ROLE SUMMARY
The Category Lead, Primary Care and Specialty Care – Middle East is a strategic member of the Middle East Leadership Team, accountable for the end-to-end strategy, performance and long-term value of the Primary Care and Specialty Care portfolio across the cluster.
The role translates enterprise and regional priorities into differentiated portfolio, launch and market strategies that balance near-term performance with sustainable growth and patient impact. It leads a broad portfolio of inline brands, Growth Knots and future launches, combining the scale and reach of Primary Care with the specialized customer, access and patient-journey requirements of Specialty Care.
The role sets clear priorities across brands, markets, customer segments and investments; aligns marketing and customer-facing execution; and ensures disciplined resource allocation and performance management. Working across Commercial, Medical, Access & Value, Regulatory, Policy & Public Affairs, Supply, Finance, Legal and Compliance—as well as regional and global teams—the role creates the conditions for launch excellence, expanded patient access and sustainable portfolio growth.
The Category Lead also builds a high-performing marketing organization, strengthens commercial and customer-engagement capabilities, and supports the evolution of integrated, data-driven go-to-market models across diverse Middle East healthcare systems.
CORE ACCOUNTABILITIES
1. CATEGORY STRATEGY & PORTFOLIO LEADERSHIP
- Own and translate the Middle East Primary Care and Specialty Care category strategy into clear portfolio, brand, market and customer priorities aligned with the cluster operating plan and growth agenda.
- Lead end-to-end portfolio planning across established brands, Growth Knots, new indications and future launches, balancing near-term delivery with long-term category value.
- Set differentiated strategies for Primary Care and Specialty Care assets, reflecting market maturity, customer needs, care settings, access conditions and competitive dynamics.
- Establish category governance, operating rhythms and performance reviews that connect regional strategy with market execution.
- Ensure customer, patient, competitor and healthcare-system insights inform portfolio choices and investment decisions.
2. BUSINESS & P&L LEADERSHIP
- Own category business performance and provide clear direction on revenue, market share, investment, profitability and resource-deployment priorities.
- Lead the annual operating plan and long-range planning for the portfolio, ensuring robust assumptions, scenarios, risks and growth choices.
- Prioritize advertising and promotion and commercial investments across brands, launches and markets, reallocating resources toward the highest-impact opportunities.
- Monitor performance and intervene early where demand, launch, access, supply or execution risks threaten category objectives.
- Promote disciplined forecasting, performance management and data-driven decision-making across the category.
3. PRIMARY CARE & SPECIALTY CARE GROWTH
- Develop differentiated growth strategies that reflect the high-scale, broad-reach requirements of Primary Care and the specialized pathways of Specialty Care.
- Strengthen lifecycle management for established brands through customer segmentation, channel optimization, evidence-based engagement and focused resource allocation.
- Identify and sponsor opportunities to expand diagnosis, treatment, access and appropriate use across priority patient populations.
- Adapt category strategies to different market archetypes, customer segments, channels and stages of the product lifecycle.
- Ensure commercial plans deliver sustainable growth while supporting meaningful patient and healthcare-system impact.
4. NEW LAUNCHES & PIPELINE READINESS
- Lead integrated launch strategy and readiness for new products, indications and presentations across Middle East markets.
- Define launch ambition, sequencing, market archetypes, customer strategy, investment requirements and critical success factors.
- Build cross-functional launch plans spanning Regulatory, Medical, Access & Value, Policy & Public Affairs, Supply, Marketing, Sales and customer engagement.
- Track launch readiness and post-launch performance through clear milestones and governance.
- Accelerate decisions and remove barriers that may affect approval, access, supply, customer readiness or commercial execution.
5. GO-TO-MARKET & CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
- Partner closely with the Sales organization to advance modern, integrated and data-driven customer engagement models across marketing and customer-facing teams.
- In collaboration with the Sales organization, ensure customer strategies reflect distinct Primary Care and Specialty Care journeys, care settings, stakeholder needs and channel preferences.
- Strengthen coordination across marketing, sales, account management and other customer-facing teams to improve execution quality and customer experience.
- Sponsor priority relationships with healthcare leaders, institutions, professional organizations and other relevant stakeholders within approved responsibilities.
- Ensure marketing activities, claims, content and customer engagement meet Pfizer standards for quality, compliance and scientific integrity.
6. MARKET SHAPING & PATIENT ACCESS
- Partner with Access & Value, Medical, Policy & Public Affairs and other functions to address pricing, reimbursement, patient-journey and healthcare-system barriers.
- Embed access assumptions, payer insights and market-shaping priorities into portfolio, launch and operating plans.
- Sponsor priority initiatives that enable timely and sustainable patient access within approved responsibilities.
- Anticipate policy, funding and healthcare-system changes, translating them into portfolio risks and opportunities.
- Support integrated evidence, value and stakeholder strategies that strengthen access and portfolio performance.
7. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL & MARKET LEADERSHIP
- Partner with market, commercial and sales leaders to translate category strategy into executable local plans, with clear ownership and performance expectations.
- Work with Medical to align evidence generation, scientific engagement and education priorities with portfolio and launch needs.
- Collaborate with Access & Value and Policy & Public Affairs to strengthen access pathways, value communication and the enabling environment for patient access.
- Align with Regulatory and Supply to anticipate approvals, demand, allocation and continuity risks, protecting launch and inline portfolio performance.
- Clarify cross-functional accountabilities, remove execution barriers and ensure aligned, patient-centred delivery across functions and markets.
8. ORGANIZATION & PEOPLE LEADERSHIP
- Build a high-performing, inclusive Primary Care and Specialty Care organization with strong capabilities in portfolio strategy, launch excellence, customer insight and matrix leadership.
- Develop talent through meaningful experiences, coaching, feedback, succession planning and exposure to enterprise priorities.
- Create clarity, accountability and collaboration across marketing, customer-facing teams, markets and functions.
- Build leadership depth and strengthen the pipeline of future commercial and category leaders.
- Promote a culture of courage, excellence, equity and joy, with strong standards of ethics, compliance and responsible business leadership.
DECISION RIGHTS
- Set the strategic direction and portfolio priorities for the Middle East Primary Care and Specialty Care category within approved enterprise and cluster governance.
- Recommend category operating-plan assumptions and determine the allocation of approved marketing resources across brands, launches and markets.
- Approve category brand plans, launch strategies, launch-readiness governance and success measures.
- Prioritize lifecycle, customer-engagement, patient-access and market-shaping opportunities for senior sponsorship and cross-functional investment.
- Hold the category organization and cross-functional teams accountable for execution quality, compliance, performance and patient-centred delivery.
- Escalate material portfolio, launch, access, supply and investment decisions through the appropriate governance forums.
CAPABILITIES & QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Medicine, Business or a related field; an advanced degree such as an MBA or MSc is preferred.
- At least 10 years of pharmaceutical or healthcare experience, including significant commercial leadership experience.
- Demonstrated people leadership experience with direct accountability for talent development and team performance.
- Proven success leading complex portfolios, new launches and cross-functional business priorities across multiple markets.
- Experience across Primary Care, Specialty Care or diversified pharmaceutical portfolios.
- Strong understanding of customer, patient, market, access and healthcare-system dynamics across Middle East markets.
- Demonstrated business and financial acumen, including operating planning, investment prioritization, forecasting and performance management.
- Strong marketing leadership, customer-insight orientation and experience building differentiated omnichannel strategies.
- Proven ability to manage mature brands and launches across different lifecycle stages and customer channels.
- Enterprise mindset and ability to influence senior leaders and external stakeholders in a complex matrix.
- Excellent analytical, communication, negotiation and executive presentation skills.
- Fluent English is required; Arabic language capability is an advantage.
- High standards of ethics, compliance, governance and responsible stakeholder engagement.
CRITICAL LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS
Enterprise Leadership
Connects portfolio, market, customer and enterprise priorities to create sustainable value for the Middle East Cluster.
Growth & Innovation
Turns launches, lifecycle opportunities and go-to-market evolution into focused growth platforms with measurable outcomes.
Strategic Judgment
Balances patient impact, market opportunity, investment, access, supply, risk and business value across diverse markets.
Talent Builder
Builds strong marketers and matrix leaders, creating clarity, accountability, inclusion and collaboration.
KEY ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS
- ME Cluster Lead and Middle East Leadership Team.
- Market, sales and commercial leaders across Middle East markets.
- Regional and global Category and Commercial teams.
- Medical, Access & Value, Regulatory, Policy & Public Affairs, Supply, Finance, Legal, Compliance and People Experience.
- Commercial Excellence, Data and Analytics, and relevant digital and customer-engagement teams.
- External customers, healthcare leaders, institutions, payers, policy stakeholders and strategic partners, within approved engagement responsibilities.
SUPERVISION & OPERATING MODEL
Direct reports: Middle East Primary Care and Specialty Care marketing organization, with accountability for portfolio and brand strategy, launch leadership and market execution.
Relevant customer-facing and field leadership teams may operate through direct, indirect or matrix reporting arrangements.
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with travel across Middle East markets as business needs require.
Pfizer Gulf is an equal-opportunity employer, and we are proud of our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive candidate pool to support and empower our workforce.
We strive to ensure that our people are heard, seen and cared for by creating an environment that fosters inclusion and inspires colleagues to speak up to promote an engaging and inclusive culture where they can thrive.
Our diverse workforce represents the patients we serve and the communities in which we operate.
We look forward to reviewing your application and thank you for your interest.
To learn more about acceptable and prohibited uses of AI during the recruitment process, please review our candidate AI-use guidelines available on Pfizer Careers.
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