Director, Strategy & Operations - North America Medical Affairs (Seaport MA)
About this opportunity
Work Your Magic with us! Start your next chapter and join EMD Serono.
Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans – so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.
United As One for Patients, our purpose in Healthcare is to help create, improve and prolong lives. We develop medicines, intelligent devices and innovative technologies in therapeutic areas such as Oncology, Neurology and Fertility. Our teams work together across 6 continents with passion and relentless curiosity in order to help patients at every stage of life. Joining our Healthcare team is becoming part of a diverse, inclusive and flexible working culture, presenting great opportunities for personal development and career advancement across the globe.
This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.
Your Role:
The Director, Strategy & Operations, North America Medical Affairs (NAMA) partners with the SVP and Head of NAMA and the NAMA Leadership Team to drive strategic execution, operational excellence, and cross-functional collaboration. This role supports planning, governance, and implementation of key initiatives, ensuring clarity, alignment, and measurable impact across NAMA.
Strategic Transformation and Planning
Partner with the SVP NAMA on strategic priorities, including key transformation and operational initiatives that enhance organizational effectiveness and execution
Support the definition and advancement of strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment with broader R&D and commercial priorities
Assess planned and ongoing initiatives for operational feasibility, impact, and alignment with global, regional and local objective
Drive identification of opportunities to enhance processes, capabilities, and ways of working across NAMA
Governance, Cross-Functional Collaboration, and Communication
Establish and manage governance structures to support effective decision-making, transparency, and accountability across Medical Affairs initiatives
Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure alignment and coordination on key Medical Affairs initiatives
Drive leadership forums, including agenda setting, preparation of materials, facilitation, and documentation of outcomes
Develop and deliver high-quality materials for leadership updates, presentations, and internal communications
Execution and Operational Excellence
Lead and/or support execution of key strategic and operational initiatives, ensuring clear milestones, risks are managed, and outcomes are delivered
Provide program management support across priority initiatives, driving coordination and follow-through across stakeholders
Track progress and performance of initiatives, enabling visibility and informed decision-making
Identify operational gaps and implement continuous improvement opportunities to enhance efficiency and effectiveness
Stakeholder Engagement and Alignment
Partner with senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders to drive alignment, address risks, and support execution of priority initiatives
Serve as a central coordination point across NAMA and key partner functions to ensure alignment and delivery of objectives
Build strong working relationships across functions to facilitate collaboration and effective decision-making
Strategic Impact:
This role plays a critical role in strengthening the effectiveness of North America Medical Affairs by enabling strategic alignment, improving execution discipline, and driving operational excellence across the region. The Director supports the organization in delivering on key priorities and enhancing overall performance and impact.
Collaboration
Maintains strong collaboration with North America Medical Affairs leadership and functional stakeholders to support execution of strategic and operational priorities
Partners closely with the Head of North America Medical Affairs and the North America Medical Affairs Leadership Team to drive alignment, governance, and decision-making
Works in close coordination with the NAMA leadership team to align on priorities, share best practices, and ensure consistency in strategy execution approaches
Collaborates with cross-functional partners including Commercial, R&D, Finance, HR, Legal, and other enabling functions to ensure alignment and delivery of key initiatives
Engages with functional teams across Medical Affairs to support coordination, information flow, and implementation of strategic initiatives
Maintains collaboration with external vendors and partners supporting strategic initiatives, analytics, and operational programs
Engages with external consultants, as needed, to support delivery of key strategic and operational initiatives
Keeps informed of industry best practices and external trends to support continuous improvement and innovation in Medical Affairs operations
Who You Are
Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree in business, life sciences, or related field; advanced degree preferred
10+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry, including Medical Affairs, strategy, operations, or related functions
Preferred Qualifications:
Demonstrated experience leading strategic initiatives, transformation efforts, and cross-functional programs in a matrixed environment
Strong understanding of drug development and Medical Affairs across the product lifecycle, including familiarity with regulatory frameworks and clinical development processes
Experience supporting organizational change, transformation initiatives, and process improvement efforts within Medical Affairs or R&D environments
Proven ability to work effectively with senior leadership, providing strategic and operational input to inform decision-making and advance key priorities
Experience managing complex programs or initiatives, including planning, tracking, and ensuring delivery of outcomes across multiple stakeholders
Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a matrixed, cross-functional environment, building alignment across diverse stakeholders and functions
Strong strategic mindset combined with execution discipline, with the ability to translate priorities into actionable plans and measurable outcomes
Experience preparing and delivering materials for executive-level audiences, including presentations and strategic communication
Location: Onsite Seaport MA
Pay Range for this position: $190,800 - $286,200
The offer range represents the anticipated low and high end of the base pay compensation for this position. The actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level of experience, education, skills, and other job-related factors. Position may be eligible for sales or performance-based bonuses. Benefits offered by the Company include health insurance, paid time off (PTO), retirement contributions, and other perquisites. For more information click here .
What we offer: We are curious minds that come from a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences. We believe that this variety drives excellence and innovation, strengthening our ability to lead in science and technology. We are committed to creating access and opportunities for all to develop and grow at your own pace. Join us in building a culture of inclusion and belonging that impacts millions and empowers everyone to work their magic and champion human progress!
Apply now and become a part of a team that is dedicated to Sparking Discovery and Elevating Humanity!
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Medical Affairs role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 237 comparable Director Medical Affairs roles across 44 biopharma companies.
Salary context
123 of 237 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.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 237 comparable roles
+ 13 more countries
Seniority mix
237 of 237 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
113 of 237 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
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.
Open in 3 locations
Open in 3 locations
Notify me about similar jobs
Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.
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.
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.