Associate Director, Medical Digital Strategy...

The Associate Director, Medical Digital Strategy & Activation is a strategic leader responsible for advancing Medical Affairs’ digital and artificial intelligence strategy and translating it into scalable, compliant, and measurable experiences. The role sets direction across global, regional, and affiliate teams, enabling the organization to plan, activate, and optimize digital solutions that support scientific exchange, medical and scientific education, and coordinated engagement.

*The Associate Director leads the continued evolution of the Global Medical Digital Office. The role is responsible for developing and advancing Medical Affairs digital strategies and multi-year roadmaps that align to organizational priorities, stakeholder needs, and business outcomes. This includes defining digital and integrated channel engagement approaches, activation frameworks, channel strategies, measurement plans, and global-to-local enablement models that operational teams and affiliates can execute against. The Associate Director owns core governance, intake and prioritization, strategic guidance, channel standards, and measurement expectations, ensuring that digital investments are aligned, scalable, compliant, and positioned to deliver value. Acting as a senior connector across Insights, Digital & Analytics, Medical Excellence, Medical Affairs Technology, IT, Compliance, Privacy, Content, and regional and functional Medical Affairs teams, the Associate Director aligns priorities, resolves complex cross-functional issues, influences roadmaps and investment decisions, and translates strategy into actionable implementation plans.

The Associate Director also shapes Medical Affairs digital innovation, including artificial intelligence-enabled capabilities, by defining strategic use cases, target-state engagement workflows, experience requirements, adoption approaches, governance guardrails, and measures of value. The role partners closely with technology and platform teams on solution delivery while retaining accountability for Medical Affairs strategy, business requirements, user needs, activation readiness, change management, and realization of business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Medical Digital Office Leadership & Governance

• Lead the operating model and continued evolution of the Global Medical Digital Office, including governance, decision rights, intake, prioritization, and cross-functional ways of working.

• Serve as the senior strategic triage and escalation point for complex digital needs, ensuring alignment with Medical Affairs priorities, enterprise standards, and applicable compliance, privacy, security, and accessibility requirements.

• Lead Digital Office forums and decision-making processes; synthesize enterprise, regional, affiliate, and functional needs into clear priorities, recommendations, and joint roadmaps.

• Establish and maintain practical standards, playbooks, cadence guidelines, and global-to-local governance that improve consistency, speed, quality, and compliance.

• Advise senior leaders on digital opportunities, trade-offs, dependencies, risks, resource needs, and sequencing.

Digital and Artificial Intelligence Strategy

• Define and steward Medical Affairs digital innovation, including artificial intelligence-enabled capabilities, by articulating business and engagement workflows, shaping use-case intent, defining experience requirements, and establishing adoption expectations and success measures.

• Monitor relevant healthcare, life sciences, technology, and peer benchmarks to identify emerging practices and inform Medical Affairs digital and artificial intelligence priorities.

• Partner with Medical Affairs Technology, IT, Security, Privacy, Legal, and Compliance to shape capability roadmaps, integrations, operating policies, and governance for enterprise-grade solutions.

• Balance long-term vision with near-term delivery by recommending where to pilot, scale, sustain, improve, or stop capabilities based on user value, feasibility, risk, and evidence.

• Champion responsible use of artificial intelligence and automation, including fit-for-purpose governance, human oversight, and adoption planning.

Digital Activation & Affiliate Enablement

• Lead global-to-local activation of Medical Affairs digital strategies through decision support, reusable playbooks, capability guidance, and structured readiness planning.

• Provide strategic leadership for complex regional and affiliate initiatives that require coordination across multiple functions, markets, vendors, or platforms.

• Identify, evaluate, and scale successful digital approaches across regions while accounting for local requirements, language, accessibility, privacy, and regulatory considerations.

• Drive change management, capability building, and adoption of Digital Office processes, standards, and tools.

• Lead agencies and contractors against clear scopes, deliverables, service expectations, quality standards, and measures of success.

Medical Affairs Digital Channel Strategy & Experience

• Lead the definition and evolution of Medical Affairs digital channel strategy within the broader omnichannel ecosystem, with clear channel roles, guardrails, experience principles, and success measures.

• Translate Medical Affairs priorities into executable channel approaches and activation plans across relevant digital experiences, in partnership with content, technology, analytics, and regional teams.

• Promote modern standards for usability, accessibility, performance, privacy, security, content governance, and compliant scientific exchange.

• Provide strategic oversight of user experience, information architecture, localization, and content lifecycle considerations where relevant to Medical Affairs digital experiences.

• Ensure channel and experience decisions are informed by audience needs, data, operational feasibility, and enterprise platform direction.

Measurement, Optimization & Value Realization

• Define measurement frameworks, key performance indicators, event and conversion taxonomies, and reporting expectations that connect digital activity to engagement quality, adoption, and Medical Affairs outcomes.

• Partner with Insights and Analytics teams to establish dashboards and decision-ready reporting, identify performance opportunities, and drive continuous optimization.

• Use evidence, experimentation, user feedback, and benchmark data to evaluate pilots, improve experiences, and support scale decisions.

• Communicate progress, risks, insights, and value realization to senior stakeholders with clear recommendations and actions.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Delivery

• Act as a connective leader across global, regional, and affiliate partners, aligning priorities and resolving ambiguity in a highly matrixed environment.

• Lead cross-functional workstreams from strategy through activation, managing dependencies, decisions, risks, timelines, and stakeholder expectations.

• Influence senior stakeholders without formal authority and build alignment across Medical Affairs Technology, IT, Compliance, Privacy, Security, Legal, Content, Analytics, and other enterprise partners.

• Manage agencies, vendors, and contractors as needed; establish clear performance expectations and ensure quality, timely, and compliant delivery.

• Represent Medical Affairs digital strategy in relevant governance, planning, and transformation forums., + Develop Talent - understand the skills, experience, aspirations and potential of their employees and coach them on current performance and future potential. They ensure employees are receiving the feedback and insight needed to grow, develop and realize their purpose.

• Empower Teams - connect the team to the organization by aligning goals, purpose, and organizational objectives, and holding them to account. They provide the support needed to remove barriers and connect their team to the broader ecosystem.

• Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of relevant experience; or

• Master’s degree or MBA and 8+ years of relevant experience; or

• Doctoral degree and 2+ years of relevant experience.

Required Knowledge, Experience & Skills

• 10+ years of progressive experience in digital strategy, omnichannel engagement, digital experience, insights and analytics, technology-enabled transformation, or a related field, including significant experience in life sciences, healthcare, or another regulated environment.

• Demonstrated leadership of enterprise-scale or global digital strategy and activation in a complex, matrixed organization.

• Proven ability to own governance and operating models, establish decision rights and standards, and translate strategy into executable global-to-local plans.

• Experience shaping digital or artificial intelligence use cases, business requirements, adoption approaches, governance guardrails, and measures of value in partnership with technology teams.

• Strong understanding of omnichannel strategy, digital channel roles, user experience, content governance, accessibility, privacy, security, and analytics-driven decision-making.

• Experience leading cross-functional programs, agencies, vendors, or contractors through complex workflows, competing priorities, and regulated approval processes.

• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders, facilitate decisions, resolve ambiguity, and communicate clear recommendations to executive audiences.

• Proficiency in measurement strategy, dashboards, experimentation, optimization, and translating data into action.

• Excellent strategic thinking, judgment, facilitation, change leadership, and written and verbal communication skills.

Preferred Knowledge, Experience & Skills

• Advanced degree such as an MS, PhD, PharmD, MPH, or MBA.

• Experience in Medical Affairs and a working understanding of scientific exchange, medical education, and related regulatory and compliance considerations.

• Experience supporting global, multilingual digital operations, localization, and federated governance.

• Familiarity with enterprise content management, analytics, consent, archiving, and artificial intelligence-assisted workflows.

• Working knowledge of web and content platforms, customer relationship management, marketing technology, user experience research, taxonomy, accessibility standards, and digital measurement methods.

• Experience defining scopes of work, managing vendor performance, and overseeing budgets or investment recommendations.

Leadership Expectations

• Lead through influence, creating clarity and alignment across teams without relying on formal authority.

• Model inclusive leadership and build trusted partnerships across functions, regions, and levels.

• Develop the capability of colleagues, contractors, and agency partners through clear direction, coaching, and feedback.

• Empower teams by connecting work to organizational priorities, removing barriers, and holding partners accountable for outcomes.

• Operate with sound judgment, integrity, and accountability in a fast-moving and evolving environment.

Bay Area: $195,670.00 - $253,220.00.

Other US Locations: $177,905.00 - $230,230.00.

Gilead considers a variety of factors when determining base compensation, including experience, qualifications, and geographic location. These considerations mean actual compensation will vary. This position may also be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, discretionary stock-based long-term incentives (eligibility may vary based on role), paid time off, and a benefits package. Benefits include company-sponsored medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans*.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Parsippany, NJ)

At Gilead, we’re creating a healthier world for all people. For more than 35 years, we’ve tackled diseases such as HIV, viral hepatitis, COVID-19 and cancer - working relentlessly to develop therapies that help improve lives and to ensure access to these therapies across the globe. We continue to fight against the world’s biggest health challenges, and our mission requires collaboration, determination and a relentless drive to make a difference.

Every member of Gilead’s team plays a critical role in the discovery and development of life-changing scientific innovations. Our employees are our greatest asset as we work to achieve our bold ambitions, and we’re looking for the next wave of passionate and ambitious people ready to make a direct impact.

We believe every employee deserves a great leader. People Leaders are the cornerstone to the employee experience at Gilead and Kite. As a people leader now or in the future, you are the key driver in evolving our culture and creating an environment where every employee feels included, developed and empowered to fulfil their aspirations. Join Gilead and help create possible, together., At Gilead our pursuit of a healthier world for all people has yielded a cure for hepatitis C, revolutionary improvements in HIV treatment and prevention as well as advancements in therapies for viral and inflammatory diseases and certain cancers.

We set and achieve bold ambitions in our fight against the world’s most devastating diseases, united in our commitment to confronting the largest public health challenges of our day and improving the lives of patients for generations to come., Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company that has pursued and achieved breakthroughs in medicine for more than three decades, with the goal of creating a healthier world for all people. The company is committed to advancing innovative medicines to prevent and treat life-threatening diseases, including HIV, viral hepatitis and cancer. Gilead operates in more than 35 countries worldwide, with headquarters in Foster City, California.