Director, New Product Launch Operations- Dermatology & Rheumatology

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Job Description

Director, New Product Launch Operations- Dermatology & Rheumatology

About the role:

The Director, New Product Launch Operations is a high-impact leadership role at the center of the most critical commercial initiatives. This individual will serve as the strategic and operational backbone, orchestrating cross-functional execution across new product launch planning, governance of cross-functional strategic projects, and pipeline and indication expansion. This role requires a leader who can seamlessly operate at both the strategic and executional levels, bringing structure, rigor, and accountability to a fast-moving, highly matrixed environment. The ideal candidate combines pharmaceutical acumen with best-in-class program management expertise and the executive presence to drive alignment across senior stakeholders and cross-functional partners. This is a pivotal role for someone who thrives at the intersection of strategy and operations. This position will report to the Head of U.S. Dermatology and Rheumatology.

How you will contribute:

The Director, New Product Launch Operations serves as the strategic and operational backbone of the franchise, ensuring cross-functional milestones, deliverables, and budgets are on track to support a best-in-class product launch while simultaneously driving the franchise's most critical strategic projects, governance frameworks, and forward-looking indication planning.

Project & Program Management:

• PMO Framework & Governance: Establish and lead a structured PMO framework governing major cross-functional initiatives across the business, including launch workstreams, indication expansion planning, and strategic programs. Partner closely with the MCE Director of Launch Excellence to embed enterprise launch frameworks, governance standards, readiness methodologies, ways of working, and best practices that enable consistent, successful launches.

• Milestone & Risk Management: Monitor progress, risks, dependencies, and milestones across multiple complex projects simultaneously, ensuring visibility and proactive management of critical-path activities.
• Escalation & Accountability: Escalate roadblocks with clarity and urgency while driving timely execution and accountability across all workstreams. Ensure issues are resolved efficiently with minimal disruption to timelines and deliverables.

New Product Launch Strategy & Operations:

• Launch Readiness Planning: Leading the execution of a comprehensive launch readiness plan, including critical-path milestones, cross-functional workstreams, and stage-gate reviews to ensure on-time, on-strategy launch execution.

• Launch Team Enablement & Readiness: Partner with the MCE Director of Launch Excellence to establish the launch operating model and onboard new launch teams to the planning tools, governance templates, launch playbook, milestone roadmap, decision and risk logs, and agreed ways of working. Serve as the primary launch-team point of contact for readiness planning, including stage-gates, self-assessments, readiness scorecards, and structured challenge sessions.

• Cross-Functional Leadership: Serving as a central point of coordination across Sales, Marketing, Market Access, Medical Affairs, Analytics & Insights, Digital/Data & Technology, and Manufacturing to drive alignment on launch priorities and deliverables.
• Stakeholder Communication: Representing the commercial launch team to senior leadership and cross-functional steering committees through clear, timely, and executive-level communication of launch status, risks, and key decisions.
• KPI Development & Performance Monitoring: Establishing tracking mechanisms to measure commercial performance against forecast, enabling rapid course correction where needed.

• Meeting & Governance Excellence: Ensuring effective use of launch team meetings, steering committees, and other forums by defining clear objectives, agendas, and action items while driving accountability for follow-through.
• Budget & Resource Management: Overseeing launch-related budget planning, resource allocation, and forecasting to ensure efficient deployment of commercial investments.
• Continuous Improvement: Capture and apply lessons from readiness reviews, challenge sessions, launch execution, and post-launch reviews. Partner with the MCE Director of Launch Excellence to inform updates to enterprise playbooks, tools, and best practices for future launches.

Pipeline & Indication Expansion:

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