Role Summary:
The Senior Marketing Engagement Lead (MEL) owns portfolio-level customer engagement strategy, brand stewardship and governance across in-market IG brands and campaign waves in the LOC. The role sets quality standards for Local Campaign Blueprints, leads cross-brand prioritization, competitive readiness and performance optimization, partners with customer-facing teams to translate insights into action, coaches Marketing Engagement Leads or field partners where applicable, and represents Canada in above-LOC initiatives with International MCE colleagues — while partnering with Campaign Activation Lead(s) (Operations) to improve speed, quality, and consistency of omnichannel execution. This role reports to the Business Unit Head, Rare.
Role Purpose:
The Senior Marketing Engagement Lead owns local HCP engagement strategy and execution for in-market IG brands, translating central strategy, modular assets, market research, customer insights and competitive intelligence into high-quality Local Campaign Blueprints, integrated brand plans and tactical programs that maximize portfolio performance and patient impact.
At portfolio scale, the role sets engagement standards, manages cross-brand priorities, elevates omnichannel execution, strengthens KAM capability with L&D, and feeds actionable performance insights to the Business Unit Head, LOC Finance, IBU and MCE.
The role also leads commercial tender management for IGs, including commercial input into tender submissions and contract negotiations, in close partnership with cross-functional teams to support the future growth of the PDT IG business in Canada.
Key Responsibilities:
Portfolio prioritization and coherence
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Set engagement priorities across IG in-market brands/waves; manage sequencing conflicts and capacity constraints.
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Ensure consistent customer experience principles across portfolio.
Own and articulate the Canadian in-market IG portfolio vision, strategy, and annual operating plan
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Translate PDT BU and IBU priorities into locally relevant portfolio execution.
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Ensure the IG in-market portfolio marketing execution reflects Canadian market dynamics, customer needs, access considerations, and competitive opportunities.
Lead market innovation, customer insight and competitive readiness
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Identify, interpret and leverage market research, customer insights, field intelligence and competitive data to strengthen positioning, sharpen prioritization and proactively address emerging opportunities or risks.
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Develop and maintain productive relationships with KOLs, treatment centers and key external stakeholders to shape the market, support successful execution and reinforce Takeda’s leadership in rare disease.
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Lead the Canadian competitive response by partnering with customer-facing and cross-functional teams to create appropriate initiatives and support optimal execution.
Blueprint governance and quality standards
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Own blueprint templates, minimum requirements, KPI discipline, and review cadence.
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Establish readiness quality gates and drive continuous improvement in blueprinting.
Coach/develop customer-facing capability (where appropriate and dependent on the LOC structure)
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Create a community of practice and share best practices.
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Collaborate with Sales leadership and Learning & Development to recommend training content, strengthen account planning, support compliant disease-state and product education, and enable consistent field execution.
Senior stakeholder trade-offs and cross-functional leadership
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Lead alignment with BU leadership, Sales leadership, Medical leadership.
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Ensure decisions are documented with owners, outcomes, deadlines and escalation pathways.
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Lead and integrate the cross-functional brand team, including Medical, Market Access, Corporate Affairs, Advocacy, DD&T, Finance, Supply and other partners, ensuring aligned objectives, clear priorities and coordinated execution.
Portfolio-level test-and-learn, launch readiness and lifecycle management
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Define what to test, where to scale, and what to stop.
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Convert learnings into market playbooks and standards; drive adoption.
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Lead lifecycle management planning, launch readiness for new indications or competitive countermeasures, and future asset considerations to enable long-term growth in the Canadian market.
Above-LOC contribution back to MCE/IBU
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Represent LOC/cluster in engagement forums and decision boards as required.
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Provide evidence-backed recommendations on central module roadmap, playbooks, and measurement standards.
Strengthen the strategy-to-operations “contract”
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Partner with Campaign Activation Lead(s) to reduce rework, improve cycle time, and increase transparency of performance reporting back to strategy teams.
Track performance, impact and investment effectiveness
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Support the Business Unit Head, Rare and the National Sales Lead to define in-market sales KPIs, monitor performance, identify risks and opportunities and recommend preventative and corrective actions.
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Achieve disciplined investment aligned to long-term value creation, leading assumption development and commercial input into forecasting, business planning and financial cycles.
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Be responsible for delivery of marketing programs and initiatives that support achievement of financial targets.
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Lead development, alignment and tracking of cross-functional and marketing OPEX, identify deviations from plan, and develop mitigation options to ensure resources are optimally invested to drive results.
Inspire, align and enable the sales team
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Clearly communicate brand priorities, campaign intent, consent objectives, account planning expectations, field execution priorities, approved messaging, KPIs and performance feedback, ensuring the sales team is inspired, prepared, and accountable for high-impact customer engagement.
Drive digital, diagnostic and patient-centered commercial excellence
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Integrate digital, omnichannel, diagnostic pathway and patient diagnosis considerations into brand strategy and tactics where relevant, ensuring initiatives are locally appropriate, compliant, measurable and aligned to customer and patient needs.
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Use CRM, next-best-action, analytics and insight platforms to prioritize engagement, track milestones, assess impact and continuously refine execution.
Ensuring compliance across all activities and initiatives
- All activities will be conducted in accordance with Takeda policies, applicable laws, industry codes, privacy requirements, and medical/legal/regulatory review processes.
Profile, Experience & Qualifications:
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5-8 years progressively responsible experience within pharmaceutical, including product management or commercial portfolio experience
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Qualification in health sciences, business administration, or a related discipline; advanced degree such as MSc, MBA or equivalent is an asset
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Minimum five years of proven ability to partner with stakeholders in healthcare systems, funding bodies and policy-related environments
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Deep understanding of specialty care, rare disease, immunology or plasma-derived therapies and public reimbursement and tender procurement models
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Demonstrated ability to influence complex matrix organisations and support cross-functional execution
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Experience translating global strategy into local system impact, especially around brand initiatives and execution that show tangible and measurable outcomes
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Product launch, lifecycle management, competitive readiness, diagnostic pathway, digital engagement or experience with patient diagnostics or diagnostic pathways are beneficial experiences
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Above country or multiple markets experience is an asset
Leadership Capabilities:
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External partner – credible with healthcare system stakeholders
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Change enabler – supports new ways of working and engagement
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Outcome-oriented – ability to lead cross-functional teams to drive impactful outcomes for patients and customers
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Strong collaboration skills and ability to innovate
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Strategic planning and execution
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Strong analytical skills
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Financial/Business acumen
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Customer insight and market-shaping orientation
This job posting is for a new role.
Takeda may use additional Talent Acquisition technologies and artificial intelligence to support the recruitment process, including video interviewing. Artificial intelligence will be used to support, but not solely determine, applicability for a specific position.
