ED, Medical Initiatives,Operations & Project Management Lead

Description

As an employee of Boehringer Ingelheim, you will actively contribute to the discovery, development and delivery of our products to our patients and customers. Our global presence provides opportunity for all employees to collaborate internationally, offering visibility and opportunity to directly contribute to the companies' success. We realize that our strength and competitive advantage lie with our people. We support our employees in a number of ways to foster a healthy working environment, meaningful work, mobility, networking and work-life balance. Our competitive compensation and benefit programs reflect Boehringer Ingelheim's high regard for our employees.

The ED, Medical Initiatives, Operations & Project Management is accountable for establishing and governing the integrated strategic and operating agenda for US Medicine. The role translates enterprise and Medicine priorities into portfolio choices, resource and investment decisions, transformation priorities, execution roadmaps, governance, and measurable organizational outcomes. The role combines strategic planning, business operations, enterprise performance and transformation oversight, portfolio/project management, learning and capability development oversight, KPI/dashboard governance, financial and resource planning support, and cross-functional leadership to advance US Medicine priorities in a highly matrixed pharmaceutical environment. In supporting the US Medical Director’s leadership responsibilities on both the Human Pharma Leadership Team and the Country Management Committee, the role operates across the full breadth of US Human Pharma and the broader US enterprise, while enabling alignment with Global Medicine across all regulated medical activities. 

The incumbent leads the US Medicine Initiatives, Operations, and Project Management organization, with direct accountability for the Medical Operations & Practice Exchange Group, Medicine Learning & Development, and the Administrative Support Center. Through accountable functional leaders, the role sets strategic direction, priorities, performance expectations, and resource deployment across process improvement, transformation, portfolio and project management, organizational learning, and administrative services. The role approves and governs the deployment of improvement and project-management capacity against the highest-value enterprise priorities; resolves or escalates portfolio, capacity, and execution trade-offs; and holds leaders accountable for delivery, adoption, and measurable benefits. Aligned with the US Medical Director, the incumbent establishes the operating disciplines, decision rights, and performance expectations required to translate US Medicine priorities into coordinated execution while ensuring alignment with applicable governance standards, policies, and patient-focused outcomes. 

The role establishes enterprise operating disciplines for performance visibility, prioritization, cross-Medicine coordination, resource and financial planning, leadership decision support, capability development, and organizational learning. It partners closely with Medical leadership, Medical Impact & Data Enablement, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Compliance, Information Technology and digital/AI stakeholders, among others, to resolve cross-functional dependencies, scale effective practices, strengthen organizational capabilities and advance US Medicine priorities in a compliant and sustainable manner. 

Duties & Responsibilities

US Medicine Strategy, Enterprise Planning, and Executive Decision Support:

Lead the annual and multi-year strategic planning process for US Medicine in partnership with the US Medical Director and US Medicine Leadership Team, translating enterprise and Medicine priorities into an integrated strategic agenda.
Define the portfolio of strategic priorities, desired outcomes, execution roadmaps, decision points, and accountable owners required to deliver the US Medicine strategy.
Establish the leadership governance, operating rhythm, and decision architecture required to prioritize work, resolve cross-functional trade-offs, and maintain accountability for execution.
Advise and challenge the US Medical Director and senior leadership by framing strategic choices, identifying enterprise implications, and making risks, dependencies, resource requirements, and opportunity costs explicit.
Ensure leadership decisions are translated into clear actions, ownership, resource commitments, and measurable outcomes across US Medicine.

Enterprise Operating Model, Governance, and Performance Leadership:

Establishes the US Medicine operating model and management system; including business operations processes, governance routines, KPI management, operating dashboards, resource planning inputs, meeting coordination, and continuous improvement practices.
Establish consistent, repeatable processes for tracking initiative execution, portfolio health, business priorities, and operational risks.
Sets the service strategy, operating expectations, and performance standards for the Administrative Support Center and holds its accountable leader responsible for service quality, scalability, compliance, and organizational value.
Sponsors or directs selected enterprise initiatives requiring cross-Medicine leadership, rapid mobilization, or resolution of organizational ambiguity.
Coordinate global, regional, and local dialogue as needed to align US Medicine priorities, communications, and execution expectations.
Maintain an integrated view of performance, cross-TA and cross-functional dependencies, and enterprise risks; ensure material issues are translated into clear actions, owners, escalation paths, and leadership decisions.

Learning and Capability Development Leadership Oversight:

• Provide management oversight for Medicine Learning & Development and ensure development and implementation of strategic learning and capability programs aligned with US Medicine priorities, capability needs, compliance expectations, and functional development goals.


• Partner with Medicine leaders and subject matter experts to identify current and emerging training needs, translate gaps into practical learning solutions, and monitor adoption and impact.


• Align learning solutions to business needs, corrective/preventive actions where applicable, performance indicators, and functional readiness priorities.


• Support harmonization of learning approaches across Medicine teams and enable continuous improvement in learning governance, deployment, and measurement.


• Ensure the Medicine Learning & Development role(s) operate in a complementary manner, with one being focused on strategic learning and development priorities and the other supporting disciplined training operations, curricula, learning enablement, quality, deployment, and effectiveness measurement.

Compensation

Requirements

Enterprise Performance, Improvement and Transformation Portfolio Leadership:

• Set the mandate for strategic priorities, investment criteria, and outcome expectations for the Medical Operations & Practice Exchange capability as aligned with the US Medical Director and US Medicine priorities.


• Hold the Medical Operations & Practice Exchange Group Lead accountable for enterprise performance governance, improvement portfolio management, practice exchange, transformation execution, and measurable benefits realization.


• Approve and govern the prioritized portfolio of business-improvement and transformation work across TA- and MedX-owned activities, ensuring work is aligned with the highest-value priorities and supported by clear business cases, accountable sponsors, and defined outcomes.


• Make or recommend decisions to initiate, sequence, redirect, defer, stop, or scale portfolio work based on strategic value, available capacity, implementation readiness, performance evidence, and expected benefits.


• Ensure Process & Solutions resources are deployed against the highest-value enterprise priorities and operate to consistent standards for diagnosis, business cases, process and solution design, implementation, change management, stabilization, and benefits measurement.


• Establish and sponsor mechanisms to surface, codify, and scale effective practices across TAs and MedX, making deliberate choices about where enterprise-wide consistency adds value and where local flexibility is warranted.


• Regularly review portfolio progress, resource commitments, benefits delivery, and key implementation risks; ensure completed solutions transition cleanly to named accountable owners responsible for steady-state operation.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required, preferably in health sciences, life sciences, business, economics, healthcare, or related field. Master's degree preferred, such as MBA, MSc, MPH, or relevant advanced degree.


• Minimum of 10 years of relevant pharmaceutical, consulting, business operations, Medical Affairs, project management with substantial pharmaceutical leadership, enterprise operations, and transformation experience


• Demonstrated experience leading teams and managing complex cross-functional programs with multiple workstreams and dependencies.


• Proven ability to advise, challenge, and influence senior executives; frame enterprise choices; and exercise sound judgment on sensitive, high-impact matters.


• Demonstrated experience establishing performance governance and leading transformation, process improvement, or operational-excellence portfolios across a complex, matrixed organization.


• Strong prioritization and resource-management capability, including the ability to make transparent capacity, sequencing, and investment trade-offs and to allocate improvement and project-management resources against enterprise priorities.


• Working knowledge of portfolio, project, process-improvement, and change disciplines required; relevant certifications preferred.


• Experience with digital transformation, analytics, AI-enabled ways of working, learning and development, quality/compliance, budget management, and matrixed team leadership preferred.


• Demonstrated agility, accountability, intrapreneurship, inclusive leadership, customer focus, problem-solving, negotiation, conflict management, facilitation, and willingness to travel as business needs require. 

Eligibility Requirements:

• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without restriction.


• Must be willing to take a drug test and post-offer physical (if required)


• Must be 18 years of age or older

Desired Skills, Experience and Abilities

Business Planning, Budget Visibility, and Financial Partnership:

• Partner with Finance and business owners to support budget tracking, spend visibility, accrual inputs where applicable, variance narratives, and leadership readouts aligned with program and portfolio plans.


• Maintain budget and resource tracking views by initiative, workstream, vendor, or time period as appropriate to support transparent operational decisions.


• Identify budget or resource variances and work with stakeholders to understand drivers, corrective actions, and implications for priorities.


• Use portfolio priorities, capacity information, and performance evidence to recommend resource reallocations, sequencing choices, or external support and make trade-offs explicit to leadership.


• Ensure vendor, consulting, and specialist support used by the business-operations organization is appropriately scoped, governed, and managed for value, quality, and knowledge transfer.

Quality, Compliance, and Continuous Improvement:

• Ensure business operations and supported initiatives follow relevant company governance standards, SOPs, regulatory policies, ethics expectations, and BI policies and procedures.


• Support audit or inspection readiness activities as applicable to US Medicine operations, including documentation, process evidence, and follow-up coordination.


• Identify opportunities to simplify processes, remove duplication, improve execution quality, and implement effective ways of working aligned with global and local expectations.


• Capture lessons learned and operational metrics to inform future planning, performance improvement, and organizational learning.


• Ensure process changes, learning solutions, external partnerships, and technology-enabled improvements are developed with the appropriate accountable business owners and Legal, Compliance, Privacy, Information Technology, Quality, or other review bodies as applicable.

People Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness:

•  Lead, coach, develop, and performance-manage direct reports across Medical Operations & Practice Exchange Group Lead, Medicine Learning & Development, and provide indirect leadership for Process & Solutions Leads and TA Medical Affairs PMs through their accountable leader.


• Create an empowered, inclusive, and accountable operating environment that enables team members to deliver high-quality outputs, develop capabilities, and strengthen collaboration across Medicine.


• Allocate work, clarify roles, resolve priority conflicts, and ensure appropriate escalation of risks, resource constraints, and cross-functional dependencies.


• Build talent and succession depth across the business-operations organization and ensure the mix of strategic, operational, project-management, process-improvement, and learning capabilities evolves with business need.


• Model agility, accountability, intrapreneurship, customer focus, sound judgment, and enterprise collaboration.