Director – Commercial Excellence & Strategy

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Serve as a key member of the India Country Leadership Team and contribute to the development and execution of AstraZeneca India's commercial strategy, growth agenda, and business priorities. 

• Build and lead a diverse, high-performing Commercial Excellence & Strategy organization that acts as a strategic partner to business leaders and cross-functional teams. 

• Foster collaboration across functions and business units to ensure alignment of priorities, effective execution, and sustainable business growth. 

• Partner closely with the Country President & Managing Director to shape and execute AstraZeneca India's long-term strategic ambitions and transformation priorities. 

Business Development, Alliances & Strategic Growth

• Lead business development opportunities from identification through evaluation, partner engagement, negotiation, and execution of strategic partnerships. 

• Define and drive AstraZeneca India's alliance strategy and governance framework to maximize value creation and long-term growth. 

• Develop business cases and strategic recommendations for senior leadership on licensing, partnerships, expansion opportunities, and growth initiatives. 

• Lead cross-functional teams to assess, prioritize, and execute strategic business development projects. 

Commercial Excellence, Distribution & Business Performance

• Lead commercial excellence capabilities that enable business performance through forecasting, reporting, dashboards, incentive compensation, and operational effectiveness. 

• Drive end-to-end distribution excellence, ensuring effective execution across distribution networks, channel partners, retail channels, e-pharmacies, and emerging access models. 

• Strengthen ownership and integration of distribution operations within the India marketing company to improve alignment with commercial priorities and customer needs. 

• Build scalable processes, governance frameworks, and operating models that support future launches, business transformation, and sustainable growth. 

• Partner with commercial and cross-functional leaders to continuously enhance organizational effectiveness, customer reach, and business performance.

Sales Force Effectiveness, Training & Capability Building

• Build and lead world-class commercial capabilities across sales, marketing, and leadership development to support launch excellence and sustained business growth. 

• Drive sales force effectiveness through segmentation, targeting, call planning, field force productivity, performance management, and incentive effectiveness. 

• Develop and implement training strategies and capability-building programs that strengthen commercial execution, leadership effectiveness, and organizational capability. 

• Foster a culture of continuous learning and development across business units to ensure readiness for current and future business needs. 

Market Insights, Marketing Excellence & Strategic Planning

• Lead market research, business intelligence, analytics, and competitive intelligence capabilities to enable data-driven decision-making. 

• Define and govern annual strategic and brand planning processes, ensuring robust frameworks, tools, governance, and best practices are embedded across the organization. 

• Deliver actionable customer, market, competitor, and performance insights that optimize commercial execution and business outcomes. 

• Drive marketing excellence initiatives that strengthen strategic planning, customer engagement, execution quality, and commercial effectiveness. 

• Lead project management and execution of critical enterprise-wide strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives and successful delivery of business outcomes. 

Required Skills & Experience

• Significant leadership experience within the pharmaceutical, healthcare, life sciences, or related industries. 

• Proven track record in commercial excellence, strategic planning, business development, sales effectiveness, business analytics, and organizational transformation. 

• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen with the ability to translate insights into actionable business outcomes. 

• Exceptional influencing and stakeholder management capabilities with the ability to build strong relationships internally and externally. 

• Ability to understand and communicate complex business challenges in a clear and compelling manner to diverse stakeholder groups. 

• Demonstrated enterprise mindset with the ability to collaborate across functions, geographies, and organizational levels. 

• Strong analytical orientation and data-driven decision-making capability. 

• Experience leading and developing high-performing teams in complex and evolving business environments. 

• Scientific mindset with a strong understanding of the pharmaceutical and healthcare landscape. 

AstraZeneca is an equal opportunity employer. AstraZeneca will consider all qualified applicants for employment without discrimination on grounds of disability, sex or sexual orientation, pregnancy, childcare leave or sabbatical, race or national or ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, gender identity or re-assignment, marital or civil partnership status, protected veteran status (if applicable) or any other characteristic protected by law

Date Posted

15-Jun-2026

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorisation and employment eligibility verification requirements.