Senior Director, Head of Inflammation & Rare Disease

Zealand Pharma A/S; Denmark; On-site; DKK 1,200,000 - 1,600,000; Full time

Job summary

Zealand Pharma A/S is seeking a Senior Director to lead the Inflammation & Rare Disease department. This role involves providing medical and scientific leadership for projects across their development lifecycle.

The successful candidate will have a minimum of 5 years in people leadership, preferably with expertise in rare diseases while holding an MD, with a PhD preferred. The role focuses on shaping strategy and guiding clinical plans within a collaborative cross-functional team environment.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of people-leadership experience managing high-performing teams.
• Expertise in rare diseases and inflammation preferred.
• Strong ability to influence strategy across stakeholder groups.

Responsibilities

• Provide daily leadership for Medical Specialists in projects.
• Shape medical and scientific strategy for development programs.
• Guide clinical development plans and trial design.

Skills

People leadership

Medical/scientific strategy

Strong scientific communication

Biotech/pharma experience

Education

MD

PhD (preferred)

Job description

Position Overview

We are seeking a Senior Director, Head of Inflammation & Rare Disease in Medical & Science at Zealand Pharma. The role provides day‑to‑day medical and scientific leadership for Inflammation & Rare Disease projects across early clinical, late‑stage development, and lifecycle activities.

Responsibilities

• Provide daily medical and scientific leadership for Medical Specialists working within Inflammation & Rare Disease projects.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Inflammation & Rare Disease department, including performance management and capability building.
• Shape and drive medical and scientific strategy across the development value chain for programs in scope.
• Guide clinical development plans, including trial design input, endpoint strategy, and evidence generation to support decision‑making.
• Act as senior medical/scientific partner to cross‑functional stakeholders (e.g., Clinical Development, Regulatory, Safety, Biometrics, and partner interfaces).
• Lead external scientific engagement (e.g., key opinion leader interactions, advisory boards, congress planning) in line with internal standards and compliance requirements.

Qualifications

• MD required; PhD preferred.
• Minimum 5 years of proven people‑leadership experience, including coaching and leading high‑performing teams.
• Strong experience in biotech/pharma within medical/scientific leadership across clinical development and/or lifecycle activities.
• Rare disease expertise preferred; inflammation experience is an advantage.
• Demonstrated capability to influence strategy and decisions across senior stakeholder groups and governance settings.
• Strong scientific communication skills, including engagement with external experts and contributions to medical/scientific materials.

Team

You will head the Inflammation & Rare Disease department within Medical & Science, leading a team of highly skilled medical specialists who collaborate with cross‑functional project teams and external experts to strengthen development strategy and execution from early clinical through late‑stage and lifecycle activities.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are committed to an inclusive recruitment process and welcome applications from all job applicants.