Senior Director, Launch Excellence

Job Description

The Senior Director, Launch Excellence will provide strategic leadership and operational oversight to ensure the successful, on-time, and high-quality launch of Sobi's launches in future pipeline products, including two core upcoming launches across the North America region. This pivotal role will establish and lead Sobi's Launch Excellence framework, integrating cross-functional planning, governance, and performance measurement to drive consistent, best-in-class commercialization outcomes.

The Senior Director will serve as the central orchestrator of launch readiness, ensuring alignment across Commercial, Medical Affairs, Market Access, Regulatory Affairs, Supply Chain, and other key functions. This leader will embed a culture of operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement—leveraging data-driven insights and market intelligence to optimize launch performance and patient impact in rare disease markets.

Key Responsibilities:

Launch Strategy & Execution

• Define and lead the North America Launch Excellence strategy, ensuring alignment with global and regional business objectives and market insights.
• Establish and evolve a repeatable launch framework that drives consistency, accountability, and excellence across all product launches.
• Oversee the end-to-end launch planning and execution process, setting clear milestones, timelines, and deliverables.
• Monitor progress, identify potential bottlenecks, and take proactive measures to ensure on-time completion of deliverables.
• Partner with global and regional leadership to ensure launch readiness governance, including stage gates, KPIs, and risk management processes.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• In partnership with an Asset Launch Lead, lead a high-performing, cross-functional launch team including representatives from Marketing, Sales, Medical Affairs, Market Access, Customer Experience, Insights and Operations, Supply Chain, and Regulatory Affairs.
• Serve as the executive-level integrator across functions, ensuring strategic alignment and timely decision-making.
• Facilitate executive steering committees and senior leadership updates, ensuring transparency and alignment on launch progress, risks, and mitigation plans.
• Drive operational discipline through integrated project plans, milestone tracking, and proactive issue resolution.

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Provide oversight on best-in-class project management methodologies and tools (e.g., Smartsheet, dashboards, AI-assisted project management software) to enhance visibility, accountability, and efficiency.
• Leverage market research insights, competitive intelligence, and analytics to inform launch strategies and identify market opportunities and risks.
• Identify and embed lessons learned from prior launches to continuously improve launch readiness and execution.
• Champion a culture of excellence, fostering collaboration, agility, and innovation across teams.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives, implementing project management best practices and tools to enhance team efficiency and launch processes.

Stakeholder Communication

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, providing data-driven insights, recommendations, and updates on launch performance.
• Ensure effective, accurate, and timely communication of project status, challenges, and achievements to all stakeholders, tailoring the message to the audience.
• Represent North America in global launch governance forums, ensuring regional needs and perspectives are integrated into global plans.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Advanced degree (MBA, PharmD, PhD, or MS) preferred.

Experience

• Minimum of 15+ years of progressive experience in pharmaceutical or biotechnology commercialization, program management, launch excellence, or management consulting
• Proven track record of leading multiple successful product launches, ideally in rare disease or specialty markets.
• At least 8+ years of experience leading complex, cross-functional project teams in a matrix environment.
• Background in management consulting strongly preferred
• Demonstrated experience building and leading cross-functional teams in a global or regional setting.
• Deep understanding of commercial readiness, market access, medical affairs, and regulatory launch processes.
• Experience establishing launch governance frameworks and performance metrics.
• Experience working with market research, competitive intelligence, and analytics data to support strategic decision-making.
• Familiarity with regulatory submissions (e.g., NDA, BLA, MAA) and interactions with regulatory agencies is a plus.

Skills

• Strategic thinker with strong operational execution capability. Consulting-level approach to problem-solving and process design.
• Exceptional leadership presence with the ability to influence, motivate, and lead teams without direct authority.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, capable of summarizing complex information clearly for diverse audiences.
• Proficiency in project management software (Smartsheet, Monday.com, or similar platforms) and MS Office Suite.
• Comfort with data analytics tools and dashboards (e.g., Tableau, Power BI) and ability to interpret insights from data to inform decision-making.
• Familiarity with AI-powered tools and platforms for market research, project management, and business intelligence (e.g., AI-assisted analytics, predictive forecasting tools, intelligent automation).
• Proficiency with CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce) is a plus.
• Enterprise mindset with the ability to connect strategy to execution and build scalable, repeatable processes
• Change management capability—able to drive organizational transformation, manage resistance, and build buy-in for new frameworks and processes.
• Passion for improving patient outcomes in rare diseases.
• Collaborative, decisive, and resilient leader who thrives in fast-paced, evolving environments.
• Commitment to operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Location: Close to Waltham, MA office

Additional Information

Compensation and Total Rewards at Sobi

At Sobi, we are dedicated to providing our employees with a comprehensive and industry-competitive total rewards package. Our compensation philosophy is designed to recognize and reward talent, ensuring that your contributions are valued and reflected in your overall rewards.

Your total compensation at Sobi goes beyond just your base salary and annual bonus. It also includes a robust suite of benefits, such as:

• A competitive 401(k) match to support your financial future.
• Tuition and wellness reimbursements to invest in your personal and professional growth.
• A comprehensive medical, dental, and vision package to prioritize your health and well-being.
• Additional recognition awards to celebrate your achievements.

The base salary range for this role is $215,000-$270,000. Each individual offer will be determined based on several factors, including your experience, qualifications, and location. Additionally, this role is eligible for both short-term and long-term bonuses, as outlined in the plan details.

All Sobi employees need to demonstrate behaviors in line with Sobi's core values: Care, Ambition, Urgency, Ownership and Partnership. Are you ready to be on the Sobi team? Come join a culture that empowers every person to be the person that makes a difference for rare disease.

Why Join Us?

We are a global company with over 1,900 employees in more than 30 countries and are committed to the societies where we operate. With a deeply skilled management team directing our day-to-day wins, and a Board with a stellar track record, we’re ready to take on the world’s diseases, ailments and adversity. Our people believe they have the power to make a positive impact in others’ lives because that’s exactly what we do here. If you’re seeking a career that taps into your talents in a way that makes the world a better, healthier place, we just may have a job for you.

We know our employees are our most valuable asset, and our culture conveys that. We offer a competitive benefits package, to support the health and happiness of our staff.

Sobi Culture

At Sobi, we refuse to accept the status quo. This is because we have witnessed first-hand the challenges facing those affected by rare diseases, and have used this knowledge to shape our business to find new ways of helping them.

As a specialized biopharmaceutical company, we are dedicated to rare diseases. And we see this focus as a strength. By effectively turning our research into ground-breaking treatments, we help make medicine more accessible and open up more possibilities for patients and more opportunities for those caring for them. This has been our approach since day one, but we know we can’t change the world of rare diseases on our own. Accomplishing this requires strong partnerships with patients, partners and stakeholders across the entire value chain. Together, we define how our business can create solutions that serve the needs of those affected by rare diseases while facilitating sustainable growth.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

Sobi is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions at Sobi are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veterans and/or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status or protected groups by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.

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