Senior Program Head

Job Description Summary

When we put our heads together, we can do brilliant work. And when we do brilliant work, we can achieve remarkable things for patients as we positively transform healthcare. We are looking for an Early Portfolio Global Program Head (GPH).
The Global Program Head is a key player in the strategic leadership of Novartis, inspiring action through transformative vision and robust strategies for our programs. They drive the entire program lifecycle, having sole accountability and responsibility to deliver enterprise value by defining the program’s strategic vision, optimizing life cycle management, and driving the integrated development plans to ensure successful regulatory and access outcomes. As an integrative leader, the GPH represents the program internally and externally, embodies its values, maintains program commitments, and safely navigates the complex, ever changing healthcare landscape to deliver innovative medicines that improve and extend patients’ lives. Their role includes managing the Global Program Team, fostering career growth and equally emphasizing performance accountability within a high-performance and collaborative environment.
The GPH holds a crucial and pivotal role in managing stakeholder relationships using exceptional communication skills, effectively influencing and involving stakeholders in decision-making processes, and anticipating and flexibly adjusting strategies to meet stakeholder expectations and responses.
This role can be based in Basel Switzerland or East Hanover, US.

Job Description

Major Accountabilities

Strategic Leadership

• Drive the program's transformational vision, devise an adaptable strategy that anticipates future trends and challenges, and translate strategies into practical, impactful plans.
• Seek out and combine complex internal/external elements to inform business decision-making, identify key issues in complex scenarios, and ensure clarity.
• Embody an enterprise leader that works across the entire Novartis research-development-commercial continuum to understand the impact of decisions, the benefit of diverse perspective, and the power of our shared purpose.
• Deliver organization-wide impact through an understanding and respect for an evolving technological landscape, including knowing when and how to incorporate new tools into existing strategies while evolving ahead of anticipated capabilities (e.g., precision medicine, AI, blockchain, nanotechnology).

End-to-End Program Lifecycle Accountability

• The GPH has sole accountability of and responsibility to deliver enterprise value by defining the asset’s strategic vision, optimize life cycle management, and drive the integrated development plans to ensure successful regulatory and access outcomes.
• Leads the design of the Target Product Profile (TPP) and the Integrated Development Plan (IDP).
• Accountable for end-to-end program leadership, including formally representing the program internally and externally, instigating innovation in early-stage development processes, issuing recommendations, making decisions to ensure the program success and asset value optimization, and ultimately propelling the program through preliminary testing and approval stages.
• Uphold regulatory compliance and meet initial stage commitments regarding prototype quality, timeline, projected cost, and potential value. Candidly communicate program impact projections and assess the early-stage commercial viability.

Together with the Line Functions, Managing and Developing the Global Program Team

• Empower the team through clear roles/responsibilities, prioritizing individual growth, and holding team accountable for ambitious goals.
• Nurture a well-performing team that fosters collaboration and supportive challenge.

Stakeholder Management

• Maintain positive relationships with stakeholders, ensuring clear, concise communication throughout the program lifecycle, and handle conflicts diplomatically.
• Build positive relationships with stakeholders; provide clear, concise communication about preliminary venture details and expertly navigate any arising conflicts.
• Enhance stakeholder understanding of program objectives/risks, influence their expectations through scientific and evidence-based communication, and involving stakeholders in decision-making processes. Adjust strategies based on stakeholders' needs, expectations, and potential responses.
• Foster stakeholders' understanding of project aims and inherent risks during initial development, shape their expectations through scientific evidence-based dialogue, and include them in decision-making processes. Adapt strategies by anticipating stakeholders concerns, needs, and possible responses.

Education

Minimum requirements

• Doctoral degree or equivalent, MD preferred
• Min 8 years of drug development experience, including experience in dossier submission for  new or supplemental indication
• Exposure to full drug development lifecycle
• Managing cross-functional teams and intense cross-functional collaboration and alignment
• Leading teams through influence without direct authority
• Communicating clearly and concisely with various audiences, adjusting messaging, style, tone, and details to best fit different audiences
• Experience in forming and driving transformative visions and strategic plans for early-stage programs.
• Background in team management, developing roles, and fostering a high-performance culture.
• Previous interactions with early stage/scientific stakeholders, emphasizing clear communication and involvement in decision-making.
• Experience in anticipating and crafting adaptive, resilient strategies for early-stage innovation and scenario planning.

Why Novartis? Our purpose is to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people’s lives and our vision is to become the most valued and trusted medicines company in the world. How can we achieve this? With our people. It is our associates that drive us each day to reach our ambitions. Be a part of this mission and join us! Learn more here: https://www.novartis.com/about/strategy/people-and-culture 

You’ll receive: You can find everything you need to know about our benefits and rewards in the Novartis Life Handbook. https://www.novartis.com/careers/benefits-rewards Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: Novartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams' representative of the patients and communities we serve.

Accessibility and accommodation

Novartis is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to all individuals. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the recruitment process, or in order to receive more detailed information about the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to [email protected] and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.

Skills Desired

Accountability, Agility, Cross-Functional Teams, Decision Making Skills, Drug Development, Entrepreneurship, Health Authorities Interactions, Leadership, Program Management, Project Delivery, R&D, Risk Management, Strategy