About the Job Job Title: Senior Director, Product Strategy
Level: Senior Director
Department: Product Strategy
Hiring Manager: Vice President, Product Strategy
Location: Princeton, NJ
Classification: Hybrid - On-site 4 days per week (Mon to Thurs)
Travel: Approximately 10-15% across Kardigan's South San Francisco, Princeton, and Chicago sites
About the Team Kardigan's Product Strategy team sits at the intersection of science, clinical development, commercial, and corporate strategy. The team translates Kardigan's pipeline of investigational cardiovascular therapies into clear product visions, target product profiles, value propositions, and lifecycle strategies - ensuring that every development decision is grounded in rigorous data, differentiated positioning, and long-term portfolio value creation.
Working hand-in-hand with Global Program Heads and colleagues across Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Regulatory, Commercial, Market Access, and Business Development, the team provides the fact base, analytics, and strategic framing that power Kardigan's portfolio governance and investment decisions. Team members shape programs at their most important stages, help build new capabilities in competitive intelligence, forecasting, and market access, and ultimately ensure that our product strategies serve patients and their families above all else.
All Kardigan product candidates are investigational; references to launch and commercialization describe readiness planning for potential future approvals.
Job Overview Kardigan is seeking a Senior Director, Product Strategy to serve as the product strategy lead for an assigned program within Kardigan's portfolio of investigational cardiovascular therapies. Reporting to the Vice President, Product Strategy, this leader develops and drives the integrated product strategy for their assigned program - building the target product profile, value proposition, and differentiation strategy, and delivering the analyses and decision-support materials that inform program and portfolio decisions.
The Senior Director is the day-to-day product strategy partner to the Global Program Head and the cross-functional program team, leading through influence rather than direct authority. This leader executes competitive assessments, forecasting inputs, and scenario analyses in partnership with the function's Centers of Excellence, prepares governance-ready recommendations for review by product strategy leadership, and drives assigned launch-readiness workstreams.
Main Responsibilities Program Product Strategy Development - Develop, maintain, and evolve the integrated product strategy for the assigned program, ensuring it reflects current clinical data, competitive dynamics, and portfolio priorities.
- Draft and iterate the target product profile (TPP), value proposition, and differentiation strategy for the assigned program, and drive cross-functional input and alignment on the evidence required to support them.
- Partner with Clinical Development and Medical Affairs on the assigned program to provide product strategy input into trial design, endpoint selection, and evidence-generation planning.
- Conduct scenario planning and trade-off analyses across indications, lines of therapy, and geographies for the assigned program, and frame options and implications for review by product strategy leadership and the Global Program Head.
- Maintain our evolving perspective on the competitive environment and generate insights leveraging continuous data generation and identifying issues to monitor.
Analysis & Decision Support - Generate insights based on competitive intelligence. Build and maintain the program-level commercial fact base - market landscape, patient flow, unmet need, and competitive positioning - that supports portfolio decision-making and governance reviews.
- Own key forecast assumptions which will enable financial models, forecasting inputs, and program valuation analyses in partnership with the forecasting Center of Excellence to support stage-gate decisions, new indication assessments, and development plan modifications.
- Prepare clear, decision-ready materials and recommendations for portfolio governance forums, for review and sponsorship by product strategy leadership.
- Track key performance indicators and impact measures for the assigned program's integrated product strategy and report progress, risks, and mitigation options.
- Support business development evaluations related to the assigned program or disease area, contributing market, competitive, and strategic analyses to due diligence efforts.
- Provide commercial perspectives that inform our individual new program decisions such as lifecycle management programs.
Launch-Readiness Support - Partner with the commercial organization to develop and refine launch plan. Drive assigned workstreams within the cross-functional launch-readiness plan for the program, in anticipation of potential future approvals, coordinating deliverables and timelines across contributing functions.
- Work with Regulatory and Market Access to document regulatory pathway, pricing, and reimbursement considerations for the assigned program, drawing on the market access Center of Excellence.
- Own evolving go-to-market strategy globally; identifying new markets, sequencing entry and defining go-to-market model.
Cross-Functional Leadership - Serve as the day-to-day product strategy partner to the Global Program Head and cross-functional Global Program team, leading through influence to drive alignment without direct authority.
- Facilitate resolution of cross-functional questions on program strategy, escalating conflicts and portfolio-level implications to product strategy leadership with clear options.
- Contribute to the Product Strategy function's frameworks, templates, and ways of working, and may provide day-to-day guidance to analysts or Center of Excellence staff supporting the program.
About You Basic Qualifications - Bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year college or university in a scientific, health, or business discipline.
- 8+ years of experience in biotech, pharmaceutical, or life sciences strategy consulting, including direct experience supporting product, portfolio, or asset strategy for late stage clinical programs.
- Demonstrated experience developing core product strategy deliverables - target product profiles, value propositions, competitive assessments, or market landscape analyses - for one or more clinical-stage assets.
- Proven experience working cross-functionally with R&D, Commercial, Regulatory, and Market Access colleagues and leading workstreams through influence without direct authority.
- Strong analytical capability, including hands-on experience with financial modeling, forecasting, and program valuation.
- Strong scientific literacy and working knowledge of clinical development, regulatory pathways, and competitive dynamics.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including preparation of clear executive-level presentations.
- Ability to work on-site four days per week in Princeton, New Jersey with flexibility to travel approximately 10-15% across Kardigan's South San Francisco, Princeton, and Chicago sites.
Preferred Qualifications - Advanced degree (PhD, MD, PharmD, or MBA).
- Experience in cardiovascular preferred.
- Exposure to pre-launch or launch planning, including pricing and reimbursement or evidence-generation strategy development.
- Experience presenting to senior governance and influencing executive audiences.
- Experience mentoring junior team members and coordinating the work of analysts, consultants or matrixed contributors.
- Experience in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial biotech environment, with a strong patient-centric orientation and continuous-improvement mindset.
Exact Compensation may vary based on skills, experience and location.
Pay range
$218,000-$284,000 USD
