Senior Director, Disease Area Lead (DAL), Rheumatology, Gastroenterology, and Neurology

The Senior Director, Disease Area Lead (DAL), Rheumatology, Gastroenterology & Neurology is a senior leadership role within the Inflammation & Immunology (I&I) Early Commercial Business, part of the Global Commercial Strategy organization, reporting to the I&I Portfolio Strategy & DAL. This role is responsible for leading a team of 3 direct reports and owning long-range commercial strategy, disease-area portfolio prioritization, early commercial assessments, and investment decision support across Rheumatology, Gastroenterology, and Neurology priorities within the I&I portfolio. 

The broader I&I and Rare Disease portfolio represents significant strategic value to realizing Pfizer's vision to achieve leadership via breakthroughs in prioritized diseases and biological axes, with the goal of generating highly differentiated, multi-indication mega-blockbusters. Today, the portfolio delivers more than $10B globally, with 22 ongoing clinical studies underway to significantly expand the product portfolio over the next several years. This role will help translate that ambition into clear disease-area strategies, disciplined portfolio choices, and integrated commercial plans that maximize patient impact and enterprise value. 

This leader will serve as the senior commercial voice for assigned disease areas, bringing scientific depth, commercial judgment, and enterprise perspective to shape early development choices, product concepts, external innovation opportunities, and future value creation. The Senior Director will partner closely with R&D, Medical Affairs, Global Access Strategy & Pricing (GASP), Business Analytics & Insights, Competitive Intelligence, Business Development, and US and International Commercial teams to translate scientific, clinical, market, access, and competitive insights into clear portfolio recommendations and actionable strategic choices. 

This role requires an experienced commercial strategist and people leader who can operate across ambiguity, influence senior cross-functional stakeholders, and develop a high-performing team that advances disciplined trade-off decisions, long-range portfolio thinking, and AI-enabled ways of working in support of patient impact and enterprise value realization. 

Responsibilities: 

Disease Area Strategy and Long-Range Planning: 

• Lead development of long-range commercial and portfolio strategy across Rheumatology, Gastroenterology, and Neurology disease areas, spanning early pipeline assets, lifecycle opportunities, external innovation, and emerging disease-area opportunities. 

• Establish integrated near-, mid-, and long-term views of disease-area opportunities, risks, and investment priorities to inform portfolio decision-making. 

• Synthesize scientific, clinical, commercial, access, competitive, and patient insights to identify priority opportunities and strategic trade-offs. 

• Monitor shifts in the scientific and competitive landscape to identify emerging trends, market discontinuities, and implications for future I&I strategy. 

• Translate disease-area strategy into clear recommendations, implications, and decision materials for leadership, governance forums, and cross-functional portfolio discussions. 

Portfolio Prioritization and Investment Decision Support: 

• Provide senior commercial leadership for portfolio prioritization, investment choices, and development opportunities across assigned disease areas. 

• Pressure-test commercial assumptions, value drivers, risks, uncertainties, and evidence needs that may influence future launch potential, lifecycle value, and portfolio performance. 

• Lead development of executive-ready materials that communicate strategic rationale, opportunity attractiveness, trade-offs, and recommended actions. 

• Partner with cross-functional leaders to align on key choices related to indication sequencing, evidence generation, market development, and lifecycle opportunities. 

• Support disciplined decision-making by ensuring assigned disease-area recommendations are grounded in patient need, scientific opportunity, market potential, access dynamics, and enterprise value. 

Early Commercial Assessment and Product Concept Development: 

• Oversee early commercial assessments for pipeline assets, mechanisms, indications, disease-area opportunities, and potential future product concepts across assigned areas. 

• Guide development and refinement of product concepts, target product profile input, positioning hypotheses, market archetypes, commercial opportunity assessments, and forecast assumptions. 

• Ensure unmet need, standard of care, competitive dynamics, patient/HCP insights, and access considerations are translated into differentiated commercial hypotheses. 

• Provide commercial input to clinical development, evidence generation, lifecycle, and indication sequencing discussions in partnership with cross-functional colleagues. 

• Build repeatable approaches for high-quality early commercial strategy outputs across the team. 

Business Development and External Innovation Support: 

• Lead commercial strategy input for external innovation and Business Development opportunities relevant to assigned disease areas. 

• Guide assessment of strategic fit, market potential, valuation inputs, competitive scenarios, and portfolio implications for potential external opportunities. 

• Partner with Business Development, R&D, GASP, BAI, and Competitive Intelligence colleagues to pressure-test assumptions and identify key decision points. 

• Represent the commercial perspective in internal discussions related to external opportunities and broader disease-area strategy as needed. 

Cross-Functional Leadership, Governance, and Team Development: 

• Lead, develop, and coach a team of 3 direct reports, setting priorities, strengthening commercial craft, and enabling high-quality strategic outputs across assigned disease areas. 

• Partner with the I&I Portfolio Strategy & DAL and cross-functional leaders to ensure a strong commercial voice is incorporated into early development, portfolio, and investment decisions. 

• Influence without direct authority by aligning stakeholders around shared insights, strategic choices, and implications for the I&I portfolio. 

• Build trusted working relationships across R&D, Medical Affairs, GASP, BAI, Competitive Intelligence, Business Development, and Commercial Regions. 

• Foster a culture of enterprise thinking, scientific curiosity, accountability, collaboration, and talent development within the team. 

AI-Native Ways of Working: 

• Set expectations for responsible, AI-enabled ways of working across the team to improve speed, quality, consistency, and scalability of portfolio strategy outputs. 

• Champion use of AI-enabled tools to support scientific and competitive landscape synthesis, market insight generation, scenario development, and decision-support efficiency. 

• Build team capability and confidence in compliant, AI-augmented strategy development through coaching, best-practice sharing, and reinforcement of quality standards. 

• Identify opportunities to embed AI into repeatable workflows, templates, portfolio reviews, and strategic decision-support processes. 

• Use performance insights, stakeholder feedback, and team learnings to continuously improve AI-enabled ways of working across assigned disease areas. 

Here Is What You Need (Minimum Requirements)

• Applicant must have a bachelor's degree with at least 12 years of experience; OR a master's degree with at least 10  years of experience; OR a PhD with 7+ years of experience

• Experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life sciences, commercial development, portfolio strategy, corporate strategy, business development, market research, forecasting, analytics, or related field. 

• Demonstrated experience leading teams and developing colleagues, including managing direct reports and influencing in complex matrixed environments. 

• Strong strategic and analytical skills, with ability to synthesize complex scientific, clinical, market, access, and competitive information into clear recommendations. 

• Experience leading portfolio strategy, early commercial assessment, business case development, opportunity assessment, or cross-functional strategic planning. 

• Ability to engage in scientific and clinical dialogue and translate implications for commercial opportunity, differentiation, portfolio value, and enterprise decision-making. 

• Strong communication, executive presence, problem-solving, and stakeholder management skills. 

Bonus Points If You Have (Preferred Requirements)

• Advanced degree in business, life sciences, public health, medicine, pharmacy, or related field preferred. 

• Experience in Rheumatology, Gastroenterology, Neurology, I&I, specialty care, or other complex therapeutic areas preferred. 

• Experience with commercial development, early asset strategy, portfolio management, Business Development assessments, forecasting, valuation, or investment prioritization. 

• Demonstrated ability to develop long-term strategies for products or disease areas and secure alignment from senior leadership. 

• Understanding of market access dynamics, payer considerations, evidence generation, value demonstration, and lifecycle value optimization. 

• Track record of leading cross-functional teams, influencing without authority, and making recommendations with incomplete information. 

• Comfort working in an AI-native or AI-augmented environment; experience using AI tools to support strategy, synthesis, or analysis is a plus. 

• Ability to thrive in ambiguity, operate with enterprise mindset, and adapt to evolving portfolio priorities. 

• Discretion, sound judgment, and trustworthiness in handling confidential or sensitive organizational matters.