Regional Managing Director — Surgical-Systems Portfolio

The mandate

A surgical-systems group is expanding its United States product portfolio to include instrument modifications, software releases and product configurations. Each item has a reasonable sponsor, and their combined demand requires scaled regulatory, verification and clinical capacity. Commercial teams are building tender and account plans around the portfolio roadmap as the company prepares products for market.

The regional business is still substantial and profitable. The risk is not simply delayed revenue. Hospitals are planning training, capital budgets and procedure standardisation around dates that move; field teams create workarounds; and engineering receives urgent account requests outside the agreed sequence. A broad promise to “clear the backlog” will fail unless the region chooses which configurations and claims matter most and accepts the revenue and relationship consequences elsewhere.

The Regional Managing Director will own the United States P&L and the integrated response. The mandate spans portfolio priorities, hospital commitments, regulatory capacity, commercial forecasting, field and service readiness, customer communication and regional organisation. Regulatory, quality and medical functions retain independent authority. The MD ensures that the region stops selling dates it cannot support and that submission choices reflect patient, customer and economic value.

Approximately 1,300 employees and material partners fall within the wider regional perimeter. This urgent, unplanned appointment is on site in Minneapolis and reports to the group board and Group Chief Executive. It requires direct engagement with hospital executives, clinicians, regulators and internal product leaders.

Why this seat is open

The regional seat has been created after the Group Chief Executive temporarily assumed US arbitration across business units. Existing commercial and functional leaders remain in place, but no executive owns the region’s complete P&L and customer promise. The board decided not to wait for the backlog to resolve because the accountability gap is contributing to it.

What you will own

• Hold the United States P&L and an annual commercial and portfolio perimeter above USD 900 million across roughly 1,300 employees and partners.
• Rank submissions and connected verification, clinical and engineering work using patient need, hospital value, installed base, strategic fit, evidence, effort and economic consequence.
• Reset hospital and tender commitments to approved regulatory and supply scenarios, personally managing the most material changes in expectation.
• Align sales, training, service, inventory and launch readiness to configurations that can actually be cleared and supplied.
• Stop local workarounds or custom commitments that create unapproved product variants, unsupported claims or hidden lifecycle obligations.
• Create one regional forecast separating cleared products, probable timing ranges and unapproved upside, with accountable dependency owners.
• Reallocate commercial and technical resources when submissions are delayed, deprioritised or rejected rather than preserving plans through optimistic assumptions.
• Build a regional leadership model that integrates product, field, service and enabling functions while protecting control-function independence.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Reconcile the submission inventory, customer commitments and forecast. Establish ranking criteria with regulatory, medical, quality and product leaders and freeze new date promises outside the approved process. Meet priority hospitals where expectations require executive reset and identify revenue or service contingencies.
• Months 4–9: Secure board and functional agreement on the sequence, redirect capacity and withdraw or defer low-value items. Align tenders, training, inventory and field plans to the approved portfolio. Introduce regional forecast scenarios and decision rights and correct incentives that reward unapproved future configurations.
• Months 10–12: Demonstrate improved submission throughput for the chosen priorities, fewer customer date changes and reliable launches for cleared configurations. Deliver a three-year US portfolio and installed-base plan and establish successors across commercial, service and regional operations.

What the board will measure

• Submission and evidence capacity concentrated on approved regional priorities, with lower-value items formally deferred or withdrawn.
• Accuracy of hospital, tender and revenue commitments against regulatory and supply scenarios.
• Priority configurations launched with trained teams, service coverage, inventory and appropriate claims immediately following clearance.
• Reduction in unapproved customisation, off-roadmap promises and forecast dependence on uncertain regulatory timing.
• Customer retention and trust through changed commitments, including resolution of material account escalations.
• Regional P&L and leadership performance after realistic removal of delayed or deprioritised portfolio assumptions.

The person

You are a regional president, managing director, surgical business-unit leader or senior general manager with at least 28 years in medical devices. You have led a large US region through portfolio constraint, regulatory delay or product withdrawal. You have owned a P&L of at least USD 750 million and led at least 900 employees and partners.

You understand the relationship between submission scope, verification, evidence, claims and commercial use. You have made a portfolio choice that disappointed an important hospital or sales organisation and can show how you protected the relationship without misrepresenting timing or regulatory outcome.

Relevant backgrounds include surgical systems, interventional devices, imaging, implantables or other hospital technologies with complex configurations and training. A pure commercial leader must demonstrate regulator and portfolio governance; a functional leader must demonstrate full P&L and customer accountability.

This is an on-site Minneapolis appointment with extensive US travel. International candidates require current US device and hospital experience and credible relocation. The MD must be able to convert functional uncertainty into honest regional action without pressuring control functions for premature certainty.

Compensation and terms

The board anticipates a USD 500,000–750,000 base salary, annual incentive and long-term participation. Measures will balance regional P&L, submission prioritisation, forecast integrity, customer trust and compliant launch. This is a permanent newly created appointment. Relocation and verified forfeited awards may be considered.

Confidentiality

The company, submission inventory, products and hospital commitments are confidential. Names and detailed status will be released only after suitability and the required agreement are established. Candidates must not contact hospitals, regulators or competitors to infer the client.

Each response must contain no more than 49 words.