Job Description

Your impact begins here

As CDC Head South Africa, you will lead the country clinical trial operations organisation and its adjacent-affiliate scope as part of Global Trial Portfolio (GTP). Reporting directly to the Vice President, Trial Operations in HQ, you will be accountable for translating the global portfolio and development strategy into strong local execution, building a resilient and scalable organisation, and ensuring that South African and adjacent-affiliate insights shape global decisions. Your leadership will accelerate trial delivery while safeguarding patient safety, quality and compliance, and strengthening the site and investigator partnerships that bring clinical research closer to people living with serious chronic diseases.

What you’ll bring

You are a proven clinical operations leader who can set direction, build teams and deliver trials to the highest quality.

• A Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences or a related field.
• 10+ years’ experience overall in clinical research or pharmaceutical development within pharma or healthcare companies.
• Hands-on clinical trial experience, with deep expertise in trial monitoring, site management, regulatory compliance, clinical quality (audits and inspections) and training.
• Demonstrated leadership experience as a line manager and in leading complex organisations and cross-functional teams, inspiring people to deliver ambitious results.
• Knowledge of the South African clinical research ecosystem.
• 3+ years’ experience in strategic roles within a global clinical operations environment.
• The ability to define a clear strategic vision and translate it into actionable plans with measurable outcomes.
• Strong understanding of business operations, financial drivers and market dynamics, with the ability to evaluate risks and identify opportunities.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, and the confidence to lead others through change and uncertainty.

Useful, but not essential:

• A Master’s degree.
• Experience championing agile ways of working and new digital tools to improve efficiency and innovation.

What you’ll do

You will lead the CDC as an integrated part of One GTP, with end-to-end accountability for the CDC’s contribution to portfolio planning, country readiness, trial execution, organisational capability, resource deployment, performance and inspection readiness across South Africa and adjacent affiliates.

• Define and deliver the CDC strategy and organisational plan in line with GTP priorities and global drug development strategies. Translate the forward portfolio into clear country choices, capabilities and capacity plans, and build a flexible operating structure that meets current and future demand.
• Own the CDC’s portfolio performance and country input to GTP planning and allocation processes. Ensure timely, accurate and forward-looking feasibility and operational insights; maintain a transparent view of delivery, risks, opportunities and mitigations; and make disciplined resource-allocation and reallocation decisions to improve speed, productivity and reliability.
• Lead and develop a high-performing, inclusive leadership team and organisation through clear direction, empowered decision-making, performance management, talent reviews, succession planning and active capability building. Create leadership capacity below the CDC Head and reduce person dependency in critical roles.
• Safeguard patient safety, data integrity and trial quality by ensuring execution in line with ICH-GCP, regulatory requirements and internal procedures. Promote early, proportionate and pragmatic risk management, maintain inspection readiness throughout the trial lifecycle, and ensure timely escalation and resolution of material quality, compliance and delivery risks.
• Build strategic relationships with sites, investigators, health authorities, ethics committees, patient organisations and other relevant external partners. Strengthen South Africa’s attractiveness and readiness for the future portfolio, represent Novo externally, and bring local patient, site and ecosystem insights into GTP decision-making.
• Provide clear leadership and governance for adjacent-affiliate clinical operations, including oversight of the Clinical Affiliate Manager where applicable. Build sustainable local capabilities, clarify decision rights and escalation routes, and ensure consistent standards, portfolio prioritisation and execution across the CDC scope.

Who you’ll work with

You will be part of GTP Trial Operations and will lead the South Africa Clinical Development Centre and its adjacent-affiliate clinical operations scope. The role has a direct reporting line to the Vice President, Trial Operations in HQ and a close local partnership with the affiliate General Manager and the Medical & Regulatory (M&R) organisation.

Your closest partners will be the Vice President, Trial Operations, peer CDC Heads, GTP Clinical Operations and portfolio-planning colleagues, Clinical Medical Management, trial squads and Global Project Teams. Locally, you will partner closely with the affiliate General Manager, M&R, P&O, Finance, Market Access and relevant business teams, while preserving clear functional accountabilities. Externally, you will work with investigators, study nurses and coordinators, health authorities, ethics committees, vendors and industry partners.

Clear priorities, transparent performance dialogue and early escalation will keep these relationships moving at pace. You will operate as a One GTP leader, make decisions within your mandate without waiting for unnecessary alignment, and resolve tensions between global portfolio priorities and local realities. You will put enterprise and patient outcomes ahead of functional boundaries while maintaining strong collaboration with the local M&R organisation.

What you can expect here

You will be trusted to lead and supported to perform at your best, with clear performance expectations and recognition for results. Your voice will shape decisions on how clinical operations evolve. You will grow alongside colleagues through the work itself and relevant learning offerings, and you will develop others in turn.

Start now

Your impact begins today. If you are ready to lead the South Africa CDC as part of One GTP and shape how the global trial portfolio is delivered locally, apply for the Associate Director, CDC Head South Africa role by November 5, 2026. Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

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