Operational Controls Manager

Job Description Summary

As the Manager, Operational Controls, you will lead a team of Operational Controls Analysts responsible for the day-to-day execution, quality, and consistency of operational control monitoring across Novartis Patient Support programs. You will execute approved monitoring strategy and control frameworks into reliable, scalable execution, while supporting analyst capability and ensuring monitoring outputs are accurate, consistent, and escalated through established governance pathways.
This role executes monitoring activities and the delivery/escalation of control insights. It does not own corrective action remediation, agent coaching, or end-to-end process redesign; those activities are managed through defined partner teams and governance.

 

Job Description

Novartis is a global company that combines medical science and digital technology to provide life-changing medicines to millions of people. We offer numerous opportunities for growth and development, including global and local cross-functional careers and a wide range of learning programs. Our strong pipeline of medicines ensures continued business growth and enables us to bring innovative treatments to patients quickly.

Novartis Patient Support (NPS) plays a crucial role in helping eligible patients access and continue their prescribed medications. We work directly with patients, caregivers, and prescribing customers to pro-vide education and support on access, affordability, acquisition, and adherence programs. Our team has supported millions of patients in the US, assisting over 500,000 patients annually.

The Novartis Patient Support Center (PSC) is the central operational function within our organization. We handle all patient, caregiver, and customer transactions related to supporting patient access, including intake, case management, benefits verification, prior authorization and appeals support, specialty pharmacy triage, and adherence support. We are committed to delivering exceptional customer service, which is measured through service level agreements (SLAs), key performance indicators (KPIs), and net promoter scores.

Across every interaction, the PSC team strives to be known for five attributes: Curiosity, Resilience, Entrepreneurial thinking, Trustworthiness, and Empathy.

Key Responsibilities:

•Manages day-to-day execution of operational control monitoring across assigned teams and programs; ensuring day-to-day operational targets are met for the Operational Controls Analysts. GJFA Global Benchmark

• Ensure monitoring adheres to approved frameworks, scoring logic, and definitions and

standard work, and calibration routines to maintain consistency.

• Apply control definitions consistently while accounting for program context without drifting from

standards.

• Manage monitoring volume, cadence, and depth based on operational risk, channel, and lifecycle

stage; adjust staffing and focus during hypercare/launch periods.

• Directly manage and develop Operational Controls Analysts through clear expectations,

prioritization, performance standards, onboarding, and ongoing skill development.

• Coach analysts on monitoring accuracy, judgment, and consistency.

• Support team resilience through intentional cross-training across programs and monitoring

functions, monitoring responsibilities while protecting required specialization.

• Enforce clear boundaries between monitoring, remediation, coaching, and training; prevent scope

creep and reinforce documented decision rights and escalation paths.

• Conduct first-level quality checks before submitting for escalation review.

• Prepare and submit escalation inputs for governance forums and to partner teams (e.g., Program

Management/Supervisors, Central Operations, Programs & Systems Training) for action and

resolution.

• Partner with the Associate Director to ensure monitoring readiness for new programs, channels,

and operational changes (including hypercare planning and execution).

• All activities and responsibilities performed in alignment and direction from Associate Director.

This role is responsible for identifying and reporting adverse events via the established Novartis systems as per applicable processes.

• Monitoring teams deliver consistent, high-quality control insights with strong inter-rater reliability

• Monitoring outputs are timely, accurate, and clearly tied to defined control objectives and

evidence

• Escalations are clear, actionable, and routed through the correct governance pathways

• Analysts understand and respect scope boundaries (monitoring vs. remediation/coaching)

• Cross-training improves coverage and resilience without reducing quality

Essential Requirements:

• Education: Bachelor’s Degree required. MBA or other graduate degree a plus

Required Experience:

• 3+ years of experience leading operational, quality, audit, or monitoring teams in a complex

environment

• Patient services or similar (including specialty pharmacy distribution & capabilities, patient care

coordination, operational workflows, and managed care knowledge)

• Demonstrated people leadership, coaching, and performance management capability

• Experience operating within regulated and/or risk-based frameworks, with strong attention to

control definitions and evidence

• Strong judgment, analytical thinking, and ability to communicate clear, actionable insights to

stakeholders

• Ability to enforce scope, standard work, and governance discipline in ambiguous settings

• Highly proficient in MS Office tools, quality monitoring and contact center results analysis,

reporting.

• Experience working with systems such as Salesforce, Verint, Genesys, Five9 and other quality

monitoring systems; AI solution experience a plus.

•Demonstrated use of critical thinking skills, leveraging technology and data to perform call quality monitoring efficiently, effectively meeting KPIs as defined

•Bilingual Spanish and English. Highly proficient with reading, writing and spoken Spanish and English language skills.

Desirable Requirements:

•Experience supporting omni-channel or technology-enabled operations (e.g., phone, email, chat)

•Experience supporting launch/hypercare periods, including rapid risk sensing and prioritization

•Healthcare, life sciences, or similarly regulated industry experience

•Experience building calibration routines, QA playbooks, or monitoring standard work

•Six Sigma certification

 

Skills Desired

Analytical Thinking, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Finance, Health Economics, Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Key Account Management, Market Access, Process Management, Product Positioning, Public Affairs, Real World Evidence (RWE), Value Propositions, Waterfall Model