Partner – Organisation and Leadership — Specialty-Medicines Portfolio

The mandate

An advisory partnership is creating a new Partner position to support pharmaceutical boards on organisation design and leadership effectiveness. Clients seek clarity on decision rights, cross-functional governance and leadership behaviours in complex scientific environments. The appointee will connect organisation choices to observable leadership practice in specialty medicines.

Approximately 650 employees and material partners form the relevant organisation, quality, scientific, data, people and implementation advisory perimeter. The Partner reports to the Global Managing Partner and regional partner council, owning client origination, engagement quality, economics, risk and talent. The hybrid Basel appointment is advisory and categorised as CONTRACTOR in the preserved metadata.

Organisation diagnosis will begin with decisions. Who can stop a study, reject a batch, extend an investigation, alter a filing or challenge a launch date? Teams will trace real cases, identify where authority and consequence diverge and distinguish formal governance from what leaders actually do under pressure.

Quality independence must be understood precisely. An organisation can integrate quality into business teams without subordinating authorised judgement. The Partner will help boards set direct access, escalation and objective structures that protect independence while making line leaders own the conditions that create deviations.

Leadership selection will test evidence behaviour. Candidates for remediation roles should demonstrate how they respond to incomplete data, adverse findings and competing milestones. Criteria must be fixed before incumbents are evaluated. Commercial or scientific reputation cannot compensate for concealment, intimidation or habitual deferral.

Decision rights will be tested through scenarios and live work. Responsibility matrices often fail when several functions hold vetoes or nobody owns the final decision. The Partner will facilitate contested product, trial and supply choices, document authority and ensure escalation time reflects potential patient or compliance consequence.

Culture work will focus on reinforced behaviour. Closure metrics, launch incentives, meeting routines and leader reactions can discourage escalation. The advisory team will identify these signals and recommend changes to objectives, information flow and consequence. Values workshops are useful only if the operating conditions also change.

Remediation organisations often accumulate temporary layers. Programme offices, consultants and approval committees can accelerate control initially but later obscure ownership. The Partner will design a dated handback to line functions, with capability and evidence gates. Removing temporary structure before leaders are ready is as dangerous as retaining it indefinitely.

Critical quality and scientific capability needs mapping. Expertise may sit in individuals whose formal roles appear ordinary. Organisation redesign will include authorisation, technical depth, succession and transfer. Span or layer benchmarks cannot determine whether a specialist is duplicative.

Workforce actions require lawful, humane implementation. New structures may change senior roles, locations and reporting. The Partner will integrate consultation, selection, retention and knowledge transfer into the operating sequence. Savings should be net of backfill and external support.

Board governance is part of the design. Committees need information that shows exposure, evidence and decision rather than volume of remediation activity. The Partner will clarify management and board roles, ensuring directors challenge without becoming programme operators.

Engagement independence matters because organisation work reveals succession judgements, conduct concerns and regulatory findings. Access will be restricted and conflicts assessed across clients, assets and individuals. The Partner must be willing to refuse a sponsor who wants advisory work to legitimise a predetermined removal.

The practice will measure outcomes after design. Escalation time, verified action, leadership decisions, critical-role coverage and programme handback provide stronger evidence than new charts. Client leaders should be able to operate without advisers. Emerging partners will share board and account ownership so the franchise does not depend on one individual.

What you will own

• Pharmaceutical organisation and leadership proposition.
• Decision-led diagnosis and organisation design.
• Quality independence and line accountability.
• Senior selection, leadership teams and consequence.
• Remediation handback and critical capability.
• Workforce implementation and board governance.
• Engagement risk, economics and outcome review.
• Client and partner succession.

The first 12 months

Within 45 days, review active client work, identify designs based mainly on hierarchy and create a decision-led remediation diagnostic. Take direct ownership of priority board opportunities.

By month six, lead two major organisation implementations through selection, scenario testing and line handback. Establish post-design outcome reviews and develop emerging account leaders.

At twelve months, deliver CHF 45 million of quality-reviewed revenue at target contribution, with at least eight clients showing faster escalation or verified line ownership. Ninety per cent of priority temporary roles should hand back on agreed evidence, while 75% of strategic accounts have two credible partner relationships and no material confidentiality breach.

What the council will examine

• Organisation choices derived from consequential decisions.
• Quality judgement protected from milestone pressure.
• Selection criteria preceding incumbent assessment.
• Temporary structures ending through capability evidence.
• Technical specialists retained by value, not hierarchy.
• Client leaders operating after adviser exit.

The person

You bring 22–28 years in organisation, leadership, pharmaceuticals, quality transformation or top-tier advisory. Your record includes quality remediation, executive selection and organisation implementation within a research-led life-sciences environment.

Candidates must show a design that changed leader behaviour in actual adverse decisions. Basel is the hybrid base, with extensive client presence and international travel. Board and regulator credibility will be examined through authorised references.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is CHF 340,000–470,000 plus annual incentive and long-term participation linked to client outcomes, quality revenue, organisation implementation, leadership and succession. This advisory appointment uses a hybrid Basel base and answers to the Global Managing Partner and regional partner council. The new role is being filled urgently.

Confidentiality

The partnership, clients, assets, leaders, quality findings, selections and methods remain confidential. Further information follows conflicts and signed confidentiality. Applicants must not contact pharmaceutical boards or advisers to infer the hiring organisation.