Position Summary
The Director of External Funding leads the assessment, and execution of external funding programs, Independent Medical Education (IME) and Medical Affairs-led Memberships, Grants & Sponsorships. This role ensures that all HCRO funding activities uphold scientific integrity, are aligned to enterprise and therapeutic area objectives, and comply with regulatory and internal requirements. The Director serves as a functional expert and primary point of contact, partnering across Medical Affairs, Legal, Compliance and external scientific/educational HCRO organizations.
This role will provide YOU the opportunity to lead key activities to progress YOUR career. These responsibilities include some of the following:
- Oversee the USMA external funding program, ensuring alignment with medical affairs objectives, therapeutic area priorities, and annual external funding budget (allocation, disbursements, ROI/impact).
- Define and maintain funding priorities, criteria, governance, decision-making frameworks, and KPIs that preserve scientific independence and regulatory compliance.
- Lead scientific and strategic assessment of funding proposals and provide clear, documented funding recommendations and rationales.
- Ensure all funded activities meet US federal/state laws, FDA guidance, OIG/AdvaMed expectations, Sunshine/aggregate reporting, and GSK policies/SOPs; keep documentation audit-ready.
- Partner with USMA relationship leads to act as primary point of contact for funding with non-promotional education partners (such as medical education providers, AMCs, societies, advocacy groups, etc), communicating processes, criteria, and compliance requirements.
- Partner with medical leads, Legal, Compliance, HEOR, Field Medical, Medical Strategy, and therapeutic area SMEs to ensure high-quality, aligned funding decisions and outcomes within allowed boundaries.
- Establish learning outcomes and KPIs to assess educational effectiveness and practice-change impact; translate insights into recommendations for medical strategy, scientific communications, and field teams.
- Maintain a balanced, strategically aligned funding portfolio across education types, partners, and therapeutic areas; forecast needs and adjust resources as medical strategy shifts.
- Identify risks to scientific independence and reputation; lead mitigation strategies, support policy updates, internal training, and audit responses.
- Drive continuous improvement across the external funding lifecycle and ensure data accuracy, consistent decision-making, and ongoing audit readiness.
Why You?
Work arrangement: Hybrid role with a mix of on-site and remote work. Exact on-site days will be discussed during hiring.
Basic Qualification
We are seeking professionals with the following required skills and qualifications to help us achieve our goals:
- Bachelor's degree in scientific, medical, or clinical area of focus.
- 8+ years in science, medical or pharmaceutical/biotechnology field.
- Experience managing IME, grant funding programs, or executing grant-funded medical educational programs.
Preferred Qualification
If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:
- Advanced degree in scientific, medical, or clinical area of focus.
- 3+ years of relevant pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry experience within medical affairs or related functions with demonstrated ability to lead and manage external funding, medical grants, medical affairs operations, compliance or related functions with operational leadership experience.
- Experience with medical educational design and adult learning principles.
What we value in you
- A learner-first mindset: you seek to understand needs and design practical funding approaches.
- Clear communication: you make complex requirements simple and actionable.
- Collaborative approach: you build trust across internal teams and external partners.
- Commitment to inclusion: you ensure equitable and accessible funding opportunities.
- Integrity and transparency: you manage funds ethically and document decisions clearly.
How to apply
If this role speaks to you, please apply and tell us how your experience aligns with the role. Share examples of funding programs you led and the outcomes achieved. We look forward to learning how you can help us unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together.
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