Associate Director, Marketing Capability Delivery

Job Description Summary

#LI-Hybrid
Location: Mexico City, Insurgentes
Relocation Support: This role is based in Mexico City, Insurgentes. Novartis is unable to offer relocation support: please only apply if accessible.
Reimagining Medicine Starts With Our People

Looking for an opportunity to make an impact in a global organization? At Novartis, we are reimagining medicine, and our People & Organization team plays a key role in enabling that mission. As an Associate Director, Marketing Capability Delivery, you will play a critical role in driving operational excellence, Agile delivery, technology enablement, and business transformation initiatives across a complex, fast-paced, and highly collaborative environment.
In this role, you will lead a team responsible for delivering cross-functional Marketing Operations programs and transformation initiatives, ensuring effective planning, execution, governance, and adoption of new capabilities and ways of working. You will partner closely with senior stakeholders across Marketing, Technology, Finance, Procurement, and Risk Management to drive alignment, manage priorities, and deliver measurable business outcomes.
This is an exciting opportunity to shape a newly created team in Mexico supporting US Marketing Operations while driving meaningful change at scale.

 

Job Description

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Program & Portfolio Delivery

• Lead the planning, execution, monitoring, and continuous optimization of a portfolio of strategic Marketing Operations initiatives.
• Ensure successful delivery of projects related to process redesign, organizational transformation, operational excellence, governance, and technology-enabled capabilities.
• Drive transparency across initiatives through effective portfolio management, reporting, and governance practices.

Agile Delivery Excellence

• Establish and scale Agile, hybrid, and traditional project management methodologies across programs and teams.
• Lead prioritization, dependency management, risk mitigation, and roadmap planning activities to improve delivery predictability and business value.
• Facilitate portfolio-level Agile ceremonies, including Scrum of Scrums and cross-functional planning sessions.

People Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of manager-level professionals responsible for program and project delivery.
• Build a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Develop future leadership capabilities through mentoring, coaching, and talent development initiatives.

Stakeholder Engagement & Influence

• Serve as a trusted partner and advisor to senior leaders across Marketing Operations and key business functions.
• Build alignment around priorities, strategic decisions, and transformation objectives.
• Influence stakeholders at all levels while proactively managing expectations, risks, and dependencies.

Business Transformation & Change Management

• Drive organizational readiness and adoption of new capabilities, technologies, processes, and ways of working.
• Partner with business and technical teams to develop communication, training, and change management strategies.
• Support large-scale transformation programs while ensuring seamless implementation and sustainable adoption.

Governance, Analytics & Decision Support

• Establish governance frameworks and reporting mechanisms that provide visibility into portfolio performance, risks, milestones, resources, and value realization.
• Leverage data and business insights to support strategic decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Translate complex information into compelling executive presentations, recommendations, and business cases.

Essential Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in Marketing Operations, business transformation, operational excellence, consulting, program management, or related functions.
• Required experience within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, life sciences, or healthcare industry.
• 3+ years of people leadership experience, including management of manager-level professionals.
• Proven track record leading large-scale, cross-functional transformation initiatives with multiple workstreams.
• Experience managing complex portfolios within global matrix organizations.
• Demonstrated success influencing senior leaders and driving organizational change.
• Experience working within Agile environments and leading cross-functional delivery teams.
• Agile certification such as: Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), SAFe Agilist, PMI-ACP or equivalent Agile certification.
• Advanced expertise in Jira and Agile delivery tools.
• Strong knowledge of portfolio governance, risk management, dependency management, and Agile delivery practices.
• Strategic Portfolio Leadership
• Agile Program & Delivery Management
• Organizational Change Management
• Stakeholder Management & Influencing Skills
• Executive Communication & Storytelling
• Business Analysis & Data-Driven Decision Making
• Governance, Risk & Dependency Management
• Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence
• Fluent English (written and verbal)

• Desirable Requirements:
• Master's degree, MBA, or other advanced degree.
• PMP Certification
• Prosci Change Management Certification
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt
• Advanced SAFe Certifications
• Experience supporting US-based Marketing organizations.
• Experience leading Marketing Operations transformation initiatives.
• Background in operational excellence, process optimization, or management consulting.
• Experience implementing enterprise Agile operating models and scalable ways of working.
• Experience facilitating executive workshops and strategic planning sessions.
• Knowledge of technology-enabled transformation and organizational capability development.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
Novartis is committed to building an outstanding, inclusive work environment and diverse teams representative of the patients and communities we serve.

Accessibility and accommodation

Novartis is committed to work with and provide reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the recruitment process, or in order to perform the essential functions of a position, please send an e-mail to tas.mexico@novartis.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. Please include the job requisition number in your message.

Novartis tiene el compromiso de trabajar y proporcionar adaptaciones razonables para personas con discapacidad. Si, debido a una condición médica o discapacidad, necesita una adaptación razonable para cualquier parte del proceso de contratación, o para desempeñar las funciones esenciales de un puesto, envíe un correo electrónico a tas.mexico@novartis.com y permítanos conocer la naturaleza de su solicitud y su información de contacto. Incluya el número de posición en su mensaje.

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  

 Benefits and Rewards: Read our handbook to learn about all the ways we’ll help you thrive personally and professionally: https://www.novartis.com/careers/benefits-rewards   

 

Skills Desired

Cross-Functional Collaboration, Customer Engagement, Customer Insights, Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, Market Research, Media Campaigns, Product Marketing, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Management, Team Leadership, Waterfall Model