Associate Director - Assessment & Selection

We’re a team of dedicated people united by a drive to achieve a higher purpose together. You will play a key part in designing, delivering, and continuously evolving our assessment solutions. By combining evidence-based assessment practices with innovative approaches, you will help identify talent that can succeed today while unlocking potential for the future.

Alongside your assessment expertise, you will serve as the Global Process Manager for the Assessment & Selection function, optimising how we work, improving user experiences, strengthening governance, and driving continuous improvement across our processes, tools, vendor ecosystem, and cross-functional partnerships. A significant part of this role will also involve leading and supporting change management as we implement our new assessment strategy, introduce new vendors, and embed a refreshed assessment approach across the organisation. Through this work, you will help deliver high-quality, scalable, and future-ready assessment solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and improve assessment solutions for hiring, talent development, and succession planning, ensuring they are effective, evidence-based, and aligned with business needs.
• Provide specialist assessment expertise across structured interviews, psychometric tools, and other selection methods to support fair and informed talent decisions.
• Partner with Talent teams and business stakeholders to identify assessment requirements and recommend suitable tools, processes, and external vendors.
• Ensure assessment quality and compliance by maintaining valid, reliable, inclusive, legally defensible, and user-friendly assessment approaches.
• Manage assessment operations and vendor relationships, including service delivery, reporting, knowledge management, provider performance, and continuous improvement.
• Drive global process management and optimisation by embedding assessment data into talent processes, monitoring performance, and improving data governance, quality, and integrity.
• Support standardisation, automation, and digital transformation across the assessment ecosystem to improve scalability, efficiency, compliance, and user experience.
• Champion collaborative, human-centred ways of working by applying Human-Centred Design, adopting an AI-first mindset, supporting change adoption, and meeting Novartis compliance obligations.

Essential Criteria

• Degree in Occupational, Industrial/Organisational, Business Psychology or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Strong expertise in assessment and selection methodologies, including structured interviews, psychometric assessments and talent evaluation approaches with solid understanding of assessment principles including validity, reliability, fairness, bias mitigation and candidate experience.
• Proven experience designing, implementing, and managing assessment solutions across selection, development, or succession planning, while leading & supporting transformation programmes, and process improvement initiatives within complex organisations.
• Strong process orientation, ability to own and lead on continuous improvement of processes, data and governance with a continuous improvement mindset with a passion for creating scalable, user-centred solutions.
• Experience working with external vendors and managing service delivery with strong stakeholder management and consulting skills, with the ability to influence and build trusted relationships.
• Data-driven mindset, using insights to improve decision-making, process effectiveness and business outcomes with AI-enabled ways of working.
• Fluency in English, both written & verbal.

Benefits & Rewards

Read our handbook to learn about all the ways we’ll help you thrive personally and professionally.

The rewards of being part of our team go far beyond base pay and incentives. We also offer a variety of competitive benefits in kind to help you thrive personally and professionally, such as insurance plans, retirement plans, wellbeing resources and global recognition programs. In addition, we provide flexible and hybrid working options, where possible, and minimum 14 weeks paid parental leave. Long-term equity awards granted at group level may also be part of your package.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

Novartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams representative of the patients and communities we serve.

Accessibility and Accommodation

Novartis is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to all individuals. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the recruitment process, or in order to receive more detailed information about the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to diversity.inclusion_ch@novartis.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.