Associate Director – Commercial Procurement (Pharmaceuticals)

Location: Fully remote with travel to offices and supplier sites

A leading global pharmaceutical company is looking for an experienced Associate Director to lead strategic procurement across key commercial categories. This is a high-impact role focused on delivering value, driving supplier innovation, and supporting commercial functions across Europe and international markets.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute procurement strategies for areas such as global events, medical affairs, and sponsorships

• Collaborate with commercial, medical, and affiliate teams to align sourcing with business priorities

• Manage supplier relationships, lead negotiations, and drive continuous performance improvement

• Ensure compliance with industry regulations and internal standards while promoting operational excellence

What We’re Looking For:

• Strong background in strategic procurement within the pharmaceutical or life sciences sector

• Experience supporting European and international markets

• Excellent stakeholder management, negotiation, and communication skills

• Analytical mindset with fluency in financial modelling, Excel, and PowerPoint

• Bachelor’s degree in business, science, or related field

If you’re a commercially minded procurement leader ready to make an impact in a dynamic, global pharmaceutical environment, we’d love to hear from you.

The role will require travel to the Jazz offices, supplier sites and other meetings locations as necessary.

1. Category Management:

• Develop and implement category strategies for Commercial spend areas (e.g., Global Events & Production, US and International Medical Affairs, Sponsorships, Translation, and others as directed).

• Conduct market analysis to identify trends, risks, and opportunities within the Commercial procurement space.

• Drive cost optimization and supplier innovation while ensuring alignment with business objectives.

• Conduct competitive bidding events and single source negotiations as needed.

• Advance the Preferred Supplier Program by building a consolidated source of truth on contracts, pricing, etc. In addition to establishing a frequent communication channel and innovation forums.

• Actively track and report on savings as a result of Procurement’s engagement

2. Business Partner:

• Act as a trusted advisor and business partner to European and International commercial leaders, ensuring alignment of procurement strategies with organizational goals. Act as the main point of contact to international centralized departments and in-country Affiliates.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify sourcing needs and priorities.

• Influence and educate internal stakeholders on procurement policies, practices, and strategies to drive compliance and value creation.

• Work with Functions (Commercial, Quality, Legal, Finance and others) to ensure synergies are delivered and roadblocks mitigated

3. Supplier Management:

• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with key suppliers to ensure performance, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Lead contract negotiations and ensure favorable terms that mitigate risks and maximize value.

• Monitor supplier performance and drive resolution of disputes or performance issues.

• Developing a governance model, conduct vendor segmentation, gain buy-in from the business owners, develop a category-wide set of key performance indicators and implement the infrastructure to support ongoing efforts by leading Supplier Business Reviews.

4. Operational Excellence:

• Establish and maintain best practices in procurement processes, tools, and systems to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

• Ensure adherence to company policies, ethical standards, and regulatory compliance within all procurement activities.

• Provide regular reporting and insights to senior management on procurement performance, savings, and opportunities.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Extensive proven experience with progressive responsibility.

• Supporting Europe and International a plus

• Bachelor’s degree in business or science

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively, as required, in a fast-paced, matrixed, team environment consisting of internal and external team members

• A successful record in setting priorities; strong analytic, organization and critical thinking skills which support and enable sound decision making.

• Excellent verbal and written communication and skills including the ability to effectively tailor communication to varying levels within the organization

• Strong interpersonal and team building skills; ability to collaborate with a diverse team and influence/drive change across functional and international boundaries.

• Commercially astute, Strong planning and analytical skills, including financial modelling, Excel, and Excellent PowerPoint skills essential