Global Head Scientific Communications & Publications
About The Position
The Head of Neuroscience Scientific Communications and Publications will provide leadership to a team of scientific communications and publications professionals for the strategic planning and execution of scientific communications and publications. The Global Head leads a global organization responsible for scientific communications, publications, and medical content, with dedicated therapeutic area leads as well as medical writers and contractors reporting into this role. The role requires oversight of quality and compliance in alignment with SOPs, best publication practices, and industry standards. The Global Head must maintain awareness of changes in healthcare and regulatory environments, benchmark against industry standards, and develop scientific plans and standard operating procedures (SOPs) aligned with business needs. Resource allocation and strategic alignment with business goals are critical, as is fostering strong relationships and maximizing financial and human resources within departmental budgets. The position partners closely with Global Medical Affairs Leaders (GMALs), Strategy & Execution Leads (SELs), Clinical Development Teams (CDTs), R&D, Market Access, and regional leadership to integrate scientific communications with evidence generation and medical strategy, supporting engagement with internal stakeholders (e.g., Field Medical, Market Access) and external stakeholders (e.g., healthcare professionals, investigators).
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree (BA/BS) is required.
- Significant experience (typically 10+ years) in scientific communications, publications, or global medical affairs
- Proven experience leading global teams, including direct management
- Strong strategic thinking with ability to translate complex scientific data into impactful communication strategies.
- Experience operating in a highly matrixed global environment with ability to influence senior stakeholders.
- Experience managing large-scale budgets, vendor ecosystems, and external partnerships
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills (including executive leadership interactions), external professional relationship management is required
- 20% Travel both Domestic and International
- At least 5 years of people management experience
Nice To Haves
- Advanced degree preferred (PharmD, PhD, MD, or equivalent)
Responsibilities
- Define and lead global scientific communication strategies across the neuroscience franchise, ensuring a consistent, differentiated, and aligned external scientific narrative across therapeutic areas and assets.
- Establish, prioritize, and oversee global publication strategies and execution across the asset lifecycle; define publication investments and ensure alignment with evidence generation plans and portfolio priorities across Neuroscience portfolios.
- Provide strategic oversight of the global medical content strategy, ensuring integrated planning, prioritization, and consistent scientific messaging across global and regional stakeholders.
- Serve as a senior strategic partner to GMALs, SELs, CDTs, R&D, and Market Access leadership to align scientific communications with evidence generation, data readouts, and lifecycle strategy.
- Establish governance models (e.g., publication steering committees), KPIs, and performance metrics to ensure high-quality, timely, and compliant execution across assets; proactively identify risks and drive mitigation strategies.
- Provide strategic guidance and oversight on the development of scientific communication outputs (e.g., abstracts, manuscripts, congress materials, scientific communication plans, lexicons, etc.) to ensure quality, consistency, and alignment with the overall scientific narrative.
- Drive adoption of innovative approaches, including AI and digitally enabled capabilities, to enhance efficiency, insight generation, and impact of scientific communications.
- Lead and develop a global team of scientific communication and publication leads across therapeutic areas and key assets; provide coaching, talent development, and performance management while building scalable capabilities.
- Responsible for scientific communications and publication budgets including funding prioritization in line with the strategic plan, tracking, accruals, spend reconciliation, and operational activities supporting the financial cycles (BP, JU, NU).
- Define and oversee global vendor strategy and agency partnerships with a focus on vendor efficiency; represent Johnson & Johnson in external scientific forums, including engagement with journals, congress leadership, academic institutions, and key opinion leaders.
- Manage workload of assigned contractors/contingent labor according to contracted terms.
- Ensure adherence to Johnson & Johnson policies, publication SOPs, and industry standards (e.g., GPP), including oversight of authorship, copyright, and embargo requirements.
Benefits
- medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short- and long-term disability, business accident insurance, and group legal insurance.
- consolidated retirement plan (pension) and savings plan (401(k)).
- long-term incentive program.
- Vacation – up to 120 hours per calendar year
- Sick time - up to 40 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Washington – up to 56 hours per calendar year
- Holiday pay, including Floating Holidays – up to 13 days per calendar year
- Work, Personal and Family Time - up to 40 hours per calendar year
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Executive
