Associate Director, Brand Capabilities

Associate Director, Brand Capabilities

Takeda Pharmaceutical

Cambridge, MA or Lexington, MA

A dynamic and visionary individual is sought to join our organization as a highly engaged member of the Brand Capabilities Team. Brand Capabilities is part of Commercial Learning & Development (CL&D) Team and is part Commercial Operations and Business Solutions (COBS) function within the U.S. Business Unit.

The Associate Director of Brand Capabilities will play a crucial role in driving and navigating brand excellence initiatives while fostering a culture of continuous improvement, adaptability, and growth. The ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with stakeholders at all levels, combined with strategic thinking and exceptional problem‑solving skills, and an enterprise mindset, will be paramount to success in this role. Strong collaboration and partnership will be required to inspire and influence brand teams.

As an Associate Director of Brand Capabilities, you will work closely with various levels of brand leadership from Sr. Product Managers through Franchise Heads, as well as partner closely with cross‑functional partners such as Analytics & Insights, Managed Markets, Patient & Market Access, Medical, etc. The mission of Brand Capabilities is to serve as a strategic partner and business enabler that leverages expertise to provide capabilities development and business solutions to deliver a competitive advantage and unlock the greatest potential of our brands in support of our patients.

This team plays an important role within the organization by partnering with brands and cross‑functional colleagues to identify, develop and measure foundational and innovative capabilities that drive commercial excellence. This is a unique opportunity for an experienced strategic marketer who has a passion for collaborating to drive better outcomes for patients.

• Partner and advise brand and launch teams and their cross‑functional partners on marketing capabilities such as Product Positioning, Insights Generation, Brand Planning, Customer Engagement and Measurement
• Identify capability and learning needs with brand partners
• Facilitate connections and sharing of best practices across the USBU
• Work directly with launch teams to develop the needed brand capabilities and business outputs for launch
• Parlay marketing subject matter expertise into the learning environment by identifying new learning modalities, creating curriculum and upskilling marketers
• Identify competency and capability development opportunities with brand team colleagues and partner on solutions
• Collaborate and support the ongoing development and execution of the brand capabilities roadmap
• Influence and foster change management elements through initiatives such as community of practice, communications, best practice sharing etc.
• Manage resource requirements, project plans and budget
• Measure results to assess impact and improve future initiatives
• Implement development plans and training to achieve business objectives

• Minimum BS/BA degree with MS/MBA preferred
• Minimum of 8 years of marketing & brand experience through a variety of marketing roles
• Ability to influence senior‑level management and key stakeholders
• Ability to set priorities, deliver on deadlines and develop workflow processes and tasks in an evolving, dynamic marketplace
• Strong analytical skills and budget management experience
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills necessary to lead through change and influence without authority
• Ability to demonstrate strategic and critical thinking, as well as problem‑solving skills
• Strong organizational, planning and project management skills – ability to set priorities, meet deadlines and develop workflow processes and tasks for multiple projects
• Track record of successful leadership, management, and development of small to medium, multi‑disciplinary dispersed teams. Strong judge of talent with the ability to make tough talent decisions

• Experience across stages of a brand’s life cycle (launch, growth and end of life cycle)
• Experience leading annual Brand Planning
• Minimum of 5…