Trade Operations Specialist

Overview

The EDM (European Distributor Management) Trade Operations Specialist plays a key role in supporting and optimizing the trade operational functions of the EDM and Greece/Cyprus, working with key distributor partners across countries to ensure smooth, efficient, and compliant execution of trade operations. The role collaborates with internal stakeholders across Global Trade Operations, Supply Chain, Customer Service, Regulatory and the Commercial business, as well as three external distributor partners. The ideal candidate will have strong operational and analytical skills, an understanding of the distribution landscape, and the ability to manage multiple stakeholders to ensure timely and efficient product availability within the region. This role involves solving operational challenges, optimizing trade processes, and ensuring distributors meet performance and contractual targets. It is a visible role within the EDM and Greece/Cyprus business that will directly contribute to building strong distributor relationships, identifying process improvements, and ensuring seamless execution of trade strategies aligned with business objectives. An additional responsibility (30%) is the GR/CY Trade Ops Specialist role, requiring close collaboration with the local Trade Ops team to stay informed about local regulatory, legal & tax requirements and to participate in GR/CY/Trade Operations areas such as demand forecasting, ERP-related projects, and logistics operations. The candidate should have excellent communication & organizational skills and be able to coordinate effectively with local and regional/global teams.

Responsibilities

• Distribution Management: Work closely with the Dublin distribution team to ensure on-time fulfilment of all distributor orders. Address ad-hoc requests (expedited orders, shipment delays, import permit coordination, shelf-life requirements, artwork changes) to maintain a streamlined distribution process. Collaborate with Global Trade Operations on significant ad-hoc trade challenges. Schedule and conduct regular meetings with distributor demand planning teams and trade representatives to discuss demand plans, open issues, risks and opportunities related to supply and inventory management.
• Demand Planning: Maintain a tracker of open orders and planned shipment dates and ensure alignment to demand plans or manage deviations. Meet monthly with the Gilead demand planner to discuss latest volume forecasts. At the end of each month, upload the finalized volume forecasts to the Kinaxis system. Work closely with demand planning to implement the adoption of statistical forecasting methodologies. Monitor new launches to ensure supply needs for all scenarios can be met.
• KPI Management: Maintain a tracker of, and report on, all key internal and external KPIs, including but not limited to forecast accuracy, distributor demand plan submission, expedited orders vs standard lead times, and distributor-reported inventory on hand.
• Issue Resolution: Serve as the first point of contact for distributors regarding issues and coordinate resolution. Investigate and confirm incoming product complaints, working with the Responsible Person for resolution. Track and coordinate customer claims, complaints and litigations and escalate to appropriate parties.
• Compliance: Comply with corporate policies and SOPs on all described duties. Ensure relevant compliance for back-up solutions.
• Qualifications & Skills: Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook); strong knowledge and experience with SAP S/4HANA; excellent organizational and management skills; strong verbal and written communication; minimum 4 years of experience in distribution/supply chain/order and customer management; fluent in English; Greek language is considered a plus. Demonstrated decision-making, problem-solving, multitasking abilities and the capacity to work collaboratively; ability to work independently with limited guidance and to interact with wholesalers, distributors, pharmacies and hospitals to maintain strong business relationships.
• Behaviors & Values: Customer-centric, resilient, curious with learning agility, teamwork-focused, self-motivated with accountability, organized, detail-oriented, process-oriented, analytical, and focused on operational excellence.

Note

At Gilead, the information represents role responsibilities and expectations related to the EDM/Greece-Cyprus Trade Operations function and associated GR/CY collaboration. This description reflects the requirements to perform the role and does not create any contractual obligations beyond existing agreements and applicable law.