Strategic and Commercial Excellence Head, Pharma

Confidential client: a fast-growing pharmaceutical and fine chemicals company (API manufacturing and CDMO), with regulated-market approvals and customers worldwide.

Position snapshot

• Title: Strategic and Commercial Excellence Head
• Location: Bengaluru, Karnataka
• Industry: pharmaceutical manufacturing, API
• Reports to: CEO

The role

The company is looking for a seasoned, high-impact leader to head its Strategy and Commercial Excellence function. You will drive enterprise-wide strategy, portfolio management, commercial excellence, business analytics, governance and strategic growth initiatives. Working directly with the CEO and leadership team, you will improve business visibility, strengthen decision-making frameworks, drive business governance and support long-term growth. The role calls for strong business acumen, analytical capability, cross-functional collaboration and execution excellence.

Key responsibilities

Strategy

• Support the CEO in defining strategic priorities and the long-term growth roadmap.
• Evaluate therapy areas and strategic focus segments for future growth.
• Identify areas of play for expansion within CDMO and related business verticals.
• Run competitive benchmarking and market intelligence analysis.
• Support M&A evaluation, strategic partnerships and inorganic growth opportunities.
• Support long-term strategic planning and organisational growth initiatives.

Portfolio management

• Track industry trends including NCEs, product launches, regulatory developments and market dynamics.
• Identify and evaluate new molecules and products for portfolio expansion.
• Run market assessments and opportunity analysis aligned to business priorities.
• Lead the development and periodic review of business cases for new portfolio additions.

Commercial excellence

• Drive organisation-wide business review governance: review cadence, standard templates, KPIs, dashboards and leadership reporting.
• Lead management reporting, MIS and business analytics, and turn data into actionable insight for strategic decisions.
• Own BD governance: pipeline tracking, opportunity reviews, coordination with business and regional teams, and conversion monitoring.
• Drive data governance, reporting automation and the optimisation of commercial excellence systems and tools with IT and business teams.

What you bring

• 12+ years in strategy, commercial excellence, business excellence, portfolio management, business analytics, corporate strategy or M&A.
• Experience in pharmaceuticals, API, CDMO, specialty chemicals or life sciences (API / bulk drugs preferred).
• Strong exposure to leadership reporting, portfolio strategy and business governance mechanisms.
• Experience working directly with senior leadership or the CEO office (preferred).

Key competencies

• Strategic thinking and business acumen
• Commercial excellence and business analytics
• Portfolio management and market assessment
• Business planning and governance
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Dashboarding and MIS reporting
• Stakeholder management and influencing skills

All applications are handled in confidence by a Dedicated HR Services partner. The client is named to shortlisted candidates only.