Senior Commercial Director, United Kingdom

Shape the future of healthcare in the UK, leading a commercial function that’s making serious chronic diseases a thing of the past for millions of NHS patients. This is your opportunity to drive full adoption across our portfolio, building awareness and accelerating uptake of our treatments, while delivering market share growth in one of the world’s most competitive and complex healthcare environments.

Your new role as Senior Director, NHS Commercial Portfolio, will lead our UK NHS Commercial Cardiometabolic sales function with direct responsibility of a large team, driving portfolio strategy across established therapeutic areas. This is a strategic leadership role where you'll balance immediate execution with long-term planning, mobilising resources quickly in a complex NHS context while building capability for the future. You will be a member of the UK Leadership Team, reporting to the General Manager.

Day-to-day Your Responsibilities Will Include:

• Leading and mobilising a large NHS Commercial Cardiometabolic sales team
• Creating and executing 3–5-year strategic plans that deliver P&L targets and establish market leadership positions in key therapeutic areas
• Developing talent pipelines through active mentoring and coaching of leaders, building strong capability across the commercial function to support current delivery and future growth
• Collaborating effectively across Medical Affairs, Marketing, Finance, People & Organisation, Customer Engagement, Commercial Effectiveness and Training to align priorities and resources with wider organisational needs and the Leadership Team
• Interpreting business performance data and commercial insights to support prioritisation and performance management, setting clear regional priorities based on NHS dynamics
• Representing the UK NHS market at Global and EUCAN leadership meetings, influencing stakeholders and driving change across complex environments

Your new department is part of International Operations, which covers 194 countries and 95% of the world's population. More than 18,000 of us work passionately to serve 35 million patients each day. With a promise to outperform the competition, we continue to be the growth driver for Novo Nordisk, and to improve health at scale across the globe.

Within International Operations, the UK affiliate is at the forefront of shaping how we work with one of the world's most sophisticated healthcare systems. As a member of the UK Leadership Team based in Gatwick, you'll work in an environment that demands agility—where traditional sales approaches give way to commercial portfolio leadership models, and where navigating NHS complexity across primary and secondary care requires both ambition and adaptability. This role offers strong potential for career progression into GM candidate track or regional commercial roles.

Your Skills & Qualifications:

• Proven leadership experience managing and mobilising large teams (approximately 100 people) with a strong track record of developing talent, mentoring, and coaching leaders to improve team performance
• Substantial experience in UK pharmaceutical sales with deep understanding of NHS landscape complexity, able to navigate primary and secondary care stakeholders and deliver through a future-focused portfolio approach
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills with demonstrated ability to work effectively with Medical Affairs, Marketing, Finance, P&O, Customer Engagement, Commercial Effectiveness and Training to align resources and priorities
• Solid commercial and analytical acumen, comfortable interpreting business performance data, understanding numbers, and using commercial insights to drive prioritisation and performance management
• Ambitious, decisive, and target-driven mindset with proven ability to influence stakeholders, drive change in complex environments, and mobilise resources quickly outside traditional sales models
• Life Sciences, Business, or Marketing degree (or equivalent), with ABPI certification and experience in product launch and life-cycle management; mobility is a plus

Working at Novo Nordisk:

Every day we seek the solutions that defeat serious chronic diseases. To do this, we approach our work with determination, constant curiosity and a commitment to finding better ways forward. For over 100 years, this dedication has driven us to build a company focused on lasting change for long-term health. One where diverse thinking, shared purpose and mutual respect come together to create extraordinary results. Here, you'll find a culture where your leadership matters, where collaboration across boundaries creates impact, and where the work you do today shapes the health of future generations.

What We Offer:

There is, of course, more on offer here than 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. This role offers clear pathways for career progression, including potential advancement into GM candidate track or regional commercial leadership positions.

Deadline: 25 May 2026 (Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis)

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