Associate Director, Field Sales Capabilities Employee Experience - East

Novo Nordisk AS

Plainsboro, NJ

JOB DETAILS
SALARY
$152,700–$267,300 Per Year
SKILLS
Adult Learning, Advanced Diploma in Childcare and Education (ADCE), Alliance/Partner Marketing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Best Practices, Business Analysis, Business Skills, Business Strategy, Change Management, Channel Strategies, Chronic Disease, Coaching, Compensation Management, Consulting, Continuous Improvement, Cross-Functional, Database Management Software/Systems (DBMS), Diabetes, Disease, Embedded Systems, Employee Relations, Field Sales, Healthcare, Identify Issues, Instructional Design, Leadership, Legal, Multitasking, Negotiation Skills, OSF Distributed Computing Environment (DCE), Onboarding, Operations Management, Operations Planning, Organizational Skills, Partner Sales, People Management, Performance Management, Pharmaceutical Sales, Physical Demands, Process Improvement, Product/Service Launch, Regional Sales, Relationship Management, Root Cause Analysis, Sales, Sales Management, Sales Strategy, Sales Support, Sales Training, Scalable System Development, Standards Development, Strategic Planning, Sustainability, Talent Management, Training/Teaching, Training/Teaching Curriculum, Vendor/Supplier Management, Vendor/Supplier Selection, Willing to Travel
LOCATION
Plainsboro, NJ
POSTED
18 days ago

About the Department

Imagine being a part of a team committed to helping people defeat diabetes and other serious chronic conditions. Here at Novo Nordisk, we seek out opportunities to contribute to healthier communities and better lives for all people. And, that's what you'll gain by joining Novo Nordisk's People & Organization team. Our P&O team is passionate about their purpose - enabling business success the Novo Nordisk Way by turning the Company's business strategy into an actionable workforce strategy. A strategy which captures the entire employee life-cycle. At Novo Nordisk, you will join an inclusive team of diverse talent and benefit from a range of possibilities for professional and personal development. Are you ready?

The Position

The role of the Associate Director of Field Sales Capabilities at Novo Nordisk Inc serves as a strategic performance and leadership development partner to an assigned Area Commercial Lead (ACL) and their leadership team. This role focuses on enabling sustained behavior, change and performance through performance consulting, leadership development, instructional design, and effective delivery.

The Associate Director translates enterprise and commercial strategy into field‑ready leadership capabilities, coaching standards, and development experiences that help leaders operate, coach, and execute effectively in a portfolio‑based environment. The role is accountable for designing scalable leadership development solutions, defining "what good looks like," and ensuring capability initiatives result in measurable behavior change and improved performance-not one‑time training events.

This position acts as a trusted advisor and center of expertise for leadership capability, coaching quality, and performance enablement, partnering closely with the ACL, P&O/Employee Experience, and cross‑functional stakeholders to drive consistency, accountability, and sustained impact at scale.

Relationships

This role reports to the Director, Field Sales Capabilities and serves as the primary day‑to‑day strategic partner to an assigned Field Sales Area Commercial Lead (ACL). The position is accountable for driving aligned execution of field capability initiatives, leadership development, and performance consulting in support of Area priorities.

The role works in close partnership with People & Organization (P&O), including HR Business Partners, Employee Relations, Talent Management, and is part of the Employee Experience (EE) team, which includes Academy & Franchise (Training) and Enterprise Capabilities. Through these partnerships, the role helps create strong alignment between Sales Strategy and Employee Experience by delivering and sustaining the P&O operating model to support and transform field capabilities.

This position engages extensively with Sales Leadership and Commercial Execution teams across the Cardiometabolic Sales organization, including ACLs, Regional Business Directors (RBDs), District Business Managers (DBMs), Commercial Execution (DCE / ADCE), Sales Innovation, and Virtual Sales Teams, ensuring national strategies are translated into practical, field‑ready learning, coaching, and leadership solutions.

In addition, the role collaborates cross‑functionally with Digital & AI Enablement, Legal, Ethics & Compliance, Market Access, and Marketing partners to ensure programs are compliant, integrated, and aligned with enterprise priorities. The role may also selectively engage external vendors to support leadership development, instructional design, and specialized learning needs.

While this position does not have direct people management responsibility, it plays a critical leadership role by influencing, coordinating, and sustaining national strategic training initiatives across selling, coaching, and leadership capabilities through strong relationship management and cross‑functional collaboration.

Essential Functions

Field Sales Excellence & Leadership Capability Development

  • Create strong synergy between Sales and Employee Experience through effective delivery of the P&O operating model strengthening internal client partnerships and transforming field capabilities.
  • Serve as the primary capability partner for the design, implementation, and sustainment of leadership focused learning and enablement solutions that support field sales onboarding, product launches, organizational expansions, and leadership transitions.
  • Translate enterprise and commercial strategy into clear, field ready leadership capability standards, defining what good looks like and how leaders are expected to operate, coach, and drive results in a portfolio-based environment.
  • Ensure all leadership and field capability initiatives are aligned to short term execution priorities and long-term strategic objectives, enabling scale, consistency, and sustained behavior change.
  • Oversee the execution of workshops to ensure effective development and evaluation of leadership competencies

Leadership Enablement & Performance Consulting

  • Partner with Sales Leadership and Commercial stakeholders to act as a bridge between strategy and execution, ensuring leaders are equipped not just with knowledge, but with the skills, routines, and accountability mechanisms required to deliver outcomes.
  • Apply a Performance Consulting approach to proactively identify leadership capability gaps, diagnose root causes, and design targeted solutions that drive measurable changes in leader behavior and field performance.
  • Design and lead scalable learning journeys that strengthen portfolio-based leadership, coaching effectiveness, decision making, and accountability, moving leaders from activity focused execution to outcome-based performance.
  • Oversee the execution of leadership and sales capability workshops, ensuring intentional development, reinforcement, and evaluation of leadership, coaching, and selling competencies aligned to defined capability standards.

Client & Center of Expertise - Leadership Capabilities

  • Act as a Center of Expertise for leadership capability development, serving as a subject matter expert for individual contributor, first line, and second line leader curricula.
  • Lead the design, delivery, evolution, and sustainment of Emerging Leader and second‑line leadership programs, ensuring alignment to simplified leadership standards (Leading Self, Leading People, Leading Business).
  • Contribute to enterprise critical initiatives within the Sales Innovation & Deployment Strategy, including Innovation Regions, Portfolio Teams, and Virtual Sales, ensuring leadership capability is embedded.

Measurement, Insight & Continuous Improvement

  • Monitor and assess the effectiveness of leadership capability initiatives using behavior-based measurement frameworks, coaching quality indicators, leader routines, and performance insights-moving beyond training satisfaction to observable behavior change.
  • Report impact, insights, and recommendations to senior stakeholders, using leading and lagging indicators to demonstrate progress toward clarity, accountability, and sustained performance at scale.
  • Stay current on leadership development trends, learning science, and digital enablement to continuously enhance capability strategies and ensure relevance in a rapidly evolving healthcare and commercial landscape.

Innovation, Digital Enablement & Sustainability

  • Design and implement innovative, technology enabled leadership solutions that enhance coaching quality, reduce friction, and improve leaders' ability to inspect, reinforce, and sustain desired behaviors in the flow of work.
  • Support the long‑term sustainability of leadership capabilities, ensuring initiatives are embedded into daily leader expectations, coaching routines, and performance management processes-not treated as one‑time events.

Physical Requirements

The job requires 50-75% overnight travel. This position can be located anywhere in the US, ideally within the territory.

Qualifications

  • A Bachelor's degree or equivalent required. Advanced degree preferred
  • 12+ years in pharmaceutical sales, management, and/or sales training experience
  • Experience in building organizational capabilities, with demonstrated depth in leadership development, curriculum design, and behavioral capability building preferred
  • Proven experience leading sales management and leadership development interventions across first‑ and second‑line leaders preferred.
  • Leadership Capability & Learning Expertise
  • Strong knowledge of leader development adult learning theory, and modern L&D trends, with the ability to translate learning into sustained behavior change.
  • Strategic & Business Acumen
  • Proven ability to interpret complex business challenges, identify root causes, and recommend effective, scalable solutions and best practices.
  • Strong strategic planning and business analysis skills, with the ability to translate enterprise and commercial priorities into clear operational plans and leader ready execution.
  • Demonstrated ability to balance short term delivery with long term capability sustainability in a fast-moving commercial environment.
  • Proven track record of sales performance results and credibility with senior commercial leaders.
  • Leadership Presence & Collaboration
  • Executive presence with the ability to influence, challenge, and partner effectively with senior leaders and cross functional stakeholders.
  • Strong cross functional leadership, communication, and negotiation skills, with experience operating in complex, informal, and matrixed environments
  • Ability to build trust and operate as a trusted advisor through insight, foresight, and delivery of measurable value.
  • Execution, Project & Vendor Management
  • Demonstrated ability to manage multiple initiatives and priorities simultaneously, with strong organizational discipline and attention to impact.
  • Experience adapting plans and priorities to address resource, operational, and change management challenges.
  • Experience managing external vendors and partners to support leadership development, instructional design, and specialized capability needs

The base compensation range for this position is $152,700 to $267,300. Base compensation is determined based on a number of factors. This position is also eligible for a company bonus based on individual and company performance.

Novo Nordisk offers long-term incentive compensation and or company vehicles depending on the positions level or other company factors.

Employees are also eligible to participate in Company employee benefit programs including medical, dental and vision coverage; life insurance; disability insurance; 401(k) savings plan; flexible spending accounts; employee assistance program; tuition reimbursement program; and voluntary benefits such as group legal, critical illness, identity theft protection, pet insurance and auto/home insurance. The Company also offers time off pursuant to its sick time policy, flex-able vacation policy, and parental leave policy.

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.

At Novo Nordisk, were not chasing quick fixes - were creating lasting change for long-term health. For over 100 years, weve been driven by a single purpose: to defeat serious chronic diseases and help millions of people live healthier lives. This dedication fuels our constant curiosity and inspires us to push the boundaries of whats possible in healthcare. We embrace diverse perspectives, seek out bold ideas, and build partnerships rooted in shared purpose. Together, were making healthcare more accessible, treating and defeating diseases, and pioneering solutions that create change spanning generations. When you join us, you become part of something bigger - a legacy of impact that reaches far beyond today.

Novo Nordisk is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal laws, rules or regulations.

If you are interested in applying to Novo Nordisk and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply, please call us at 1-855-411-5290. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.

About the Company

N

Novo Nordisk AS

Working at Novo Nordisk

 

Life-changing careers

Starting a career at Novo Nordisk is more than getting a job. It is an opportunity to improve the lives of millions of people living with a serious chronic disease.

Whether you are a part of supplying insulin for patients around the world, discovering the next breakthrough at one of our state-of-the-art research centres, working with us is truly life-changing.

 

We are inspired by life

We are a proud life-science company on a mission to ensure that people living with a chronic disease can live a full life. Millions rely on us.

We’re inspired by life in all its forms and shapes, ups and downs, opportunities and challenges. From our colleagues in the lab, working to change lives through pioneering break-through treatments, to our colleagues putting sustainability at the core of our processes and working to prolong the life of our planet, this mission to improve lives is at the core of our every action.

 

Together we drive change

Change is a constant — change in lifestyle, change in technology, change all over. At Novo Nordisk, we don’t wait for change. We drive it.

We’re a dynamic company in an even more dynamic industry, and we know that what got us to where we are today is not necessarily what will make us successful in the future.

That’s why we continuously push to improve the way we work and the lives of the patients we serve, creating innovative solutions that fit the way people want to live. To accomplish this, we embrace a spirit of open-mindedness and experimentation, striving for excellence without fixating on perfection.

 

Together, we are life-changing

Our company is our people. We know that life is anything but linear and balancing what is important at different stages of our career is never easy. That’s why we make room for diverse life situations, always putting people first. We want to ensure that every employee can achieve a work-life balance that supports their current priorities and where they want to go next.

 

Your development starts here

We value our employees for the unique skills, backgrounds and perspectives they bring to the table. We work continuously to help bring out the best in all of our people, offering opportunities for development and creating an environment of mobility within the company. We strive to offer a workplace that’s great to be in and to be from.

It is very important to us that anyone working with us feels empowered as an employee and as a person. We all should have the opportunity to act fast, make decisions and be agile. 

With a career at our company, you will feel a difference right from the start. A sense of inspiration that comes from a shared belief in driving positive change for people, families and communities everywhere, and it’s a collective effort. We rely on the joint potential and collaboration of our more than 45,000 employees.

In the video above, meet  Marie Darting, one of our scientists, and hear more about her work as a formulation scientist, her perspective on development plans and the impact she feels her work has on people living with a chronic disease.

 

Who we are

We were founded in 1923 and today we are a global healthcare company headquartered just outside Copenhagen, Denmark.

Our purpose is to drive change to defeat diabetes and other serious chronic diseases, such as obesity and rare blood and endocrine disorders. We do so by pioneering  scientific breakthroughs, expanding  access to our medicines , and working to prevent and ultimately cure diabetes.

With almost 100 years of experience, one of the broadest diabetes product portfolios in the healthcare industry, as well as an award-winning pipeline of innovative products, our success is built on our company values – the Novo Nordisk Way.

COMPANY SIZE
2,500 to 4,999 employees
INDUSTRY
Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals
FOUNDED
1923
WEBSITE
https://www.novonordisk.com/