Associate Director, Field Sales Capabilities Employee Experience - West

The Position

The role of the Assoc Dir of Field Sales Capabilities at Novo Nordisk Inc serves as a strategic performance and leadership development partner to an assigned Area Commercial Lead (ACL) and their leadership team. This role focuses on enabling sustained behavior, change and performance through performance consulting, leadership development, instructional design, and effective delivery.

The Associate Director translates enterprise and commercial strategy into field‑ready leadership capabilities, coaching standards, and development experiences that help leaders operate, coach, and execute effectively in a portfolio‑based environment. The role is accountable for designing scalable leadership development solutions, defining “what good looks like,” and ensuring capability initiatives result in measurable behavior change and improved performance—not one‑time training events.

This position acts as a trusted advisor and center of expertise for leadership capability, coaching quality, and performance enablement, partnering closely with the ACL, P&O/Employee Experience, and cross‑functional stakeholders to drive consistency, accountability, and sustained impact at scale.

Relationships

This role reports to the Director, Field Sales Capabilities and serves as the primary day‑to‑day strategic partner to an assigned Field Sales Area Commercial Lead (ACL). The position is accountable for driving aligned execution of field capability initiatives, leadership development, and performance consulting in support of Area priorities.

The role works in close partnership with People & Organization (P&O), including HR Business Partners, Employee Relations, Talent Management, and is part of the Employee Experience (EE) team, which includes Academy & Franchise (Training) and Enterprise Capabilities. Through these partnerships, the role helps create strong alignment between Sales Strategy and Employee Experience by delivering and sustaining the P&O operating model to support and transform field capabilities.

This position engages extensively with Sales Leadership and Commercial Execution teams across the Cardiometabolic Sales organization, including ACLs, Regional Business Directors (RBDs), District Business Managers (DBMs), Commercial Execution (DCE / ADCE), Sales Innovation, and Virtual Sales Teams, ensuring national strategies are translated into practical, field‑ready learning, coaching, and leadership solutions.

In addition, the role collaborates cross‑functionally with Digital & AI Enablement, Legal, Ethics & Compliance, Market Access, and Marketing partners to ensure programs are compliant, integrated, and aligned with enterprise priorities. The role may also selectively engage external vendors to support leadership development, instructional design, and specialized learning needs.

While this position does not have direct people management responsibility, it plays a critical leadership role by influencing, coordinating, and sustaining national strategic training initiatives across selling, coaching, and leadership capabilities through strong relationship management and cross‑functional collaboration. 

Essential Functions

Field Sales Excellence & Leadership Capability Development

• Create strong synergy between Sales and Employee Experience through effective delivery of the P&O operating model strengthening internal client partnerships and transforming field capabilities.
• Serve as the primary capability partner for the design, implementation, and sustainment of leadership focused learning and enablement solutions that support field sales onboarding, product launches, organizational expansions, and leadership transitions.
• Translate enterprise and commercial strategy into clear, field ready leadership capability standards, defining what good looks like and how leaders are expected to operate, coach, and drive results in a portfolio-based environment.
• Ensure all leadership and field capability initiatives are aligned to short term execution priorities and long-term strategic objectives, enabling scale, consistency, and sustained behavior change.
• Oversee the execution of workshops to ensure effective development and evaluation of leadership competencies

Leadership Enablement & Performance Consulting

• Partner with Sales Leadership and Commercial stakeholders to act as a bridge between strategy and execution, ensuring leaders are equipped not just with knowledge, but with the skills, routines, and accountability mechanisms required to deliver outcomes.
• Apply a Performance Consulting approach to proactively identify leadership capability gaps, diagnose root causes, and design targeted solutions that drive measurable changes in leader behavior and field performance.
• Design and lead scalable learning journeys that strengthen portfolio-based leadership, coaching effectiveness, decision making, and accountability, moving leaders from activity focused execution to outcome-based performance.
• Oversee the execution of leadership and sales capability workshops, ensuring intentional development, reinforcement, and evaluation of leadership, coaching, and selling competencies aligned to defined capability standards.

Client & Center of Expertise – Leadership Capabilities

• Act as a Center of Expertise for leadership capability development, serving as a subject matter expert for individual contributor, first line, and second line leader curricula.
• Lead the design, delivery, evolution, and sustainment of Emerging Leader and second‑line leadership programs, ensuring alignment to simplified leadership standards (Leading Self, Leading People, Leading Business).
• Contribute to enterprise critical initiatives within the Sales Innovation & Deployment Strategy, including Innovation Regions, Portfolio Teams, and Virtual Sales, ensuring leadership capability is embedded.

Measurement, Insight & Continuous Improvement

• Monitor and assess the effectiveness of leadership capability initiatives using behavior-based measurement frameworks, coaching quality indicators, leader routines, and performance insights—moving beyond training satisfaction to observable behavior change.
• Report impact, insights, and recommendations to senior stakeholders, using leading and lagging indicators to demonstrate progress toward clarity, accountability, and sustained performance at scale.
• Stay current on leadership development trends, learning science, and digital enablement to continuously enhance capability strategies and ensure relevance in a rapidly evolving healthcare and commercial landscape.
     

Innovation, Digital Enablement & Sustainability

• Design and implement innovative, technology enabled leadership solutions that enhance coaching quality, reduce friction, and improve leaders’ ability to inspect, reinforce, and sustain desired behaviors in the flow of work.
• Support the long‑term sustainability of leadership capabilities, ensuring initiatives are embedded into daily leader expectations, coaching routines, and performance management processes—not treated as one‑time events.

Physical Requirements

The job requires 50-75% overnight travel. This position can be located anywhere in the US, ideally within the territory.

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required. Advanced degree preferred
• 12+ years in pharmaceutical sales, management, and/or sales training experience
• 10+ years in building organizational capabilities, with demonstrated depth in leadership development, curriculum design, and behavioral capability building.
• Proven experience leading sales management and leadership development interventions across first‑ and second‑line leaders preferred.
• Leadership Capability & Learning Expertise
• Strong knowledge of leader development adult learning theory, and modern L&D trends, with the ability to translate learning into sustained behavior change.
• Strategic & Business Acumen
• Proven ability to interpret complex business challenges, identify root causes, and recommend effective, scalable solutions and best practices.
• Strong strategic planning and business analysis skills, with the ability to translate enterprise and commercial priorities into clear operational plans and leader ready execution.
• Demonstrated ability to balance short term delivery with long term capability sustainability in a fast-moving commercial environment.
• Proven track record of sales performance results and credibility with senior commercial leaders.
• Leadership Presence & Collaboration
• Executive presence with the ability to influence, challenge, and partner effectively with senior leaders and cross functional stakeholders.
• Strong cross functional leadership, communication, and negotiation skills, with experience operating in complex, informal, and matrixed environments
• Ability to build trust and operate as a trusted advisor through insight, foresight, and delivery of measurable value.
• Execution, Project & Vendor Management
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple initiatives and priorities simultaneously, with strong organizational discipline and attention to impact.
• Experience adapting plans and priorities to address resource, operational, and change management challenges.
• Experience managing external vendors and partners to support leadership development, instructional design, and specialized capability needs

The base compensation range for this position is $152,700 to $267,300. Base compensation is determined based on a number of factors. This position is also eligible for a company bonus based on individual and company performance. 

Novo Nordisk offers long-term incentive compensation and or company vehicles depending on the position's level or other company factors. 

Employees are also eligible to participate in Company employee benefit programs including medical, dental and vision coverage; life insurance; disability insurance; 401(k) savings plan; flexible spending accounts; employee assistance program; tuition reimbursement program; and voluntary benefits such as group legal, critical illness, identity theft protection, pet insurance and auto/home insurance. The Company also offers time off pursuant to its sick time policy, flex-able vacation policy, and parental leave policy.