Country Manager, New Zealand

Job Description Summary

We have an exciting Country Manager role available to lead our New Zealand business and a high-performing country team.

Based in Auckland, where our New Zealand head office is located, this is a highly visible leadership role and a fantastic opportunity for someone looking to broaden their leadership experience in a new country, or for a leader who already brings strong experience and understanding of the New Zealand healthcare market.

Reporting to the Country President, Australia and New Zealand, the Country Manager will be the senior in-country commercial and enterprise leader, accountable for translating the ANZ strategy into focused local priorities and delivering sustainable business performance, patient impact and organisational health in New Zealand.

This role carries full accountability for the New Zealand business plan and P&L, while shaping the market environment, steering portfolio and launch execution, and representing Novartis with priority external stakeholders. Operating in a small-country model, the Country Manager will combine strategic leadership with hands-on execution, making clear trade-offs across a lean organisation and mobilising ANZ, regional and global capabilities where local scale is limited.

The role will also be a key member of the Australian Leadership Team, partnering closely across functions and geographies to ensure strong alignment, collaboration and execution.

Job Description

In this role, you will be responsible for:

• Owning the New Zealand country strategy and annual business plan, translating ANZ, regional and global direction into clear local priorities.
• Leading the overall performance of the New Zealand organisation, including sales, growth, market share, profitability, productivity and forecast accuracy.
• Managing the New Zealand P&L within approved budgets and governance.
• Acting as the senior Novartis leader in New Zealand, representing the whole enterprise across brand, portfolio, patient, people and reputation priorities.
• Building an agile operating rhythm for a lean organisation, leveraging ANZ, regional and global capabilities effectively.
• Shaping an integrated access and external engagement strategy grounded in the New Zealand healthcare system.
• Building trusted relationships with key external stakeholders, including government, funding, regulatory, clinical, customer and patient stakeholders.
• Partnering with Value & Access, Medical, Public Affairs and Communications to support timely and sustainable patient access.
• Leading country portfolio choices and ensuring high-quality launch readiness and execution for priority medicines.
• Coordinating cross-functional plans across Commercial, Medical, Value & Access, Regulatory, Supply and enabling functions.
• Leading, engaging and developing the New Zealand team, fostering trust, accountability, inclusion, curiosity and external focus.
• Building leadership and critical capability pipelines through succession planning, talent development and cross-ANZ mobility.

Ideal background

The ideal candidate will bring significant senior commercial leadership experience in pharmaceuticals, healthcare or life sciences, including accountability for business performance and cross-functional leadership.

New Zealand market experience, or demonstrated understanding of a comparable publicly funded and highly regulated healthcare market, is strongly preferred.

You will ideally have experience across:

• Country, business unit, franchise or broad commercial leadership
• P&L ownership and sustainable growth delivery
• Portfolio strategy, product launches and lifecycle management
• Market access, external affairs and senior stakeholder engagement
• Leading lean, cross-functional teams
• Governance, risk, compliance and organisational change

This is a unique opportunity to lead a country organisation, shape the future of our New Zealand business, and make a meaningful impact for patients while contributing to the broader ANZ leadership agenda.

If you are an ambitious, values-led leader who can inspire followership, lead with curiosity and courage, and deliver performance through people, we would love to hear from you.

Skills Desired

Asset Management, Asset Management, Business Development, Business Strategies, Commercial Excellence, Cross-Functional Leadership, Cross-Functional Work, Customer-Oriented, Digital Marketing, Healthcare Sector Understanding (Inactive), Influencing Skills, Inspirational Leadership, Joint Ventures, Key Account Management, Market Access, Marketing Strategies, Market Share, Market Trends, Medical Affairs, Negotiation, People Management, Priority Disease Areas Expertise (Inactive), Product Launches, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Profit and Loss (P&L) {+ 3 more}