Senior Director, Launch Lead Neuroscience EMEA in London

Why Join Us? Be a hero for our rare disease patients. At Ultragenyx, we fundamentally believe that taking real impactful action to care for the needs of patients and our people is always the right thing to do. To achieve this goal, our vision is to lead the future of rare disease medicine. For us, this means going where other biopharma companies won’t go – challenging the status quo and creating a new model that advances our field so more patients and caregivers can benefit from life-changing treatments. We do this by following the science, applying a novel rapid development approach, making innovative medicines at fair and reasonable prices, and creating a collaborative ecosystem to reach patients in ways that are most meaningful for them.

Our commitment and care for patients extends to our people, so culture is an essential cornerstone for Ultragenyx. We remain continuously focused on creating a supportive and inclusive environment of profound learning and growth – so employees can thrive in all areas of their lives, in and outside of work. Ultimately, we want to be an organization where we would be proud for our family, friends and children to work. If you want to have a meaningful impact, do the best work of your career, and grow a lot, both professionally and personally, come join our team.

Position Summary: ultradedicated – Your biggest challenges yield rare possibilities. As Senior Director, Commercial Lead, Neuroscience EMEA, you will own the regional launch strategy and commercialization roadmap for a potential first-in-class therapy and new therapeutic area for the company. You will shape long-term launch strategy, market development, organizational readiness, and commercial success across EMEA while serving as a strategic advisor to senior EMEA and Global leadership. This role requires a leader capable of building scalable launch frameworks, influencing enterprise-level decisions, and driving cross-functional alignment in complex and evolving market environments.

Work Model: Flex: This role will typically require onsite work 2-3 days each week, or more depending on business needs. In many locations, the business will set certain days each week that Flex employees are required to be onsite.

Responsibilities:

• Own the EMEA launch vision, strategy, and commercialization roadmap from pre-launch through sustained commercialization, ensuring alignment with regional and global business objectives.
• Serve as the senior regional launch leader and strategic advisor to Global and EMEA leadership teams on launch readiness, commercialization strategy, and market development priorities.
• Lead critical regional launch initiatives and influence senior cross-functional leaders across Commercial, Medical, Market Access, Regulatory, Supply Chain, Quality, and Patient Advocacy to deliver launch success.
• Establish and govern regional launch operating models, decision-making forums, readiness standards, and risk management processes across EMEA markets.
• Own the regional commercial strategy, launch performance, investment prioritization, and overall business outcomes for the asset across EMEA.
• Partner with Market Access and country leadership to shape pricing, reimbursement, sequencing, evidence-generation, and patient access strategies that optimize long-term value.
• Drive market development initiatives including patient identification, referral pathways, treatment-center readiness, stakeholder engagement, and capacity planning.
• Anticipate and resolve strategic risks, organizational barriers, and market challenges that could impact launch success, patient access, or long-term business performance.
• Direct regional launch resource allocation and investment decisions to ensure alignment with broader EMEA and corporate priorities.
• Build organizational capability through coaching, best-practice sharing, and development of scalable launch frameworks that support future product launches across EMEA.

Requirements:

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Life Sciences, or related field; Advanced degree – PhD, MBA/MSc required.

Experience: 15+ years in biotech, pharmaceutical, or healthcare, with significant product launch leadership experience. Proven EMEA launch experience in rare/ultra-rare disease, experience in ASO, or pediatric neurology strongly preferred. Demonstrated ability to lead senior cross-functional teams in matrixed, resource-limited, high-ambiguity environments. Experience engaging pediatric neurology and specialist center networks across EMEA preferred. Experience building operational frameworks for therapies requiring procedural capacity, specialized centers, and multidisciplinary care.

Skills and Competencies: Strategic thinker with strong launch, commercialization, and market access understanding, able to build strategy for a new product category. Strong matrix leader who influences without authority, creates alignment, and drives momentum through ambiguity. High pace, constructive challenge, and strong decision orientation, able to make trade-offs and move teams forward without perfect information. Adaptive, entrepreneurial, resilient problem solver with strong project management and execution discipline. Strong financial acumen, communication skills, and stakeholder presence.

Additional Information: Travel as required to ensure launch optimization in countries and to enable best practice sharing. Full compliance with Ultragenyx policies, industry regulations, and applicable laws is required.