Summary

The Renal MSL Lead provides strategic, scientific and people leadership to the Renal Medical Science Liaison team in China, ensuring high-quality, compliant and evidence-based scientific engagement with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and Medical Experts (MEs).

The role translates the China Renal Medical Strategy into impactful field medical execution, builds a high-performing and insight-driven MSL team, and strengthens Novartis' scientific leadership and external partnerships in renal diseases.

The MSL Lead will play a critical role in enabling the evolving Renal portfolio, supporting evidence-based clinical decision-making and facilitating the translation of emerging science and evolving treatment paradigms into clinical practice.

About the Role

Major Accountabilities

1. Field Medical Strategy & Execution

• Translate the China Renal Medical Strategy into a clear and actionable field medical strategy and execution plan.
• Lead prioritization of Medical Experts, institutions, scientific topics and engagement objectives based on medical strategy and unmet needs.
• Ensure high-quality execution of MSL activities with clear scientific objectives, appropriate stakeholder segmentation and measurable medical impact.
• Continuously optimize field medical deployment based on evolving disease landscapes, new evidence, external insights and portfolio priorities.
• Partner closely with the Renal Medical team to ensure field execution remains aligned with the overall Medical strategy.

2. Scientific Leadership

• Maintain deep and up-to-date knowledge of renal diseases, with particular focus on glomerular diseases and IgA nephropathy, as well as relevant emerging science and treatment paradigms.
• Provide scientific leadership and coaching to ensure MSLs can conduct credible, peer-to-peer scientific exchange with leading nephrologists and other relevant stakeholders.
• Drive consistent understanding and communication of scientific narratives across the MSL team.
• Support MSL readiness for major data readouts, congresses, guideline updates, launches and other key medical milestones.
• Enable MSLs to translate complex scientific evidence into clinically meaningful scientific dialogue.

3. Medical Expert Engagement & Scientific Partnership

• Build and continuously strengthen trusted scientific partnerships with national and regional Medical Experts and key academic institutions.
• Ensure MSL engagement is based on clearly defined scientific objectives and relevant unmet medical/scientific needs.
• Enable high-quality scientific exchange around disease understanding, evolving evidence, clinical practice and treatment paradigms.
• Support appropriate scientific collaboration with professional societies, academic institutions and investigator networks in partnership with the broader Medical team.
• Strengthen scientific engagement with key renal centers and support expansion into priority institutions and geographies according to Medical strategy.

4. Insight Generation & Translation

• Build a strong, systematic and actionable medical insight generation capability across the MSL team.
• Coach MSLs to move beyond information collection toward identification of meaningful scientific and clinical insights.
• Synthesize field insights across regions to identify emerging unmet needs, evidence gaps, barriers to clinical practice and opportunities for Medical action.
• Partner with the Medical team to translate actionable insights into adjustments in medical strategy, evidence generation, scientific communication and educational initiatives.
• Establish effective feedback loops so that field-generated insights inform strategy and subsequent actions are communicated back to the field.

5. People Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach and develop a high-performing Renal MSL team with strong scientific credibility, strategic thinking and execution excellence.
• Set clear expectations, objectives and development priorities for individual MSLs and the overall team.
• Conduct ongoing coaching and field accompaniment to strengthen scientific engagement, insight generation and strategic account planning capabilities.
• Identify talent and create meaningful development opportunities, supporting career progression within Field Medical and broader Medical functions.
• Build a collaborative, inclusive and accountable team culture.
• Lead onboarding and capability development for new MSLs as the team and portfolio evolve.

6. Evidence Generation & Medical Education

• Identify evidence gaps and research opportunities through systematic field insights and external scientific engagement.
• Support local evidence-generation initiatives by connecting relevant investigators, scientific questions and unmet evidence needs with the Medical team.
• Facilitate high-quality scientific exchange around emerging local and global evidence.
• Contribute to medical education initiatives that address meaningful scientific and clinical practice gaps.
• Support guideline/consensus implementation and other evidence-to-practice initiatives where aligned with Medical strategy.

7. Cross-functional Medical Leadership

• Serve as a key Field Medical partner within the Renal Medical team.
• Bring external scientific perspectives and field insights into internal strategic discussions and decision-making.
• Maintain appropriate Medical independence and ensure scientific integrity in all cross-functional interactions.
• Contribute to launch readiness, access-related scientific needs and lifecycle medical strategy from a Field Medical perspective.

8. Governance & Compliance

• Ensure all MSL activities and scientific engagements are conducted in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, industry codes and Novartis policies.
• Ensure high standards of scientific accuracy, documentation and operational excellence across the team.
• Foster a culture in which scientific integrity and patient benefit guide decision-making.

Education

• Advanced degree in medicine, pharmacy, life sciences or another relevant scientific discipline.
• MD, PharmD or PhD preferred.

Experience

• Strong experience in Medical Affairs and/or Field Medical roles within the pharmaceutical industry.
• Demonstrated experience in scientific engagement with senior Medical Experts and academic stakeholders.
• Previous people leadership, team leadership or significant coaching experience strongly preferred.
• Experience in nephrology, immunology, or CRM related areas preferred.
• Experience supporting launches, evidence generation and/or major Medical transformation initiatives would be an advantage.

Key Competencies

• Scientific & Clinical Acumen
  Ability to understand and communicate complex renal science and clinical evidence.
• Strategic Thinking
  Ability to connect Medical strategy with field priorities and make thoughtful resource prioritization decisions.
• People Leadership
  Ability to coach, develop and inspire a geographically distributed Field Medical team.

• External Stakeholder Leadership
  Ability to build credible peer-level scientific relationships with senior Medical Experts.
• Insight Excellence
  Ability to distinguish observations from true insights and translate insights into strategic Medical action.
• Execution Excellence
  Ability to convert strategy into prioritized, high-quality field execution.
• Collaboration & Influence
  Ability to influence across Medical and cross-functional teams without compromising scientific independence.
• Learning Agility & Change Leadership
  Ability to lead the team through rapidly evolving scientific evidence, new launches and changing clinical practice.

Why Novartis: Helping people with disease and their families takes more than innovative science. It takes a community of smart, passionate people like you. Collaborating, supporting and inspiring each other. Combining to achieve breakthroughs that change patients' lives. Ready to create a brighter future together? https://www.novartis.com/about/strategy/people-and-culture

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