Senior Director, National Medical Lead, Rare Disease

The Senior Director, Medical Lead, Rare Disease is a senior leadership position accountable for providing strategic leadership and oversight of the Rare Disease Field Medical Affairs (FMA) team that will provide clinical, scientific and other related information related to disease states and the appropriate utilization of FDA approved and pipeline Rare Disease assets. This role manages the unique challenge of strategically deploying a small MSL team across a disparate rare disease presence (including PKU and ALS), ensuring effective scientific exchange, supporting identification for evidence generation needs, and collaboration with patient advocacy and policy teams to ensure strategy reflects patient perspectives. The Senior Director is responsible for medical customer engagement, including the hiring, development, coaching, and strategic deployment of the Rare Disease MSLs (including the PKU and ALS MSLs). This position reports directly to the Rare Disease Medical Business Unit Lead. 

Job Description 

Key Responsibilities: 

Leadership and People Management 

• Oversee the recruitment, on-boarding, training, and performance management processes, including development of performance metrics, for the Rare Disease FMA team, ensuring all personnel meet high professional and scientific standards 

• Lead, mentor, coach, and support performance management of the national team of Rare Disease MSLs, fostering a culture of scientific excellence, accountability, and patient focus 

• Manage the US FMA budget, resource allocation, and key operational metrics to optimize field effectiveness and efficiency 

• Represent stakeholder needs, insights, and knowledge to other parts of Otsuka including senior leadership and other internal partners 
• Significantly contributes to and provides insights into the MSL Rare Disease workforce planning including short and long term sizing and resourcing plans

Strategic Deployment and Stakeholder Engagement 

• Develop and implement the overarching US FMA strategy and annual operating plan, focusing on strategically deploying MSLs to cover a disparate rare disease presence and small patient populations (MSL team to grow over time)

• Lead the team's efforts to identify centers and/or patients suitable for evidence generation (e.g., registries), recognizing the significant recruitment challenges inherent in rare diseases 

• Ensure MSLs effectively interact with multidisciplinary care teams of specialists (e.g., metabolic specialists for PKU, neuromuscular specialists for ALS) to foster comprehensive scientific exchange 

• Lead the strategy for connecting with key external stakeholders, including patient advocacy groups at national and international congresses, ensuring coordinated scientific coverage and efficient resource use 

• Cultivate and maintain relationships with key opinion leaders, healthcare professionals, and key accounts to facilitate scientific exchange, and will act as the primary point of contact for these external stakeholders.  

Operational Excellence 

• Drive accountability for ensuring all field activities, scientific exchanges, and documentation adhere to relevant company SOPs, regulatory requirements, and industry guidelines 

• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and operational metrics for the national team, using data to drive continuous improvement in scientific and medical customer engagement, efficiency, and insight collection 

• Oversee the consistent capture, aggregation, and synthesis of high-quality medical insights from the field to inform internal strategic decision-making within Medical Affairs and across the broader R&D organization  

• Consider technology and AI to support workflow improvement 

Cross-functional Integration 

• Serve as the primary field medical affairs representative to the Rare Disease Medical Business Unit Lead and core cross-functional leadership team (e.g., Commercial, Market Access, etc.) 

• Directly partner with the Clinical Development team to support site identification, feasibility assessments, and operational excellence for clinical trials within the Rare Disease space 
   

Compliance and Training 

• Drive a culture of compliance, ensuring all activities adhere to applicable regulations, compliance, guidelines, and industry standards.  

• Stay abreast o