Head of Patient Engagement & Activation
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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.
Reporting To: Head of External Medical Engagement
Organization: Global Medical Affairs
Organization Scope
The Global Head of Patient Engagement & Activation leads the enterprise strategy, governance, and execution of patient engagement and activation initiatives across therapeutic areas and geographies.
The function is responsible for: Patient engagement strategy; Patient activation programs; Patient journey excellence; Patient experience initiatives; Omnichannel patient engagement; Patient insights integration.
Position Summary
The Head of Patient Engagement & Activation develops and implements a comprehensive patient engagement strategy that empowers patients to become active participants in their healthcare journey.
The role ensures the organization systematically incorporates patient perspectives into Medical Affairs activities while developing innovative engagement programs that improve awareness, health literacy, treatment activation, adherence, persistence, and patient outcomes.
The Head of Patient Engagement and Activation works very closely with Patient Advocacy, Clinical Development and Clinical Development Operations team to ensure one harmonized approach toward patients and patient groups.
Main Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
Define and execute the global patient engagement strategy.
Develop long-term patient activation roadmaps.
Establish patient-centered standards across Medical Affairs.
Integrate patient perspectives into organizational decision-making.
Functional Leadership
Build patient activation frameworks.
Oversee patient journey mapping activities.
Co-Lead patient advocacy partnerships.
Develop omnichannel patient engagement models.
People Leadership
Lead patient engagement teams globally.
Develop internal capabilities in patient-centricity.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Partner with: Medical Affairs; Patient Advocacy, Market Access;; Commercial Excellence; Digital Health; Public Affairs
Governance & Compliance
Ensure ethical patient engagement.
Maintain compliance with healthcare regulations and industry codes.
Ideal Profile
Education: Advanced degree in Pharmacy, Life Sciences, Public Health, Healthcare, Psychology, Nursing, or related discipline.
Experience: 10+ years of healthcare or pharmaceutical experience.
Significant patient engagement and advocacy experience.
Global leadership experience preferred.
Technical Competencies: Patient engagement; Behavioral Science; Patient journey management; Digital Health.
Leadership Competencies: Strategy; Influence; Stakeholder management; Innovation; Change Leadership.
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 1694 comparable Medical Affairs roles across 180 biopharma companies.
Salary context
375 of 1694 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 1694 comparable roles
+ 58 more countries
Seniority mix
1039 of 1694 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
595 of 1694 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
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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.