National MSL Lead, Rare Diseases

The National Director, Rare Disease is a senior leadership position accountable for setting the US strategy, operational oversight, and performance management of the Rare Disease Field Medical Affairs (FMA) team. This role manages the unique challenge of strategically deploying a small MSL team across a disparate rare disease presence (including PKU and ALS), ensuring effective scientific exchange, supporting identification for evidence generation needs, and collaboration with patient advocacy and policy teams to ensure strategy reflects patient perspectives.

The Director is responsible for medical customer engagement, including the hiring, development, coaching, and strategic deployment of the Rare Disease MSLs (including the PKU and ALS MSLs). This position reports directly to the Rare Disease Medical Business Unit Lead.

• Oversee the recruitment, onboarding, training, and performance management processes, including development of performance metrics, for the Rare Disease FMA team, ensuring all personnel meet high professional and scientific standards
• Lead, mentor, coach, and support performance management of the national team of Rare Disease MSLs, fostering a culture of scientific excellence, accountability, and patient focus
• Manage the US FMA budget, resource allocation, and key operational metrics to optimize field effectiveness and efficiency
• Represent stakeholder needs, insights, and knowledge to other parts of Otsuka including senior leadership and other internal partners

• Develop and implement the overarching US FMA strategy and annual operating plan, focusing on strategically deploying MSLs to cover a disparate rare disease presence and small patient populations
• Direct the team's efforts to identify centers and/or patients suitable for evidence generation (e.g., registries), recognizing the significant recruitment challenges inherent in rare diseases
• Ensure MSLs effectively interact with multidisciplinary care teams of specialists (e.g., metabolic specialists for PKU, neuromuscular specialists for ALS) to foster comprehensive scientific exchange
• Lead the strategy for connecting with key external stakeholders, including patient advocacy groups at national and international congresses, ensuring coordinated scientific coverage and efficient resource use
• Maintain relationships with key opinion leaders, healthcare professionals, and key accounts to facilitate scientific exchange, and will act as the primary point of contact for these external stakeholders

• Maintain accountability for ensuring all field activities, scientific exchanges, and documentation adhere to relevant company SOPs, regulatory requirements, and industry guidelines
• Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and operational metrics for the national team, using data to drive continuous improvement in scientific and medical customer engagement, efficiency, and insight collection
• Oversee the consistent capture, aggregation, and synthesis of high-quality medical insights from the field to inform internal strategic decision-making within Medical Affairs and across the broader R&D organization
• Consider technology and AI to support workflow improvement

• Serve as the primary field medical affairs representative to the Rare Disease Medical Business Unit Lead and core cross-functional leadership team (e.g., Commercial, Market Access, etc.)
• Coordinate with the Clinical Development team to support site identification, feasibility assessments, and operational excellence for clinical trials within the Rare Disease space

• Ensure all activities adhere to applicable regulations, compliance, guidelines, and industry standards
• Stay abreast of relevant regulatory and legal developments, providing guidance and training to the team as needed
• Able to fulfill required internal company training requirements in a timely manner

• Advanced scientific or clinical degree is required (Pharm
  
  D, MD, PhD, or equivalent)
• Minimum of 10 years of field experience in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry
• Minimum of 3-5 years of direct people management experience leading a field-based MSL team (Regional or National responsibility required)
• Extensive experience in Rare Disease or a highly specialized therapeutic area with complex patient journeys and limited physician specialists
• Proven success in developing and executing national medical strategies, budget management, and clinical trial support

• Exceptional ability to lead, motivate, and manage a remote, high-performing scientific team
• Strong ability to lead, influence, and collaborate in a matrixed environment regardless of reporting structure and operating under ambiguity without a set playbook
• Superior strategic planning and organizational management skills, capable of translating broad strategy into…