Director, Emerging Therapeutic Strategies

Key Responsibilities:

1. Enterprise Leadership on “Where to Play”

• Contribute to the development and refinement of strategic agendas across emerging technologies, pathways, and whitespace opportunities.
• Conduct independent research, landscape analysis, and early framing of opportunities where Novartis may expand or refine its position.
• Develop clear, insight-driven recommendations that feed into enterprise-level decision-making.

2. Governance Leadership & Cross‑Functional Alignment

• Support preparation for governance engagements (e.g., ECN, IMB, DTB, TAR) and participate as appropriate.
• Facilitate cross-functional alignment across BR, Development, Strategy & Growth, and commercial units by driving structured problem-solving, synthesizing diverse inputs.
• Ensure materials are well-structured, objective, and aligned to key strategic questions.

3. Strategic Portfolio Direction & Prioritization

• Evaluate emerging focus areas, assessing scientific maturity, inflection points, risks, and strategic value.
• Identify opportunity gaps and propose internal or external approaches (build, partner, deprioritize) with supporting analyses.
• Partner with senior leaders where required to collaborate and effectively transition ownership of opportunities to relevant TA, platform, or commercial organizations.

4. External Horizon & Technology Landscape Leadership

• Conduct horizon scanning across priority modalities and pathways, synthesizing competitive, scientific, and market signals into actionable insights.
• Engage internal and external stakeholders selectively to deepen understanding of emerging trends, technologies, and partnership opportunities.
• Maintain awareness of cutting-edge developments to support ETS strategic foresight and leadership decision-making.

Key Performance Indicators

• Successfully complete projects / ad-hoc requests as defined.
• Positive feedback from project sponsors and (internal and external) key stakeholders regarding quality of project output and interaction.
• High-quality strategic outputs that inform enterprise-level decisions and direction in relation to emerging technologies and therapy area diversification.
• Evidence of creativity and proactivity in identifying potential areas of scientific breakthrough that drive growth.
• Effective cross-functional coordination and positive feedback from collaborators and project sponsors.
• Timely and accurate delivery of insights supporting early-stage program teams.
• Demonstrated ability to work autonomously while ensuring strong alignment with team leadership. 

Essential Requirements:                            

• Bachelor's degree required, advanced degree (PhD, MD, or other advanced University degree) or equivalent experience in life science/healthcare; MBA, consulting, or equivalent experience highly desirable.
• Highly agile, with the capacity to manage coherent strategic evaluation of diverse and ambiguous scientific and technological subject matter.
• Some experience evaluating new product opportunities through M&A, BD&L, and internal research programs.
• At least 5-10 years’ experience of pharma industry and/or medical devices.
• Experience in conducting, commissioning, and analyzing primary research.
• Experience of strategy development and asset shaping early in lifecycle (any functional perspective).
• Experience in global roles or with high exposure to those with global responsibility
• Ability to comfortably engage with senior leadership as well as mid-career associates to influence and challenge with excellent interpersonal skills.
• Strong financial modeling and valuations skills.
• Experience in strategic and competitive data analysis and insights generation, leveraging digital tools.
• Strong strategic vision and excellent communication, consensus building and influencing skills.
• Enterprise maximization mindset: able to align to broader enterprise strategy for trade-off against shorter-term payoffs to avoid unnecessary investments. Desire to propose bold choices.
• Effectively work in matrix balancing cross-functional perspectives and alignment with business priorities.

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 diversity.inclusion_ch@novartis.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.