Europe Medical Affairs Head, Lung - Oncology

Reporting to: VP & Regional Medical Director, Oncology Europe

Role overview
GSK’s lung oncology portfolio is expanding rapidly in Europe. The Europe Medical Affairs Head, Lung – Oncology is accountable for building the medical foundations for multiple lung indications ahead of first European filings, and for shaping successful launches across the region. This includes developing and activating the external network and strategic partnerships, driving evidence plans tailored to the European context, ensuring country readiness, and providing clear leadership across the matrix.
This role is a key member of the Europe Oncology Medical Affairs Leadership Team and reports to the VP & Regional Medical Director, Oncology Europe. It works in close partnership with the Global Medical Franchise Head, the R&D Therapeutic Area Head, and cross-functional regional and country stakeholders. Country medical directors and their teams sit in local markets; the lung strategy is delivered through them, making influence, scientific credibility and collaboration critical to success.

Key responsibilities
1. Lead the European lung medical network
•    Map and build the lung oncology medical community across Europe, including key external experts and centres.
•    Define and establish strategic partnerships with cooperative groups, registries, academic centres and patient organisations, selected on their scientific and network impact.
•    Synthesise insights from the European network into clear regional medical positions and advocate these with global development and evidence teams so that global plans reflect European needs and reality.
2. Shape evidence for European access
•    Define early real-world evidence (RWE) needs for lung oncology in Europe, in close collaboration with Access, HTA and global evidence partners.
•    Lead the development of PICO-aligned evidence strategies in the context of the EU HTA Regulation (HTAR) and mandatory Joint Clinical Assessments (JCA).
•    Provide regional direction on phase IIIb/IV programmes, collaborative studies and investigator-sponsored research (ISR) in lung, in line with GSK SOPs and governance.
3. Drive launch readiness across countries
•    Set the regional medical launch plan per indication and define minimum medical standards and deliverables for each country.
•    Own the scientific narrative and regional medical plan for lung across indications and lifecycle.
•    Lead structured readiness reviews against agreed milestones and provide transparent reporting on status, risks and mitigation to regional and global stakeholders.
4. Lead and influence through the matrix
•    Provide functional leadership to country medical leads in lung oncology, aligning local execution with the regional strategy.
•    Partner closely with Commercial, Market Access, Regulatory, R&D and Global Medical at regional and country level, driving alignment and consensus rather than directive control.
•    Communicate clear, evidence-based positions on contested or complex topics to senior management and scientific audiences, explicitly stating counter-arguments and evidence gaps.
•    Coach and develop country medical colleagues in external engagement, insight generation and scientific exchange, building lung capability across the European organisation as the portfolio grows.
•    Identify, develop and retain medical talent across Europe.
5. Ensure medical governance and compliance
•    Hold overall medical governance and fair-balance oversight for all lung oncology medical activities in Europe.
•    Ensure adherence to GSK policies, SOPs and local regulations, proactively identifying and escalating issues and risks.

Basic qualifications
•    Medical Doctor (MD) with board certification or equivalent clinical and industry experience in oncology.
•    7+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in oncology medical affairs; lung cancer experience is essential, experience in other solid tumours is an advantage.
•    Demonstrated European launch experience, including pre-launch, launch and post-launch phases for at least one first-in-market indication.
•    Experience in regional or global medical roles, or senior in-country roles with clear global exposure.
•    Proven track record of external engagement with oncology experts, cooperative groups and congresses, with evidence of translating insights into strategy and/or evidence generation decisions.
•    Working knowledge of HTA and evidence planning in Europe, including practical understanding of HTAR and JCA implications.
•    Fluent in written and spoken English; an additional European language is an advantage.

Preferred qualifications & skills
•    PhD or PharmD in a relevant scientific discipline.
•    Established, active network in lung oncology across Europe.
•    Demonstrated agility in building country medical plans, developing evidence strategies and delivering successful launches.
•    Deep subject matter expertise in lung cancer.
•    Strong understanding of access and commercial considerations, including comfort with indication-level KPIs, forecasting and launch economics.
•    High level of technology fluency and ability to use digital tools to drive insight generation, collaboration and execution.
•    Proven matrix and indirect leadership skills, with a track record of building trust and influence across functions, geographies and cultures.

What the role offers
•    End-to-end ownership of a key therapy area in Europe, from pre-launch through launch, post-launch optimisation and into future pipeline indications.
•    Exposure and collaboration with senior stakeholders across R&D, Medical, Commercial and Access, with direct accountability for performance in European countries.
•    Opportunity to shape evidence strategies and external partnerships in a priority growth area for GSK Oncology.
•    A leadership team and culture that value robust debate, scientific excellence and clear, well-argued positions.

Why GSK
GSK has taken bold steps into oncology, investing significantly in science, talent and pipeline. Lung cancer is central to our European oncology strategy. Our culture is grounded in being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing, underpinned by our values of transparency, respect, integrity and patient focus in how our medical organisation operates.
If this sounds like the next step you want to take in your career, we would be pleased to explore the opportunity with you.

Skills

Cross-Functional Leadership, Digital Fluency, Enterprise Thinking, High Impact Communication, Launch Excellence, Patient Impact

 

 

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.

 

GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale.

 

People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

 

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