VP/Head, Medical Affairs Cluster Head, Neuroscience/Immunology - US Medical Affairs

The VP/Head, Medical Affairs Cluster Head, Neuroscience/Immunology is responsible for developing and implementing an integrated Medical Affairs strategy across a portfolio of related and complementary disease groups and assets. The role provides senior leadership across the broader therapeutic area, ensuring disease group strategies, evidence-generation priorities, launch plans, and lifecycle activities are aligned to maximize patient impact and enterprise value.

Each disease area within the TA is led by an Executive Director (ED), Disease Group / Disease Cluster Lead, who reports to the TA Head. The EDs are accountable for disease-level medical strategy and execution, while the TA Head provides portfolio-level direction, prioritization, resource allocation, and integration across the full therapeutic area.

The TA Head brings sufficient medical and scientific depth to credibly engage external experts, healthcare providers, and cross-functional partners, while operating with a broader portfolio perspective rather than as the deepest specialist in a single disease area. The role is accountable for identifying synergies across disease groups, balancing Medical Affairs investments, and ensuring coordinated execution across teams throughout the product lifecycle.

As a member of the US Medical Affairs Leadership Team, the TA Head collaborates closely with Development, Commercial, Patient Access, HEOR, Regulatory, Compliance, Global Medical Affairs, and other enterprise partners to bring a unified portfolio perspective to strategic decision-making.

Role Responsibilities:

Portfolio Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and lead an integrated US Medical Affairs strategy across related disease groups, clusters, and assets within the therapeutic area.
• Establish portfolio priorities and make trade-off decisions across disease groups, evidence needs, launch readiness, lifecycle priorities, and resource investments.
• Translate therapeutic-area strategy into clear priorities for ED Disease Group / Cluster Leads and their teams.
• Ensure alignment of disease, asset, lifecycle management, and launch strategies across the therapeutic area.
• Serve as the senior Medical Affairs representative for the TA in key governance, leadership, and cross-functional forums.

Disease Group Integration & ED Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop ED Disease Group / Cluster Leads, ensuring clear accountability for disease-level strategy and execution.
• Create clear connectivity across ED-led disease groups to identify shared scientific themes, stakeholder needs, evidence opportunities, and operational efficiencies.
• Ensure consistent planning standards, decision rights, and performance expectations across disease groups while allowing disease-specific variation where needed.
• Resolve cross-disease prioritization issues and ensure resources are deployed to the highest-impact portfolio opportunities.

Medical & Scientific Leadership

• Provide strategic medical leadership across the TA while maintaining scientific credibility with external experts, clinical leaders, and internal stakeholders.
• Ensure TA and disease-group Medical Affairs activities address unmet patient needs, advance standards of care, and support evidence-based decision-making.
• Oversee evidence-generation strategies, including clinical research, real-world evidence, outcomes research, registries, publications, and disease education initiatives.
• Provide portfolio-level medical input into development programs, study designs, target product profiles, US label considerations, and evidence plans.
• Support successful execution of Novartis-sponsored clinical trials and post-marketing evidence activities in the US within the TA.

Portfolio Prioritization & Resource Allocation

• Balance investments across disease groups, assets, and lifecycle stages based on patient value, scientific opportunity, external need, launch criticality, and enterprise priorities.
• Guide Medical Affairs budget planning, resource deployment, and capability needs across the TA.
• Identify opportunities to leverage common platforms, evidence approaches, stakeholder engagement models, and medical education strategies across disease groups.
• Shape TA-level recommendations regarding future investments, capability builds, external partnerships, and innovation opportunities.

External Engagement

• Build and maintain senior relationships with leading external experts, healthcare systems, patient organizations, professional societies, cooperative groups, and academic centers across the TA.
• Bring strategic external insights into portfolio and Medical Affairs decision-making across disease groups.
• Represent Medical Affairs in key scientific, regulatory, and healthcare stakeholder interactions as appropriate.

People & Capability Leadership

• Lead a high-performing team of ED Disease Group / Cluster Leads and senior Medical Affairs leaders.
• Build future-focused Medical Affairs capabilities across the TA, including evidence generation, external engagement, launch excellence, data fluency, and enterprise collaboration.
• Provide coaching, mentoring, onboarding, succession planning, and talent development across the TA organization.
• Foster an integrated, collaborative, and patient-focused culture that encourages strategic thinking, accountability, and innovation.

Enterprise Leadership

• Act as an enterprise leader, balancing TA priorities with broader US Medical Affairs, Global Medical Affairs, Development, Commercial, Patient Access, HEOR, Regulatory, Compliance, and company objectives.
• Promote resource sharing, capability development, and best-practice adoption across Medical Affairs.
• Lead or contribute to key Medical Affairs initiatives on behalf of the CMO or US Medical Affairs Leadership Team as assigned.
• Ensure all TA activities are conducted in accordance with company policies, industry standards, GCP/ICH requirements, and applicable legal, regulatory, and compliance expectations.

Position Requirements:

• MD, PharmD, PhD, or equivalent advanced scientific degree required; relevant clinical expertise or board certification preferred depending on the TA.
• 15+ years of experience in Medical Affairs, Clinical Development, or related pharmaceutical leadership roles.
• Significant experience leading across multiple assets, disease areas, launches, or therapeutic portfolios.
• Demonstrated ability to lead leaders, including senior Medical Affairs or disease-area leaders, in a matrixed environment.
• Strong understanding of evidence generation, clinical research, product lifecycle management, launch planning, and US healthcare dynamics.
• Proven ability to make portfolio-level prioritization and resource allocation decisions across competing opportunities.
• Strong external engagement capabilities and successful interactions with healthcare leaders, investigators, scientific experts, and patient-focused stakeholders.
• Ability to integrate diverse scientific, clinical, market, access, and business perspectives into clear portfolio strategy.
• Strong enterprise collaboration and networking, communication, executive presence, and influencing and story telling skills across senior cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ability to act as an integrator across disease groups while maintaining sufficient medical credibility to guide scientific and strategic decisions.
• Innovation minded with proven experience transforming at scale, innovating next generation capabilities, growing organizations into AI-enabled high performing workforces, and influencing industry trends to shape the future of Medical Affairs.
• Leader in empowering, mentoring and growing future-ready talent and teams of teams that deliver high performance and leading impact.

The salary for this position is expected to range between $318,500.00 and $ 591,500.00 annual per year. The final salary offered is determined based on factors like, but not limited to, relevant skills and experience, and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically. Novartis may change the published salary range based on company and market factors. Your compensation will include a performance-based cash incentive and, depending on the level of the role, eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards. US-based eligible employees will receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a variety of other benefits. In addition, employees are eligible for a generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays and other leaves.