Senior Director, Strategic Partnership & Geographical Expansion

The Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships & Geographic Expansion is responsible for leading and executing global expansion initiatives and managing key strategic alliances within international region for all CF and non-CF assets. This role requires a deep understanding of international market entry strategies, licensing and distribution partnerships, and cross-functional collaboration to drive growth in new geographies. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in business development, alliance management, and commercial strategy, with a proven track record of successfully navigating complex regulatory and market landscapes.

Geographic Expansion:

• Develops and executes both long-range and annual business plans including defining objectives, budgets and timelines ensuring alignment with functional leadership, International Leadership Team, Global New Product Planning, DST(s) and EC.

• Oversee Market Expansion plans for CF portfolio, facilitate evaluation of expansion opportunities, development of strategic plans and eventual operational execution.

• Leads the development and execution of market expansion strategy for all new (non-CF) disease areas

• Coordinates & collaborates with New Product Planning colleagues and DSTs appropriately to maintain alignment with program decision-making cadence and keep abreast of development milestones, new data, etc.

• Oversees the conduct of research on markets globally by disease area, to inform Commercial viability/opportunity for expansion

• Develop a detailed expansion strategy and tactics for new disease states to be aligned with executive leadership

• Ensures effective communication and alignment across the functional matrix regarding strategy, plans and (where applicable) progress of implementation

• Ensures appropriate operational execution of market expansion strategy for International

• Assess international partnership operating model sustainability considering upcoming launches in CF and non-CF pipeline, market potential and risks as well as revenue saving to vertex

• Manages communications related to vertex portfolio market expansion inquiries; Works with Corporate Communications, Legal, Medical Affairs and Patient Engagement to respond to inquiries about expansion into new markets

Strategic Partnerships & Alliance Management:

• Serve as the primary relationship owner for key strategic partnerships, ensuring alignment with business objectives and fostering long-term collaboration, in collaboration with commercial leads and country manager

• Oversee contract negotiations, milestone tracking, and governance structures to maximize the value of partnerships.

• Oversee development and implementation of partner performance metrics and governance frameworks to drive accountability and results.

Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders, including commercial, regulatory, legal, and finance teams, to align expansion and partnership strategies with corporate goals.

• Provide executive leadership with strategic recommendations on market expansion priorities and partnership opportunities.

• Manage and mentor a team focused on global expansion and alliance management.

• As a people manager within the organization, has financial accountabilities and human resource responsibilities for assigned staff.

• Manage directly the Business Systems Coordinator & Process Integration team to ensure seamless information flow between teams and systems.

• Extensive experience in pharmaceutical business development, alliance management, or international commercial strategy

• Emerging markets capabilities/ knowledge

• Proven track record of leading geographic expansion initiatives, including market analysis, regulatory navigation, and commercial launch execution

• Strong negotiation and relationship management skills, with experience structuring and managing complex partnerships.

• Deep understanding of global pharmaceutical markets, regulatory requirements, and pricing and reimbursement dynamics

• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management abilities

• Strong understanding of the process to build new markets including expansion models, requirements and risks

• Experience working in a fast-paced matrixed organization

• Experience leading and aligning complex, multi-faceted, cross-functional, cross-geographic projects and teams

• Demonstrated ability to develop, evaluate and articulate complex business cases, including detailed financial projections

• Excellent communication skills

• Proven ability to interact with senior/executive leadership

• Demonstrated ability to translate detailed research & analysis into actionable commercial insights to inform organizational and business decisions for future expansion of International into new disease areas and geographies

• Proven ability in developing and communicating sound recommendations, even when there is ambiguity due to uncertainty and lack of validated assumptions.