Global Medical Excellence Lead - Germany
Takeda · Berlin · €120,000–€165,000 (stated in the posting)
Job Description
About the Role
The Global Medical Excellence Lead is an Associate Director-level leader embedded within Germany, operating at the intersection of Global Medical Excellence direction and in-market execution. Germany is one of the Core Markets in the IBU. The six markets, UK, Germany, Canada, Brazil, China, and Japan, represent the majority of IBU business and are the most strategically important markets for Takeda’s portfolio and launch agenda. Carrying a global mandate and reporting directly to the Head, Global Medical Excellence, this role carries a high strategic weight, and the individual is expected to contribute not only to in-market execution but to the broader Global Medical Excellence agenda.
The role serves as the day-to-day capability partner for Germany, building the relationships, programmes, and capability foundations that enable the Medical team to perform at their best through trusted peer-level partnerships with the Country Medical Director and Country GM. Working closely with IBU Medical Excellence & Operations, Marketing & Commercial Excellence, and the Global Scientific Training team, this role ensures capability development, onboarding, field medical effectiveness, and launch readiness are coherent and additive for the country Medical team, while feeding local insight back to shape global programming.
Note on OBU markets: In markets where the Oncology Business Unit operates, including UK, Germany, and Japan, dual Medical teams exist in-country under separate reporting lines. The Global Medical Excellence Lead navigates this complexity by building relationships with both the IBU and OBU Medical teams in-country, ensuring capability development and Medical Excellence standards are consistent across both structures.
How you will contribute
1. Medical Excellence Capability Development
- Serve as the primary Global Medical Excellence partner for Germany, bringing global direction, frameworks, and programmes to life in a way that works for the country context, working in partnership with the Country Medical Director and IBU Medical Excellence & Operations to prioritise and sequence capability interventions
- Assess the capability landscape of the market using Global Medical Excellence frameworks and what good looks like descriptors, with particular attention to field medical capability maturity, feed local insight back to the global team to shape programming, and act as a credible capability partner with whom the country Medical team wants to engage
- Contribute to the broader Global Medical Excellence agenda beyond the in-market role, bringing core market perspective and strategic insight to global programme design, LT discussions, and capability framework development
2. Onboarding Excellence
- Own the Medical Excellence onboarding experience for new Medical Affairs colleagues joining the country, designing and coordinating bootcamps in partnership with the Global Scientific Training team and IBU Medical Excellence & Operations, ensuring onboarding reflects global standards and the specific country context
3. Field Medical Effectiveness
- Lead the field medical effectiveness agenda within the country in partnership with the MSL Manager and Country Medical Director, defining what excellence looks like for field medical roles in the country context across four interconnected dimensions: performance measurement, certification, capability development, and scientific and stakeholder engagement quality
- Drive the application of global field medical performance metrics and KPIs within the country, tracking MSL effectiveness against what good looks like standards, assessing capability maturity at individual and team level, identifying gaps systematically, and collaboration with the broader Global Medical Excellence team to close them
- Manage the field medical certification agenda within the country, ensuring MSLs meet certification standards ahead of deployment and on an ongoing basis, maintaining certification records, and working with the Global Scientific Training team and IBU Medical Excellence & Operations to ensure certification programmes are fit for purpose and consistently applied
- Partner with IBU Medical Excellence & Operations and Marketing & Commercial Excellence to align field medical effectiveness and MSL engagement approaches to launch priorities, building a shared understanding of how Medical and Commercial work together at country level
4. Launch Excellence & Readiness
- Contribute to launch readiness within the country, ensuring Medical teams are capability-ready ahead of key launches, working with the Global Scientific Training team to sequence scientific training against local hiring timelines, and partnering with the Country Medical Director, IBU Medical Excellence & Operations, and Marketing & Commercial Excellence to monitor readiness indicators and escalate risks with proposed mitigations
5. Governance & Compliance Partnership
- Maintain visibility of key Medical SOPs relevant to country operations, including Field Medical Interaction frameworks, and provide market-level input into process and governance discussions led by the Medical Governance Office
- Act as a trusted thought partner for IBU Ethics & Compliance and, where relevant, local Ethics & Compliance teams, providing informed market-level perspective to support sound governance and compliant ways of working across the country
6. Stakeholder Partnership & Enterprise Engagement
- Build trusted, peer-level partnerships with the Country Medical Director and Country GM, and a close collaborative working relationship with IBU Medical Excellence & Operations including Scientific Engagement Training Leads, ensuring complementary strengths are joined up and experienced by country Medical teams as seamless and additive
- Represent the core market perspective within the Global Medical Excellence network, contributing to communities of practice, shaping global programming based on what is and is not working in market, and acting as a senior voice for core market realities
Dimensions & Aspects
- Strong understanding of Medical Affairs operations, field medical roles, MSL effectiveness, field medical performance measurement, certification standards, capability development, pharmaceutical launch processes, and the Medical Affairs and Commercial interface, with awareness of Medical Affairs Vision 2030 and the capability evolution required to get there
- Operates with enterprise mindset and global mandate, reporting directly into the VP and expected to contribute strategically beyond the in-market role, while remaining deeply connected to country-level realities and leading through influence and partnership rather than authority
- Makes independent judgements on capability prioritisation, field medical performance assessment, and interventions in partnership with the Country Medical Director, operates with a high degree of autonomy within the global framework, and escalates concerns with clearly articulated context and proposed solutions directly to the Head, Global Medical Excellence
- In OBU markets, navigates the dual medical team construct with confidence, building relationships across both IBU and OBU Medical organisations in-country and ensuring Medical Excellence standards are consistently applied across both structures
- Primary: Country Medical Director, Country GM, MSL Manager, IBU Medical Excellence & Operations including Scientific Engagement Training Leads, Marketing & Commercial Excellence, Global Scientific Training team, Medical Governance Office, IBU Ethics & Compliance. Secondary: Head, Global Medical Excellence (line manager), Global Medical Excellence community of practice
Skills and Qualifications
- A relevant healthcare, scientific, or medical degree is required; MD, PharmD, PhD, or equivalent advanced degree preferred
- 10+ years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with significant experience in Medical Affairs
- Experience in field medical roles (MSL or equivalent) strongly preferred, bringing direct understanding of what field medical excellence looks like in practice including performance measurement, certification, and capability development
- Demonstrated experience in capability development, Medical Excellence, or medical education roles
- Experience working across LOC, regional, and global Medical structures in a matrix environment
- Strong relationship-building and stakeholder management skills, proven ability to work peer-to-peer with senior Medical and commercial leaders
- Comfortable operating with autonomy in a locally embedded role while reporting into and contributing to a VP-level global function
- Experience working in or with OBU markets preferred for roles in UK, Germany, or Japan
Locations
DEU - Berlin - WirtschaftswunderBase Salary Range:
€120,000.00 - €165,000.00
The estimated salary range reflects an anticipated range for this position. The actual base salary offered may depend on a variety of factors, including the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, specific and unique skills, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job.
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