Commercial Lead – Middle East

About the Role
The Commercial Lead – Middle East is a strategic member of the Middle East Leadership Team, responsible for translating cluster strategy into disciplined commercial execution across institutional and private-market channels. This role focuses on ensuring sustainable delivery of revenue and IBA objectives by leading account management, tender strategy, distribution contracting, innovative go-to-market models, and the performance of non-promoted brands. The Commercial Lead connects portfolio priorities with market execution across a diverse Middle East footprint, leading internal teams and external partners to strengthen customer engagement, improve access to the company medicines, enhance distribution effectiveness, manage commercial risk, and drive compliant, data-driven growth. Additionally, this role sponsors cluster-wide strategic initiatives and aims to build a high-performing commercial organization with clear accountability, strong capabilities, and an enterprise mindset.

Core Accountabilities
1. Commercial Strategy & Cluster Performance

• Translate the Middle East commercial strategy into clear market, channel, and customer priorities aligned with the cluster operating plan.
• Lead delivery of revenue, IBA, and profitable-growth objectives across institutional and private-market channels.
• Shape and execute innovative go-to-market models that improve reach, access, market share, and customer experience.
• Assess market potential, channel dynamics, and portfolio opportunities to guide resource allocation and commercial choices.
• Lead priority Middle East strategic projects with the Cluster Leadership Team and cross-functional partners.

2. Account Management & Customer Engagement

• Build a customer-centered account-management organization that operates with integrity, compliance, and enterprise accountability.
• Ensure account teams maintain high-quality account plans informed by customer priorities, market dynamics, decision pathways, and stakeholder mapping.
• Develop trusted relationships with senior customer stakeholders and align internal and external decision-makers around shared objectives.
• Advance value-based engagement and innovative contracting approaches that support sustainable patient access to the company medicines.
• Represent the full spectrum of the company value to customers, ensuring consistent service excellence across priority accounts.

3. Tender & Contracting Leadership

• Set and implement the Middle East tender and contracting strategy in close collaboration with market account teams, Category Leads, and regional partners.
• Ensure timely, accurate, and compliant bid preparation, governance, and submission, with effective coordination across Finance, Access & Value, Supply, Regulatory, Legal, Commercial, and distribution partners.
• Establish a robust tender calendar, reporting discipline, and market-intelligence capability to anticipate customer behavior, pricing trends, risks, and opportunities.
• Align tender plans with the operating plan, forecasting and supply-planning processes; monitor revenue and profitability at the market level.
• Aggregate demand where appropriate, strengthen supply reliability, and drive effective use of global tender and contracting tools.

4. Distribution & Partner Management

• Own the distribution, promotion, and commercial-plan contracting agenda across the Middle East cluster.
• Define governance, performance standards, review cadence, and escalation requirements for distribution partners.
• Maintain effective monitoring of distribution metrics and KPIs, escalating exceptions and initiating corrective actions.
• Identify opportunities to improve gross-to-net, channel efficiency, inventory performance, and private-market execution.
• Ensure contracts remain current, compliant, and fit for business needs in partnership with Legal, Finance, Safety, Quality, Supply, and Commercial stakeholders.

5. Portfolio P&L Accountability

• Manage the P&L for non-promoted brands, ensuring sustainable and profitable growth.
• Set portfolio priorities, monitor performance, and make disciplined investment and resource choices in line with approved governance.

6. People & Culture Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop commercial, account-management, and tender teams to build deep functional expertise and a high-performance culture.
• Create clarity of goals, fair performance expectations, and effective development plans, including assignments and cross-functional growth opportunities.
• Strengthen leadership capability, succession depth, inclusion, and colleague engagement across a geographically diverse organization.
• Model the company’s values and maintain uncompromising standards of ethics, compliance, and responsible business leadership.

Decision Rights

• Set commercial priorities and execution standards across Middle East markets within approved cluster and enterprise governance.
• Recommend channel, go-to-market, tender, and distribution-model choices for approval through applicable governance.
• Define account-management, partner-governance, and performance-review standards.
• Recommend allocation of approved resources and investment based on patient need, market opportunity, risk, and expected value.
• Hold direct teams and relevant external partners accountable for execution quality, compliance, financial performance, and customer outcomes.

Capabilities & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy, Life Sciences, Business, or a related field; an MBA or equivalent advanced degree is preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of pharmaceutical sales, commercial, key-account, or tender-management experience with meaningful leadership exposure across Middle East markets.
• Successful track record leading commercial or account-management organizations and delivering through complex, cross-functional, and multi-market environments.
• Strong expertise in customer engagement, tender strategy, contracting, distribution management, and pharmaceutical channel dynamics.
• Demonstrated commercial and financial acumen, including P&L management, forecasting, investment choices, and gross-to-net improvement.
• Strong strategic judgment, analytical capability, project leadership, and change-management skills.
• Proven ability to influence across organizational boundaries, simplify ambiguity, and establish disciplined processes.
• Fluency in written and spoken English; Arabic is an advantage.

Critical Leadership Behaviors
Enterprise Leadership
Connects portfolio, market, and customer priorities to create value for the total Middle East cluster.

External Influence
Builds trusted relationships with senior customers and partners through evidence, integrity, and commercial insight.

Strategic Judgment
Balances patient access, growth, profitability, supply, risk, and compliance across diverse markets.

Talent Builder
Creates clear accountability, develops commercial capability, and enables collaboration across markets and functions.

Key Organizational Relationships

• Middle East Cluster Lead and Middle East Leadership Team
• Category Leads and market, sales, and commercial leaders across Middle East markets
• Access & Value, Medical, Regulatory, Policy & Public Affairs, Finance, Supply, Legal, Compliance, Safety, and Quality teams
• Regional and global commercial, tender, trade, and supply partners
• Distributors, healthcare institutions, procurement stakeholders, and other priority customers within approved engagement responsibilities

Supervision & Operating Model
Direct reports: Key Account-management, Tender and contracting, Pricing, and relevant commercial teams supporting Middle East execution.

Location: Dubai, UAE with travel across Middle East markets and partner locations.