Head, US Commercial Patient Advocacy & Ecosystem Strategy

Role Summary

Head, US Commercial Patient Advocacy & Ecosystem Strategy (PAES) will report to the Vice President, US Government Affairs and Public Policy & Advocacy (GAPPA). This role leads targeted engagement with patient groups in priority disease areas and drives advocacy for system-level changes to shape the US policy and access environment related to GSK’s product portfolio. The Head manages a team responsible for external advocacy and health-system initiatives, external funding strategies, and partners across a highly matrixed organization. Location: Washington, DC.

Responsibilities

• Implement the vision of the team to establish GSK leadership in both disease advocacy/awareness and proactively shaping the broader environment
• Lead prioritized external stakeholder engagements in priority disease and issue areas
• Ensure advocacy partnerships improve the care experience for patients by addressing barriers to care, closing treatment gaps, and measurably improving the understanding, prevention, and treatment of disease
• Gain key patient and health system insights (access policy, care delivery, reimbursement, technology, innovation) from external collaboration; embed and represent key findings into GSK strategies through appropriate internal teams (IBCT, Market Access, SITO, Digital & Tech)
• Integrate US health system trends in diagnosis, treatment, and delivery to proactively drive specific ecosystem strategies at the local and national levels
• Initiate the “pull through” from advocacy engagements to orchestrate multistakeholder health system initiatives, in collaboration with internal and external partners, to lead advocacy, policy, and ecosystem priorities
• Serve as a strong, forward-looking thought partner for USC leadership with the ambition to get ahead of US health system transformation
• Acts as a strong financial steward of GSK and is responsible for managing a significant project and external giving budget
• Serves as the single point of accountability for governance, controls, oversight, reporting, and risk management of advocacy activities; ensuring funding areas of interest are aligned cross-functionally and used to guide funding decisions; establishing process and risk management/controls for direct contracting with US patients
• Ensure that the team serves as an independent, enterprise-oriented, product-agnostic strategic function

Qualifications

• Required: Bachelor’s degree - BA/BS in public policy, public health, health administration, business, communications, political science, or related field.
• Required: At least 8 years in pharma / biotech industry or healthcare consulting
• Required: Deep experience in working with external organizations (PAGs, think tanks, etc.) to drive clear health advocacy strategies
• Required: Proven knowledge of US health system design, payment models, delivery transformation (value‑based care, ACOs, integrated delivery systems, AI), and health policy trends
• Required: At least 5 years leading matrix teams
• Required: At least 3 years managing people
• Preferred: A minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in government/public affairs, external affairs, nonprofit/NGO engagement, health systems strategy, or related functions — including a minimum of 5 years in people management and leading cross‑functional teams.
• Preferred: A demonstrated track record building and managing strategic partnerships with patient advocacy groups, professional societies, health organizations, foundations, and/or government stakeholders.
• Preferred: Proven experience designing and implementing multi‑stakeholder external engagement strategies that align to commercial, medical, access, policy, and health system transformation objectives.
• Preferred: Experience managing meaningful program budgets and external giving/funding allocations (experience with budgets in the low‑ to mid‑millions; comfort overseeing :$10–20M).
• Preferred: Experience working closely with legal/compliance, medical affairs, market access, finance, commercial teams, and global stakeholders to operationalize external engagement.
• Preferred: Working familiarity with pharmaceutical industry compliance and legal constraints for external engagement, grants, and donations (e.g., US Sunshine/OPD, PhRMA Code implications).
• Preferred: Experience using patient insights, qualitative research, market intelligence, and real‑world evidence to inform strategy.
• Preferred: Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills; ability to represent the organization externally and influence senior internal leaders.
• Preferred: Demonstrated ability to synthesize external stakeholder input and health system trends into actionable insights and present them to senior leadership.
• Preferred: Experience coaching and developing individual contributors (directors), leading through influence, setting priorities and performance expectations, and managing workload across multiple complex projects.