Associate Director, Patient Advocacy - Haemoglobinopathies

Associate Director, Patient Advocacy – Haemoglobinopathies 
Zurich 

Are you ready to make sure the voices of people living with haemoglobinopathies shape the future of their care? Do you want to translate lived patient experience into evidence that influences access, policy and development decisions at a global scale? Then join us as our new Associate Director, Patient Advocacy – Haemoglobinopathies, and help us build a stronger, more patient-informed pathway forward. 

Your new role 

As Associate Director, Patient Advocacy for Hemoglobinopathies, you will lead the execution of Novo Nordisk's patient advocacy strategy in this therapy area – ensuring that patient insights systematically inform evidence generation, access discussions and external engagement in a focused, compliant and measurable way. Leveraging your established advocacy network, you will enable meaningful engagement with the hemoglobinopathy community and provide structured insights that empower cross-functional decision making. 

Your responsibilities will include: 

• Patient advocacy strategy execution: Deliver the approved patient advocacy strategy for hemoglobinopathies globally, translating strategic priorities into defined annual programs, measurable outcomes and clear accountability aligned to Corporate Affairs priorities – with a primary focus on global focus markets and other priority countries. 

• Strategic partnerships: Manage a focused portfolio of priority patient advocacy organisations and patient leaders with clearly defined objectives, governance and tangible outcomes; develop annual partnership plans and deliver post-engagement summaries capturing outputs and learnings. 

• Patient-driven evidence generation: Operationally lead patient-informed evidence initiatives – including qualitative insights, real-world evidence collaborations and advocacy-led publications – ensuring outputs (e.g., white papers, consensus statements, narrative summaries, insight reports) are publication-ready and fully compliant. 

• Cross-functional enablement: Serve as the Corporate Affairs subject matter expert and reference point for patient-informed insights in hemoglobinopathies, providing structured intelligence to inform decisions across Public Affairs, Medical, Market Access and Commercial – while monitoring emerging patient needs and advocacy trends. 

• External representation: Represent Novo Nordisk within selected advocacy and stakeholder forums relevant to hemoglobinopathies, aligned with annual engagement objectives and approved messaging frameworks. 

• Narratives & advocacy content: Partner with Communications and Public Affairs to develop patient-centric advocacy materials grounded in lived experience and compliant evidence standards. 

Success in this role will be measured by the delivery of a defined portfolio of advocacy partnerships with documented outputs, completion of patient-informed evidence assets, demonstrated use of patient insights in access, policy or development discussions, and positive cross-functional feedback on the clarity, discipline and reliability of your advocacy inputs. 

Your new department 

Our Patient Advocacy team in our Rare Disease organisation plays a pivotal role in ensuring patient voice is embedded across the therapy area lifecycle. As we expand our focus into hemoglobinopathies, you will help shape how Novo Nordisk engages with this dynamic community – bringing structure, credibility and measurable impact to our advocacy work, and ensuring patient perspectives are systematically captured and translated into decisions that matter. 

Your skills & qualifications 

We are looking for an experienced patient advocacy professional who combines strategic thinking with a disciplined, execution-focused approach and a deep respect for the patient voice. To succeed in this role, you will bring: 

• Significant experience in patient advocacy, patient engagement or a closely related function within the pharmaceutical or biotech industry, ideally with exposure to rare diseases, hematology or haemoglobinopathies. 

• An established network within the haemoglobinopathy community or a demonstrated track record of quickly building credible relationships with patient advocacy organisations and patient leaders. 

• Proven ability to operationally lead patient-informed evidence initiatives – such as real-world evidence collaborations, qualitative insights projects or advocacy-led publications – with publication-ready and compliant outputs. 

• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills, with the ability to translate patient insights into structured intelligence for Public Affairs, Medical, Market Access and Commercial stakeholders. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, and a working knowledge of the compliance, governance and ethical frameworks that guide patient advocacy engagement. 

• A relevant university degree in life sciences, public health, health policy, communications or a related discipline. 

Working at Novo Nordisk 

At Novo Nordisk, we have stayed true to our mission of defeating serious chronic diseases for over a century – and we are reaching more patients than ever before. As we expand our focus into haemoglobinopathies, we are opening a new chapter in that story, one where patient voice, scientific ambition and disciplined execution come together to deliver meaningful change. Here, you will find driven, talented colleagues who share a genuine commitment to the people we serve, an environment that rewards curiosity and accountability, and the opportunity to see the tangible impact of your work on patients' lives. When you join us, you are not just starting a job – you are becoming part of a company at a defining moment in its history. 

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. 

Deadline 

31 July 2026