Director, Sales Leader Development & Commercial Operations Capabilities

Gilead Sciences•Foster City, CA

15h•Onsite

About The Position

The Director, Sales Leader Development & Commercial Operations Capabilities will lead two distinct areas within Global Commercial Learning & Development: sales leader development, with an initial primary focus on the U.S., and a global Commercial Operations competency model. Reporting to the Senior Director, GCLD, this role will translate business priorities and role expectations into practical, scalable solutions that improve performance and support long-term talent development. The Director's primary focus will be leading and sustaining the U.S. Regional Director New-to-Role Learning Journey and development for tenured sales leaders, with the flexibility to support broader regional and affiliate needs over time. Globally, the Director will build a Commercial Operations competency model that defines skills, behaviors, proficiency expectations, and development priorities across global and affiliate teams. The role will partner with GCLD, Global Commercial Excellence, Commercial Operations Directors, U.S. CL&D, U.S. sales leaders, HR/Talent, and regional and affiliate teams. The successful candidate will combine commercial and field acumen with learning strategy expertise and the ability to lead complex work across a matrixed organization. They will align senior stakeholders, turn business needs into clear solutions, manage multiple workstreams, and measure learning and commercial impact. This role will sit in Foster City, CA.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree and Twelve Years’ Experience OR Masters' Degree and Ten Years’ Experience OR PhD and Eight Years’ Experience
Extensive experience in Commercial Learning & Development, Sales Excellence, Commercial Operations, Leadership Development, Talent Development, or related discipline in the pharmaceutical or biopharmaceutical industry.
Experience leading sales or field leader development, including onboarding, coaching, performance management, business acumen, and ongoing development.
Experience designing competency models, proficiency levels, assessments, or role-based development frameworks.
Success building learning strategies and curricula that support sustained development beyond individual programs.
Strong commercial acumen and understanding of global and affiliate Commercial Operations roles and ways of working.
Experience partnering with HR/Talent on job architecture, talent processes, development planning, or integration of competencies into people practices.
Experience leading global or multi-market initiatives and adapting enterprise solutions to local needs.
Experience managing budgets, resources, and external partners.
Strong Copilot, PowerPoint, Word, and Excel skills, with the ability to create clear, executive-ready communications.
People leadership experience or demonstrated success coaching and developing others through direct or matrixed leadership.
Strategic thinker who connects commercial priorities, role expectations, competency development, and learning strategy.
Deep understanding of field and commercial realities, including sales leadership, coaching, performance management, and Commercial Operations.
Experience developing learning strategies, curricula, learning journeys, competency models, or other scalable development systems.
Proven ability to lead complex, enterprise initiatives across functions and geographies in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
Ability to influence senior leaders, build alignment, and simplify complex topics through strong written, verbal, facilitation, and presentation skills.
Strong program leadership, including planning, governance, risk management, resource and budget oversight, and delivery accountability.
Experience defining success measures and using data, feedback, and performance insights to improve solutions.
Strong partnership and vendor-management skills, including scope, quality, budget, and performance oversight.
Working knowledge of adult learning, learning design, facilitation, reinforcement, and change enablement.
Ability to balance global consistency with local relevance and operate effectively through ambiguity.

Responsibilities

Sales Leader Development: Primary focus is supporting the execution, sustainment, and continuous improvement of U.S. sales leader development, aligned to business priorities and field needs.
Own the Regional Director New-to-Role Learning Journey, including curriculum planning, stakeholder alignment, delivery, reinforcement, evaluation, and improvement.
Own and evolve leadership development for tenured sales leaders, including the Content Guide and other governed resources that support consistent application.
Apply adult learning principles and field experience to create practical, application-based learning, tools, and resources.
Support additional sales leader development priorities across regions and affiliates as business needs evolve.
Global Commercial Operations Competency Model: Lead the design of a global Commercial Operations competency model that defines competencies, behaviors, and proficiency expectations across global and affiliate roles.
Partner with affiliate stakeholders, Commercial Operations Directors, HR/Talent, GCLD, GCE, and subject matter experts to validate role requirements and align the model with job architecture and talent processes.
Translate the model into practical applications, including change management, role assessments, development planning, and guidance for people leaders and employees.
Establish governance and a review process to keep the model current as commercial strategies, roles, technology, and ways of working evolve.
Design for global consistency and scale while allowing appropriate local flexibility.
Cross-Functional Leadership and Delivery: Establish success measures and use feedback, assessments, adoption indicators, and available performance insights to evaluate impact and guide improvement.
Lead cross-functional workplans with clear milestones, roles, risks, dependencies, budgets, and decision points; communicate progress and recommendations to senior leaders.
Select and manage external partners, including scope, quality, timelines, budget, and delivery.
Build trusted relationships, resolve misalignment, and influence decisions without direct authority.
Strengthen an inclusive, high-performing GCLD culture through coaching, knowledge sharing, and leadership of project teams and partners.
Curriculum strategy and learning governance: Sets a long-term roadmap for sales leader development, with primary accountability for U.S. execution and sustainment, and establishes governance for the Commercial Operations competency model.
Enterprise stakeholder alignment: Aligns senior leaders and cross-functional partners around shared role expectations, priorities, decisions, and adoption.
Scalable field capability systems: Builds learning journeys, tools, competency structures, and sustainment mechanisms rather than relying on one-time training events.
Measuring impact and commercial outcomes: Defines success measures and uses feedback, assessment, adoption, and available performance insights to strengthen impact.
Strategic resource, budget, and vendor ownership: Leads workplans, resources, budgets, and vendor partnerships to deliver enterprise value.
Coaching and talent development: Develops others through direct, matrixed, and informal leadership while reinforcing accountability for outcomes.
People Leader Accountabilities: Create Inclusion - knowing the business value of diverse teams, modeling inclusion, and embedding the value of diversity in the way they manage their teams.
Develop Talent - understand the skills, experience, aspirations, and potential of their employees and coach them on current performance and future potential. They ensure employees are receiving the feedback and insight needed to grow, develop, and realize their purpose.
Empower Teams - connect the team to the organization by aligning goals, purpose, and organizational objectives and holding them to account. They provide the support needed to remove barriers and connect their team to the broader ecosystem.