Sr. Director, Launch Excellence Lead

Pfizer • New York City, NY

4d • Onsite

About The Position

The Launch Excellence Lead reports to the VP, GCS, I&I/Rare. This is a critical leadership role within the GCS organization, responsible for driving Launch Excellence across Pfizer’s enterprise portfolio of pipeline assets. Launches are central to Pfizer’s growth strategy, spanning a diverse pipeline across Oncology, Specialty Care, and Primary Care with significant commercial potential. Launch Excellence sits at the nexus of global strategy, U.S. commercialization, and international execution, ensuring that launches are strategically robust, operationally ready, and positioned to deliver strong early uptake and sustained long-term value. The Launch Excellence Lead operates as a senior strategic partner to launch teams and leaders, embedding with cross-functional teams to co-create launch strategies, elevate executional rigor, and enable seamless end-to-end launch readiness. The role also drives enterprise-wide capability building, standardization, and innovation in launch planning. The role leads a high-performing, globally distributed team of 4 Senior Directors, 2 Directors, 1 Senior Manager and 1 Executive Administrative support. Total of 8 direct reports, with additional matrix leadership across cross-functional launch teams and market stakeholders.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred
• 12+ years of commercial marketing experience, including US market experience
• Extensive experience in pharmaceutical marketing, launch planning, or related commercial roles
• Deep expertise in strategic marketing, brand planning, and launch execution
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and strategic thinking capabilities
• Proven experience leading large, cross-functional initiatives and influencing senior stakeholders
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, and organizational skills
• Enterprise mindset with global perspective
• Strong cross-functional leadership and collaboration
• Ability to manage ambiguity and competing priorities
• Courage to challenge and elevate strategic rigor
• Commitment to driving excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement
• Permanent work authorization in the United States.

Nice To Haves

• Significant experience with global product launches across multiple therapeutic areas
• Demonstrated success operating in complex, global matrix environments
• Experience leading teams and enterprise capability-building initiatives
• Strong executive presence with ability to influence at senior leadership levels
• Candidate demonstrates a breadth of diverse leadership experiences and capabilities including: the ability to influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, oversee and guide the work of other colleagues to achieve meaningful outcomes and create business impact.

Responsibilities

• Leadership of the Launch Excellence function supporting a broad portfolio of priority pipeline assets globally
• Accountability for co-shaping end-to-end launch strategy, operational readiness, and execution excellence
• Global remit spanning Early Commercial, Global Marketing, U.S. Commercial teams, International / regional markets
• High exposure to senior leadership across Commercial, Medical, GAV, Regulatory, and Supply
• Serve as the primary strategic advisor to Global and US launch teams across the product lifecycle
• Co-create and elevate foundational launch deliverables: Brand Strategy & OGSM, Brand Positioning Statement, Market Development Plans, Integrated Launch Strategy (ILS), KPI frameworks and Scenario plans.
• Engage early in the lifecycle (pre-DP3) to shape strategy, pressure-test assumptions, and influence key decisions
• Lead scenario planning and competitive simulations to enhance strategic agility and preparedness
• Drive development of integrated cross-functional launch plans across Commercial, Medical, Regulatory, Market Access, Supply, Digital and further relevant functions.
• Lead deployment and scaling of Launch Operations Studio capabilities to translate strategy into execution
• Establish and maintain Global, US, and International launch blueprints to standardize execution
• Ensure adoption of the Digital Launch Planning Platform (DLPP) as the single source of truth for launch planning, execution tracking, and reporting
• Support launch readiness reviews and governance processes (e.g., L-24, L-12 milestones)
• Design and scale launch excellence capabilities, frameworks, and tools across the organization
• Drive continuous improvement in: Resource allocation and investment benchmarks, Launch readiness measurement and dashboards, External analogs and best practice integration
• Lead global Launch Learnings Exchange and knowledge-sharing platforms to embed institutional learning
• Advance innovation through digital and AI-enabled solutions (e.g., scenario planning acceleration tools)
• Lead and influence complex, matrixed cross-functional teams across global and local organizations
• Partner across Commercial, Medical, Global Access Strategy & Pricing (GASP), Regulatory, PGS, and Digital to align on strategy and execution priorities, identify and mitigate launch risks, and ensure seamless global-to-local execution
• Act as a connector across the enterprise, integrating insights, data, and perspectives to inform decision-making
• Support governance and leadership alignment on key strategic and operational decisions
• Drive global-to-local translation of launch strategies and ensure effective execution across international markets
• Build and lead International Launch Excellence Lead (LEL) communities to scale capability and best practices
• Support global launch sequencing and commercialization planning, optimizing market prioritization and execution timing
• Develop scalable international launch operating models to improve consistency, speed, and predictability

Benefits

• 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution
• paid vacation, holiday and personal days
• paid caregiver/parental and medical leave
• health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage
• Relocation assistance may be available

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director