Senior Manager, Medical Affairs Rare Diseases in London

Lead scientific strategy in rare diseases where every breakthrough transforms lives and every patient matters.

As Senior Manager, Medical Affairs Rare Diseases, you'll lead the medical strategy and scientific engagement for rare endocrine disorders, rare blood disorders, and haemoglobinopathies across the UK. This is a leadership role where you'll drive scientific excellence while building and inspiring a team dedicated to bringing innovative therapies to patients with some of the world’s most challenging conditions.

Key Responsibilities

• Developing and executing comprehensive medical affairs strategies for rare endocrine, rare blood, and haemoglobinopathy indications aligned with UK affiliate business objectives.
• Leading and managing a team of medical advisors, senior medical advisors, and regional medical advisors, conducting regular development conversations to help them reach their full potential.
• Establishing and maintaining strategic relationships with key opinion leaders, healthcare professionals, patient advocacy groups, and NHS health boards to champion patient outcomes.
• Providing scientific support for clinical trials, investigator-initiated studies, and product launches within the rare disease portfolio.
• Leading the development of integrated evidence plans, publication strategies, and tailored educational tools in line with NHS requirements.
• Driving compliant and high‑quality KOL management, advisory board planning, and scientific dialogue for pre-launch phases in full compliance with ABPI, PMCPA, and MHRA requirements.
• Partnering with healthcare systems and medical associations to identify solutions along clinical care pathways that improve patient outcomes.
• Serving as an active member of the medical leadership team with shared accountability for business strategy, decision-making, and execution.

As part of International Operations, you will join our largest operational unit covering 194 countries and 95% of the world’s population, with more than 18,000 employees serving 35 million patients each day. Within the UK affiliate, Medical Affairs plays a pivotal role in advancing scientific knowledge and ensuring healthcare professionals understand the optimal use of our therapies. As we expand into rare diseases, you’ll be instrumental in shaping how we bring scientific excellence to these underserved patient populations.

Skills & Qualifications

• Registered Medical Practitioner, UK registered pharmacist, or PhD qualification (essential).
• Significant therapy area knowledge related to rare endocrine, rare blood disorders, and haemoglobinopathies (Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia).
• Extensive experience in medical affairs within rare diseases, with strong knowledge of clinical development, regulatory processes, and medical governance.
• Proven experience leading functional and cross‑functional teams in complex, sophisticated markets, including solid understanding of matrix organisations.
• In‑depth knowledge of ABPI code of practice (essential), GCP, clinical trial methodology, drug development, and publication processes.
• Strong scientific credibility combined with excellent communication, networking, presentation, and facilitation skills.
• Deep knowledge of UK healthcare systems and a passion for influencing the industry from a medical perspective.
• Business acumen (industry experience or MBA desirable) and the ability to quickly adjust to new situations in a continuously evolving environment.

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.

There is, of course, more on offer beyond the uniqueness of our culture and the extraordinary results we produce. Being part of a global healthcare company means opportunities to learn and develop are all around us, while our benefits are designed with your career and life stage in mind. In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to shape medical strategy at UK and international levels, work with leading experts across the rare disease community, and drive meaningful change for patients living with conditions that have historically been underserved.