Senior Director/Head of Global Rare Disease Project Portfolio, Strategy and Partnership

Are you an innovative and strategic leader with a deep understanding of drug discovery and development? Do you have an entrepreneurial mindset and commercial awareness? If yes, then read more as we are seeking a Senior Director to lead our Global Project Portfolio within Rare Disease. Drive the future of healthcare with us. Apply today! 

The position
As Senior Director, Head of Rare Disease Project Portfolio, Strategy and Partnership, you will contribute to our discovery pipeline by using your comprehensive knowledge of early discovery and development, the Research & Early Development strategic priorities, and external collaborations. In addition, you will use your expertise to determine the most impactful areas in which external collaborations can be used to develop novel insights that can enhance the Rare Disease Research (RDR) project portfolio or accelerate our path to project maturation. You will be a key member of the Rare Disease Leadership team and mentor and guide research colleagues. You will help lead the development of projects to explore new therapeutic targets and principles (biology, modalities, etc.) across the RDR indication areas, supporting generation of new or improved molecules and models/methods/assays. 

You will be the point of contact for different internal functions and make decisions guided by strategic and tactical priorities. An important part of our job is to foster external partnerships and engage with experts across the world. 

In this role you will be responsible, among other things, for:

• Heading the development, cross-functional alignment and execution of the Rare Disease portfolio research strategy
• Driving innovation by identifying needs and opportunities for overall strategic changes and securing global scientific cross-organizational collaboration
• Efficient project execution and keeping an updated portfolio overview
• Accelerating the discovery pipeline by owning and driving key external collaborations/outsourcing strategies 
• Projecting issues and delays for projects and portfolio and ensuring that mitigation plans are in place
• Challenge status quo and identify opportunities across teams and functions to drive change

The position can be based in either Måløv (Denmark) or Boston (US). It is a global position that requires flexibility due to travel and working across time zones.  

This position does not involve people management responsibilities.

Qualifications
To thrive and succeed, we expect you to have:

• A PhD in Life Sciences or similar. It will be an advantage if you also hold a MBA
• At least 5 years of relevant experience in early drug discovery providing technical strategic knowledge within pharma or biotech industry
• Strong expertise with driving strategic project portfolios, cross-organizational initiatives and business processes across geographical and cultural boundaries 
• Commercial awareness in the context of biotech/pharma drug discovery and development
• Knowledge in early research and drug development in rare diseases will be considered an advantage

As a person, you have a people-first mindset and the ability to inspire, motivate and develop people and teams. You are a strong decision maker driven by performance and innovation, who can challenge and advice at executive management level, and you are adaptable to change. Moreover, you have excellent communication skills and are good at engaging stakeholders in a cross-functional, multi-disciplinary setting. You have an open-minded and flexible mindset, while focusing on solutions and opportunities. You are humble, work with high integrity and value knowledge sharing with fellow colleagues. 

About the department 
Rare Disease Research at Novo Nordisk is part of Research and Early Development organization, under Global Drug Discovery function. Rare Disease Research is an expanding new area with skilled scientists and technicians who develop novel drug candidates to improve the treatment of individuals living with rare diseases. RDR Scientific and Technical team is based in Måløv (Denmark) and Greater Boston Area. The RDR Leadership team is responsible for expanding, executing and accelerating portfolio of projects in Rare Blood, Rare endocrine disorders and in-vivo pharmacology support for Rare Disease portfolio. We leverage internal and external platforms to address major unmet needs across a broad spectrum of rare blood and rare endocrine disorders. 

Working at Novo Nordisk 
At Novo Nordisk, we don’t wait for change. We drive it. We’re a dynamic company in an even more dynamic industry, and we know that what got us to where we are today is not necessarily what will make us successful in the future. We embrace the spirit of experimentation, striving for excellence without fixating on perfection. We never shy away from opportunities to develop, we seize them. From research and development to manufacturing, marketing and sales – we’re all working to move the needle on patient care.

Contact
For further information, please contact Jaya Goyal, CVP - Rare Disease, at [email protected].

Deadline
28 July 2024. 

Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. 
You do not need to attach a cover letter to your application, but please include a few sentences about why you are applying in your resume or CV. To ensure an efficient and fair recruitment process, please refrain from adding a photo to your CV.
 

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants. 

At Novo Nordisk we recognize that it is no longer good enough to aspire to be the best company in the world. We need to aspire to be the best company for the world and we know that this is only possible with talented employees with diverse perspectives, backgrounds and cultures. We are therefore committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates the diversity of our employees, the patients we serve and communities we operate in. Together, we’re life changing.