Thought Leader Liaison - West

Zydus Therapeutics Inc.; New Jersey; On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Zydus Therapeutics is seeking a strategic Thought Leader Liaison to build and steward company interactions with hepatology and GI opinion leaders in advance of and through the saroglitazar launch for PBC. The TLL operates as the primary field interface with the national OL community, driving scientific engagement within a strict compliance framework.

The role collaborates with Medical Affairs, Regulatory, and Marketing to translate OL insights into actionable plans that support launch readiness

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Business, or related field.
• Minimum 10 years in pharma/biotech with 5+ years in thought‑leader engagement.
• Proven advisory board and speaker bureau program experience.
• Deep hepatology/GI knowledge and established scientific credibility.
• Experience pre-launch or launch for specialty/rare disease products.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and facilitation skills.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and influence without authority.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain comprehensive tiered national OL target lists; segment by influence and expertise.
• Prospectively identify rising OL voices in PBC; manage pipeline for tier advancement.
• Reassess tiers based on influence, publications, congress presence; maintain CRM with quarterly reviews.
• Calibrate OL prioritization in line with strategy, milestones, and leadership guidance.

Skills

Strategic communication

Cross-functional leadership

Scientific engagement

Verbal & written communication

Influence without authority

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Business, or related field

Job description

Zydus Therapeutics is a clinical stage, specialty-focused biopharmaceutical company focused on developing transformative treatments to transform lives, starting with rare and serious liver diseases. Our purpose is simple, to empower people with the freedom to live healthier and more fulfilling lives, by unlocking new possibilities in life sciences and providing quality healthcare solutions.

Our lead drug candidate, saroglitazar, is a dual peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) alpha / gamma agonist. Saroglitazar is an investigational treatment which has received Fast Track designation, orphan drug designation and priority review designation from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). Primary Biliary Cholangitis is a rare, chronic autoimmune liver disease primarily affecting middle‑aged women, characterized by the progressive destruction of the bile ducts that can lead to irreversible liver damage if left untreated.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Zydus Lifesciences, our pipeline is fueled by 1,300 researchers who are working with cutting‑edge technologies to discover new medicines for tomorrow.

The opportunity to empower people with the freedom to live healthier and more fulfilling lives is what makes a career with Zydus Therapeutics so rewarding. Our team is collaborative, innovative, and adaptable. We are action‑oriented and strive for excellence in all we do, all underpinned by respect, trust, and integrity. We offer a wide variety of competitive benefits, services and support programs that provide our employees with the resources to pursue their goals, both at work and in their personal lives.

If you are passionate about helping bring potential life‑changing discoveries to patients, then you share our mission.

ROLE SUMMARY

Zydus Therapeutics is seeking a strategic and scientifically credible Thought Leader Liaison (TLL) to build and steward company’s interactions with key hepatology and gastroenterology opinion leaders in advance of and through the launch of saroglitazar for PBC. The TLL operates as the primary field interface between Zydus and its national opinion leader community. Organized across three strategic pillars — OL Landscape & Prioritization, OL Consultation & Insight, and OL Development & Field Activation — the role is responsible for identifying and mapping the national OL universe, generating actionable scientific intelligence through structured engagement, and developing OLs into durable field assets that extend the reach of the brand within the scientific and clinical community. The TLL serves as a critical bridge between the OL universe and internal commercial cross‑functional teams — including Marketing and the field sales organization — ensuring that OL intelligence and relationships are translated into organizational action. This is an individual contributor role. All activities are conducted within a rigorous compliance framework in close partnership with Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build and maintain a comprehensive tiered national OL target list, segmenting by influence level, therapeutic expertise, institutional affiliation, and reach in PBC and rare liver disease.
• Prospectively identify rising academic and community GI/Hepatology voices with growing influence in PBC; develop and manage a pipeline for future tier advancement.
• Conduct ongoing reassessment of tier assignments based on evolving influence, publication activity, congress presence, and peer referral patterns; maintain CRM documentation with 100% quarterly compliance review.
• Calibrate OL prioritization in alignment with strategic priorities, launch milestones, and guidance from the Thought Leader Engagement leadership.

OL Consultation & Insight

• Lead consistent, high‑quality 1:1 scientific dialogue with active OLs, with focus on depth of exchange rather than call volume; achieve tier‑differentiated engagement frequency thresholds.
• Own the full OL advisory board process — from OL selection and content development through facilitation and insight synthesis — delivering structured insight reports to cross‑functional partners.
• Translate advisory board and field engagement outputs into actionable intelligence that informs brand strategy and launch planning; track insight actionability in partnership with brand team.
• Identify and nominate OLs to the speaker bureau based on demonstrated scientific credibility, data fluency, and strategic alignment assessed through the consultation relationship — not tier designation alone. Nomination is a consultation output.

OL Development & Field Activation

• Onboard, train, and maintain nominated OLs into a compliant, tier‑diverse national speaker bureau; ensure bureau health across size, geographic coverage, and certification readiness.
• Facilitate OL presence and visibility across priority congresses and peer‑to‑peer channels; build annual congress engagement plans for tiered OLs.
• Serve as the primary conduit connecting OL intelligence and relationships to internal Marketing and field force, ensuring seamless knowledge transfer and enabling effective internal execution.
• Support the escalation of executional activities (e.g., advisory boards, programs, congress logistics) to designated PM/operational support, maintaining clear documented handoffs prior to each activation.

Compliance & Operational Excellence

• Champion a culture of compliance in all OL engagement activities; ensure every interaction is conducted within applicable laws, regulations, PhRMA guidelines, company SOPs, and OEC guidance.
• Ensure that all HCP engagements, contracts, and payments are documented accurately in the company’s transparency and CRM tracking systems; maintain full FMV compliance in all advisory and speaker contracting activities.
• Maintain a personal TLL activity dashboard tracking KPIs against goals across all three pillars; report outcomes to TLE leadership on defined cadence.

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Business, or related field.
• Minimum 10 years of progressive pharmaceutical or biotech experience, with at least 5 years in thought‑leader engagement, medical affairs, or a related KOL‑facing role.
• Demonstrated success building and managing advisory board programs and speaker bureaus from inception, including compliance governance.
• Deep understanding of the hepatology and/or gastroenterology therapeutic landscape, including treatment paradigms and the academic medical center ecosystem.
• Proven ability to build and sustain credible, long‑term relationships within the hepatology and GI academic and community medical community.
• Sophisticated knowledge of HCP engagement compliance requirements including PhRMA guidelines, OIG guidance, FMV standards, and the Sunshine Act.
• Experience in a pre‑launch or launch environment for a specialty or rare disease product.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and facilitation skills; ability to engage credibly with scientific, commercial, and executive audiences.
• Collaborative and action‑oriented, with a proven ability to lead cross‑functional teams and influence without authority.
• Highly developed verbal and written communication skills.

PREFERRED

• Established network within the hepatology and GI academic medical community.
• Rare disease, specialty hepatology/gastroenterology launch experience is highly preferred.
• Prior experience managing cross‑functional stakeholder alignment in a matrix organization.
• Familiarity with digital engagement platforms and virtual advisory board methodologies.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

The position will require domestic travel (up to 60%).

WORK ENVIRONMENT

This position is field based.

Zydus Therapeutics provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Zydus Therapeutics is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to, among others, individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you need accommodation because of a disability to search and apply for a career opportunity with Zydus Therapeutics, please contact us and let us know the nature of your request.