clinical, and analytical knowledge base, with ability to assess individual case safety reports and understand the safety/medical implications.

Exceptional communication, collaboration, and project management skills.

High attention to detail, scientific rigor, and a proactive, solutions-oriented mindset.

People Leader Accountabilities:

Create Inclusion - recognize the business value of diverse teams, modeling inclusion, and embed the value of diversity in the way they manage their teams.

Develop Talent - understand the skills, experience, aspirations, and potential of their employees and coach them on current performance and future potential. They ensure employees are receiving the feedback and insight needed to grow, develop, and realize their purpose.

Empower Teams - connect the team to the organization by aligning goals, purpose, and organizational objectives and holding them to account. They provide the support needed to remove barriers and connect their team to the broader ecosystem.

The salary range for this position is: $243,100.00 - $314,600.00. Gilead considers a variety of factors when determining base compensation, including experience, qualifications, and geographic location. These considerations mean actual compensation will vary. This position may also be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, discretionary stock-based long-term incentives (eligibility may vary based on role), paid time off, and a benefits package. Benefits include company-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans*.

For additional benefits information, visit:

https://www.gilead.com/careers/compensation-benefits-and-wellbeing

* Eligible employees may participate in benefit plans, subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable plans.

For jobs in the United States:

Gilead Sciences Inc. is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment, and is dedicated to fostering an inclusive work environment comprised of diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Employment decisions regarding recruitment and selection will be made without discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex , age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, genetic information or characteristic, gender identity and expression, veteran status, or other non-job related characteristics or other prohibited grounds specified in applicable federal, state and local laws. In order to ensure reasonable accommodation for individuals protected by Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Act of 1974, and Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, applicants who require accommodation in the job application process may contact ApplicantAccommodations@gilead.com  for assistance.

For more information about equal employment opportunity protections, please view the  'Know Your Rights' poster.

NOTICE: EMPLOYEE POLYGRAPH PROTECTION ACT

YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Gilead Sciences will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, (c) consistent with the  legal duty to furnish information; or (d) otherwise protected by law.

Our environment respects individual differences and recognizes each employee as an integral member of our company. Our workforce reflects these values and celebrates the individuals who make up our growing team.

Gilead provides a work environment free of harassment and prohibited conduct. We promote and support individual differences and diversity of thoughts and opinion.

For Current Gilead Employees and Contractors:

Please apply via the Internal Career Opportunities portal in Workday.

Job details

Seniority
Director
Function
Pharmacovigilance
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
Foster City, United States
Employment type
Full time

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Pharmacovigilance role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 16 comparable Director Pharmacovigilance roles across 10 biopharma companies.

16Comparable roles tracked
11Currently active
10Companies hiring similar roles
7Countries represented

Salary context

2 of 16 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)

Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.

This roleSubject $243,100/yr – $314,600/yr
Lowest disclosed · Medical Director, Neuroscience, Global Patient Safety · AbbVie $160,500/yr – $305,000/yr
Highest disclosed · SERM Senior Scientific Director, Oncology · GlaxoSmithKline LLC $217,800/yr – $363,000/yr
Peer group range $232,750 – $290,400 (median $261,575)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 16 comparable roles

United States8
Canada2
Spain2
Japan1
Sweden1
United Kingdom1

+ 1 more countries

Seniority mix

16 of 16 peers have a known seniority level

Director12
Principal2
Senior Director2

Therapeutic area mix

5 of 16 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

Neuroscience2
Oncology2
Vaccines & Infectious Disease1

Similar opportunities

The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.

60%similar
AbbVie North Chicago, IL Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Celgene Europe Ltd. Princeton, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Celgene - Summit (Corp) Madison, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
Celgene - Summit (Corp) Princeton, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
E.R. Squibb & Sons,L.L.C. Princeton, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country
60%similar
GlaxoSmithKline LLC Upper Providence, United States Director
Same function Same seniority Same country

How we calculate "similar"

No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.

Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.

60%
Medical Director, Neuroscience, Global Patient Safety
AbbVie · North Chicago, IL · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
Director, Medical Safety Assessment Physician, Neuroscience
Celgene - Summit (Corp) · Princeton, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
60%
SERM Senior Scientific Director, Oncology
GlaxoSmithKline LLC · Upper Providence, United States · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
45%
Associate Medical Director, Global Drug Safety
AstraZeneca · Mississauga, Ontario, Canada · Director
Function Therapeutic area Seniority Country
Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.