Global Medical Excellence Lead - Germany

USA - 3316 Takeda Development Center Americas, Inc.; Berlin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Takeda is seeking a Global Medical Excellence Lead for Germany, an Associate Director-level role embedded in Berlin. You will partner with Country Medical Director and IBU teams to implement global frameworks, drive onboarding, and advance field medical excellence within the country.

You will shape capability development, governance, and launch readiness while navigating complex in-country structures and ensuring alignment with global programs.

Qualifications

• MD, PharmD, PhD or equivalent advanced degree required.
• 10+ years in biopharmaceutical industry with Medical Affairs experience.
• Experience in field medical roles (MSL) preferred.
• Capability development, Medical Excellence, or medical education experience.
• Experience across LOC, regional, and global Medical structures in a matrix environment.
• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder management with senior Medical and commercial leaders.
• Autonomy in a locally embedded role while reporting to a VP-level global function.
• Experience working in or with OBU markets preferred for roles in UK, Germany, or Japan.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the Global Medical Excellence partner for Germany, delivering global direction and programmes.
• Assess capability landscape using Global Medical Excellence frameworks and provide local insights.
• Contribute to global programme design, LT discussions, and capability framework development with country perspective.
• Own the Medical Excellence onboarding experience for new Medical Affairs colleagues, coordinating bootcamps with Global Scientific Training and IBU Medical Excellence & Operations.
• Lead the field medical effectiveness agenda, defining excellence across performance measurement, certification, capability development, and engagement.
• Track KPIs for MSLs, assess capability maturity, identify gaps, and collaborate with Global Medical Excellence to close them.
• Manage field medical certification agenda within the country with records and ongoing compliance.
• Align field medical effectiveness and MSL engagement with launch priorities with IBU Medical Excellence & Operations and Marketing & Commercial Excellence.
• Contribute to launch readiness by sequencing scientific training and monitoring readiness indicators with stakeholders.
• Maintain governance and compliance partnerships, providing market-level input to governance discussions.
• Build cross-functional partnerships with Country Medical Director, Country GM, and IBU Medical Excellence & Operations.
• Represent country insights within the Global Medical Excellence network and influence global programming.
• Navigate dual medical team structures in OBU markets across UK, Germany, and Japan.

Skills

Medical Affairs experience

MSL experience

Relationship building

Stakeholder management

Autonomy

Matrix environment

Education

Medical degree or equivalent

MD/PhD/PharmD preferred

Job description

About the Role

The Global Medical Excellence Lead is an Associate Director-level leader embedded within Germany, operating at the intersection of Global Medical Excellence direction and in-market execution. Germany is one of the Core Markets in the IBU. The six markets, UK, Germany, Canada, Brazil, China, and Japan, represent the majority of IBU business and are the most strategically important markets for Takeda’s portfolio and launch agenda. Carrying a global mandate and reporting directly to the Head, Global Medical Excellence, this role carries a high strategic weight, and the individual is expected to contribute not only to in-market execution but to the broader Global Medical Excellence agenda. The role serves as the day-to-day capability partner for Germany, building the relationships, programmes, and capability foundations that enable the Medical team to perform at their best through trusted peer-level partnerships with the Country Medical Director and Country GM. Working closely with IBU Medical Excellence & Operations, Marketing & Commercial Excellence, and the Global Scientific Training team, this role ensures capability development, onboarding, field medical effectiveness, and launch readiness are coherent and additive for the country Medical team, while feeding local insight back to shape global programming. Note on OBU markets: In markets where the Oncology Business Unit operates, including UK, Germany, and Japan, dual Medical teams exist in-country under separate reporting lines. The Global Medical Excellence Lead navigates this complexity by building relationships with both the IBU and OBU Medical teams in-country, ensuring capability development and Medical Excellence standards are consistent across both structures.

How you will contribute

Medical Excellence Capability Development

Serve as the primary Global Medical Excellence partner for Germany, bringing global direction, frameworks, and programmes to life in a way that works for the country context, working in partnership with the Country Medical Director and IBU Medical Excellence & Operations to prioritise and sequence capability interventions

Assess the capability landscape of the market using Global Medical Excellence frameworks and what good looks like descriptors, with particular attention to field medical capability maturity, feed local insight back to the global team to shape programming, and act as a credible capability partner with whom the country Medical team wants to engage

Contribute to the broader Global Medical Excellence agenda beyond the in-market role, bringing core market perspective and strategic insight to global programme design, LT discussions, and capability framework development

Onboarding Excellence

Own the Medical Excellence onboarding experience for new Medical Affairs colleagues joining the country, designing and coordinating bootcamps in partnership with the Global Scientific Training team and IBU Medical Excellence & Operations, ensuring onboarding reflects global standards and the specific country context

Field Medical Effectiveness

Lead the field medical effectiveness agenda within the country in partnership with the MSL Manager and Country Medical Director, defining what excellence looks like for field medical roles in the country context across four interconnected dimensions: performance measurement, certification, capability development, and scientific and stakeholder engagement quality

Drive the application of global field medical performance metrics and KPIs within the country, tracking MSL effectiveness against what good looks like standards, assessing capability maturity at individual and team level, identifying gaps systematically, and collaboration with the broader Global Medical Excellence team to close them

Manage the field medical certification agenda within the country, ensuring MSLs meet certification standards ahead of deployment and on an ongoing basis, maintaining certification records, and working with the Global Scientific Training team and IBU Medical Excellence & Operations to ensure certification programmes are fit for purpose and consistently applied

Partner with IBU Medical Excellence & Operations and Marketing & Commercial Excellence to align field medical effectiveness and MSL engagement approaches to launch priorities, building a shared understanding of how Medical and Commercial work together at country level

Launch Excellence & Readiness

Contribute to launch readiness within the country, ensuring Medical teams are capability-ready ahead of key launches, working with the Global Scientific Training team to sequence scientific training against local hiring timelines, and partnering with the Country Medical Director, IBU Medical Excellence & Operations, and Marketing & Commercial Excellence to monitor readiness indicators and elevate risks with proposed mitigations

Governance & Compliance Partnership

Maintain visibility of key Medical SOPs relevant to country operations, including Field Medical Interaction frameworks, and provide market-level input into process and governance discussions led by the Medical Governance Office

Act as a trusted thought partner for IBU Ethics & Compliance and, where relevant, local Ethics & Compliance teams, providing informed market-level perspective to support sound governance and compliant ways of working across the country

Stakeholder Partnership & Enterprise Engagement

Build trusted, peer-level partnerships with the Country Medical Director and Country GM, and a close collaborative working relationship with IBU Medical Excellence & Operations including Scientific Engagement Training Leads, ensuring complementary strengths are joined up and experienced by country Medical teams as seamless and additive

Represent the core market perspective within the Global Medical Excellence network, contributing to communities of practice, shaping global programming based on what is and is not working in market, and acting as a senior voice for core market realities

Dimensions & Aspects

Strong understanding of Medical Affairs operations, field medical roles, MSL effectiveness, field medical performance measurement, certification standards, capability development, pharmaceutical launch processes, and the Medical Affairs and Commercial interface, with awareness of Medical Affairs Vision 2030 and the capability evolution required to get there

Operates with enterprise mindset and global mandate, reporting directly into the VP and expected to contribute strategically beyond the in-market role, while remaining deeply connected to country-level realities and leading through influence and partnership rather than authority

Makes independent judgements on capability prioritisation, field medical performance assessment, and interventions in partnership with the Country Medical Director, operates with a high degree of autonomy within the global framework, and escalates concerns with clearly articulated context and proposed solutions directly to the Head, Global Medical Excellence

In OBU markets, navigates the dual medical team construct with confidence, building relationships across both IBU and OBU Medical organisations in-country and ensuring Medical Excellence standards are consistently applied across both structures

Primary: Country Medical Director, Country GM, MSL Manager, IBU Medical Excellence & Operations including Scientific Engagement Training Leads, Marketing & Commercial Excellence, Global Scientific Training team, Medical Governance Office, IBU Ethics & Compliance.

Secondary: Head, Global Medical Excellence (line manager), Global Medical Excellence community of practice

Skills and Qualifications

• A relevant healthcare, scientific, or medical degree is required; MD, PharmD, PhD, or equivalent advanced degree preferred


• 10+ years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with significant experience in Medical Affairs


• Experience in field medical roles (MSL or equivalent) strongly preferred, bringing direct understanding of what field medical excellence looks like in practice including performance measurement, certification, and capability development


• Demonstrated experience in capability development, Medical Excellence, or medical education roles


• Experience working across LOC, regional, and global Medical structures in a matrix environment


• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder management skills, proven ability to work peer-to-peer with senior Medical and commercial leaders


• Comfortable operating with autonomy in a locally embedded role while reporting into and contributing to a VP-level global function


• Experience working in or with OBU markets preferred for roles in UK, Germany, or Japan

Locations

DEU - Berlin - Wirtschaftswunder

Base Salary Range

€120,000.00 - €165,000.00

Worker Type

Employee

Sub-Type

Regular

Time Type

Full time

Company Description

Takeda is an industry-leading, global pharmaceutical company with an unwavering dedication to putting patients at the center of everything we do. We live our values of Takeda-ism – Integrity, Fairness, Honesty, and Perseverance – and are united by our mission to strive towards Better Health and a Brighter Future for people worldwide through leading innovation in medicine. Here, everyone matters and you will be a vital contributor to our inspiring, bold mission. At Takeda, you will make an impact on people’s lives – including your own.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Takeda is an equal opportunity employer.