Associate Sales Director

Imagine leading a team that makes a real difference for people living with obesity, diabetes or other serious chronic diseases. This is your opportunity turn strategy into impact, data into action, and ambition into results that matter. Join us as our new Associate Sales Director working in cardiometabolic and rareD areas!

Your new role

As Associate Sales Director, you'll lead our field sales team in Portugal, driving strategic direction, inspiring high performance and ensuring flawless execution. This is a leadership role where your decisions directly impact patient outcomes and commercial success. As a member of the Affiliate Leadership Team, you'll have influence across the entire organization, shaping not just your department but the future direction of our Portuguese operations.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Team leadership and development: Lead, coach and inspire your sales team to deliver top performance, designing organizational structures and incentive schemes, providing mentorship and creating career progression opportunities
• Strategic leadership and planning: Set a clear direction for the Cardiometabolic and RareD sales departments, develop national commercial plans and go-to-market strategies, and define ambitious sales targets that maximize brand potential across our portfolio
• Commercial execution and performance management: Drive customer-centric, data-informed multichannel execution, turning sales analytics into actionable plans while coordinating demand forecasting and continuously monitoring performance against KPIs
• Cross‑functional collaboration: Lead and strengthen collaboration across functions, challenging teams around new ways of working, leveraging CRM systems and digital tools, orchestrating coordinated omnichannel customer communication, and ensuring that field insights seamlessly flow to marketing, medical, and market access teams.
• Stakeholder engagement: Build and maintain relationships with national key opinion leaders, scientific societies, and other stakeholders to secure uptake and shape market access
• Compliance and ethics: Ensure all activities align with Novo Nordisk standards, business ethics framework and local regulations, while driving proper training and follow-up in ethical guardrails

Your new department

You'll be part of the Portuguese affiliate and a member of the Affiliate Leadership Team. You will lead a team of Field Sales and business unit managers and oversee an organization on +20 talented sales professionals at the forefront of bringing innovative treatments to healthcare professionals and patients across Portugal. Through cross-functional collaboration and a commitment to commercial excellence, we're transforming how serious chronic diseases are treated while building lasting relationships with the medical community.

Your skills & qualifications

We're looking for an experienced commercial leader who thrives in dynamic, high-performance environments and knows how to turn strategy into results. You'll bring:

• University degree in business, marketing, life sciences, or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred

• Minimum 8 years of commercial experience with at least 3 years of proven leadership experience managing and developing high-performing sales teams (ideally leader of leaders).
• Experience driving commercial strategies in the pharmaceutical industry at national level is required for this role. Knowledge and/or experience in the Cardiometabolic area will be an advantage.

• Experience being part of affiliate Leadership Team within a multinational environment with matrix structures is an advantage.
• Fluency in Portuguese and English (both written and oral) is required
• Base in Lisbon with availability to travel nationally up to 20-25% of time

As a person, you are an inspirational leader that thrive in dynamic environments. You demonstrate strategic leadership abilities with the capacity to set direction, drive business results, and make decisions that consider organizational impact. Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage and influence across all levels. Customer-centric mindset combined with strong analytical thinking to assess market trends and optimize sales strategies

Working at Novo Nordisk

Every day we seek the solutions that defeat serious chronic diseases. To do this, we approach our work with determination, constant curiosity and a commitment to finding better ways forward. For over 100 years, this dedication has driven us to build a company focused on lasting change for long-term health. One where diverse thinking, shared purpose and mutual respect come together to create extraordinary results. When you join us, you're not just starting a job – you're becoming part of a story that spans generations.

What we offer

There is, of course, more on offer here than the uniqueness of our culture and the extraordinary results we produce. Being part of a global healthcare company means opportunities to learn and develop are all around us, while our benefits are designed with your career and life stage in mind.

This is an office-based role in our Lisbon office.

Contact

Please submit your application in English, including your CV and ideally a cover letter explaining your motivation and fit for this role.

Deadline

Apply before 22th February. Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis.

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.

At Novo Nordisk, we're not chasing quick fixes – we're creating lasting change for long-term health. For over 100 years, we've been driven by a single purpose: to defeat serious chronic diseases and help millions of people live healthier lives. This dedication fuels our constant curiosity and inspires us to push the boundaries of what's possible in healthcare. We embrace diverse perspectives, seek out bold ideas, and build partnerships rooted in shared purpose. Together, we're making healthcare more accessible, treating and preventing diseases, and pioneering solutions that create change spanning generations. When you join us, you become part of something bigger – a legacy of impact that reaches far beyond today.