Job title: Global Lead, Health Ecosystem & Innovation
- Location: Cambridge, MA, Morristown, NJ
Main Responsibilities:Health Ecosystem Strategy & External Innovation:
- Define and own the Health Ecosystem & Innovation roadmap, bringing "outside-in" innovation from start-ups, academia, digital health, and patient communities into Sanofi's medical innovation pipeline.
- Build and manage a strategic external innovation ecosystem encompassing start-up partnerships, academic collaborations, Digital Therapeutics (DTx) alliances, and patient-centric data platforms.
- Lead the Patient centric strategy, building capabilities that improve Sanofi's ability to identify, understand, and engage patient communities in support of medical and evidence-generation objectives.
- Identify, evaluate, and broker partnerships with digital health start-ups and DTx companies whose capabilities complement or enhance Sanofi's medical portfolio and patient engagement strategy.
- Build and maintain a dynamic map of the external health innovation landscape, including competitive intelligence across digital health, AI-powered medical tools, and DTx.
- Represent Sanofi at external innovation forums, accelerators, and academic conferences, serving as the company's ambassador to the health innovation ecosystem.
Innovation Incubation & use case Management:
- Function as the primary incubator for external medical innovation partnerships - manage the full pipeline from opportunity scouting through due diligence,KPI definition, and handoff to GBU operational teams.
- Design and manage structured test and learn use case programs with external partners, establishing clear success criteria, governance frameworks, and escalation pathways.
- Collaborate with the Global Head of Medical Innovation, GBU leadership, and Digital Partners to assess and prioritize external innovation opportunities based on medical value, technical feasibility, and strategic fit.
- Present curated external innovation opportunities to the Medical Innovation Council, providing structured assessments of strategic fit, risk, and potential impact.
- Partner with Legal, Compliance, and Procurement to ensure external partnerships are structured, governed, and executed in accordance with Sanofi's standards.
- Ensure external partnerships are designed to deliver actionable use cases - not one-off engagements - with clear KPIs, milestones, and handoff criteria to the broader Medical Innovation team.
GBU & Cross-Functional Partnership:
- Serve as the embedded health ecosystem partner to Medical GBUs, ensuring the external innovation pipeline reflects GBU-specific therapeutic area priorities and evidence-generation needs.
- Collaborate with the Global Lead for Scientific Platforms to ensure external content and education innovations are integrated into platform strategies.
- Collaborate with the Global Lead for Medical Intelligence to connect patient-level data innovations with intelligence and predictive analytics platforms.
- Partner with R&D, Commercial, and Digital teams to identify cross-functional innovation opportunities that span medical, clinical, and commercial objectives.
- Represent the Health Ecosystem function in the Medical Innovation Council, contributing to DAI governance on external partnership investments and approvals.
- Serve as an internal ambassador for health ecosystem innovation, educating Medical Affairs colleagues on emerging external trends and partnership opportunities.
Governance & Compliance:
- Ensure all external partnerships, DTx collaborations, and patient data initiatives comply with applicable healthcare regulations, data privacy standards and ethical research principles.
- Develop governance frameworks for evaluating, onboarding, and managing external innovation partners within a regulated pharmaceutical environment.
- Stay current on the evolving digital therapeutics regulatory landscape, patient data governance standards, and start-up partnership models in biopharma.
About You- 10+ years of experience in Medical Affairs, Business Development, Digital Health, or Healthcare Innovation with a focus on external partnerships and ecosystem development within pharmaceutical, healthcare, or health technology sectors.
- Advanced scientific degree (MD, PhD, PharmD, or Master's in life sciences or related field) preferred; additional qualifications in Business, Health Innovation, or Digital Health are a strong plus.
- Demonstrated track record of building and managing external innovation partnerships with start-ups, academic institutions, or DTx companies in a pharmaceutical context.
- Experience with patient-finding platforms, real-world evidence partnerships, or digital therapeutics ecosystem development.
- Familiarity with AI applications, digital health platforms, and DTx regulatory and commercial models strongly preferred.
- Strong external network in digital health, life science venture, or health-tech innovation communities.
Leadership & Skills:
- Strategic ecosystem builder with a proven network in the digital health, start-up, and academic innovation communities relevant to biopharma.
- Experienced in brokering and managing complex external partnerships, including opportunity evaluation, use case design, and performance governance.
- Deep understanding of Digital Therapeutics, patient-centric innovation, and real-world evidence strategies in pharmaceutical development and medical affairs.
- Entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to identify high-potential external opportunities and translate them into structured, actionable innovation partnerships with clear business cases.
- Ability to engage credibly with start-up founders, academic researchers, innovation accelerator leaders, and internal senior stakeholders with equal effectiveness.
Executive Competencies:
- Ecosystem Intelligence: Maintains a current, actionable understanding of the digital health and health-tech innovation landscape relevant to Sanofi's therapeutic areas, identifying signals of strategic relevance before they become industry standard.
- Partnership Architecture: Designs multi-stakeholder innovation partnerships that deliver measurable medical value while managing complexity, risk, and the cultural differences between pharma and start-up environments.
- Patient-Centricity: Grounds external innovation strategy in genuine patient needs, ensuring innovations improve care journeys and patient-relevant outcomes across therapeutic areas.
- GBU Orientation: Translates enterprise innovation goals into GBU-specific partnership strategies, ensuring external innovations meet real commercial and medical needs rather than innovation for its own sake.
- Entrepreneurial Agility: Navigates ambiguity in early-stage partnership development, pivoting quickly while maintaining strategic focus and governance discipline.
Travel Requirements:
- This global role requires approximately 25-30% travel to engage with external partners, attend innovation forums, and collaborate with GBU teams.
The salary range for this position is:
$206,250.00 - $297,916.66
All compensation will be determined commensurate with demonstrated experience. Employees may be eligible to participate in Company employee benefit programs. Additional benefits information can be found through the LINK.
