Head of Procedures Growth - Ophthalmology

ZEISS in India

ZEISS in India is headquartered in Bengaluru and present in the fields of Industrial Quality Solutions, Research Microscopy Solutions, Medical Technology, Vision Care and Sports & Cine Optics.

ZEISS India has 3 production facilities, R&D center, Global IT services and about 40 Sales & Service offices in almost all Tier I and Tier II cities in India. With 2200+ employees and continued investments over 25 years in India, ZEISS’ success story in India is continuing at a rapid pace. 

Further information at ZEISS India.

The Head of Procedure Growth Ophthalmology (Carl Zeiss Meditec India) will own the clinical-commercial engine of the Ophthalmology SBU — driving surgical platform adoption, building surgeon-level procedure preference, and converting equipment placements into a sustainable consumable annuity that underpins the SBU’s long-term revenue model.

This is the most clinically demanding commercial leadership role in the organization. It requires someone who is equally credible in an operating theatre supporting a senior surgeon and in a boardroom presenting a consumable revenue plan.

Position Details

          •         Job Title: Head of Procedure Growth— Ophthalmology

          •         Business Unit: Carl Zeiss Meditec India — Ophthalmology

          •         Location: [City, India]

          •         Reports To: SBU Head — Ophthalmology

          •         Direct Reports: Surgical Sales and Application Specialists, Workflow sales specialist, Practice development consultants

Purpose of the Role

• Own surgical procedure adoption across phaco, vitreoretinal, and refractive segments — driving platform utilization, clinical workflow integration, and surgeon preference through OT-level clinical presence and structured engagement programs.
• Own consumable revenue as a primary P&L accountability — not as a downstream outcome of capital sales, but as a managed commercial line with its own targets, contract architecture, and recovery programs.
• Build and lead the sales and application specialist team —Surgical Sales and Application Specialists, and Consumable Specialists — as the OT-level commercial force that converts equipment placements into long-term procedure partnerships.
• Act as the clinical-commercial bridge between surgical science and revenue outcomes — ensuring that every clinical relationship, OT visit, and education program is connected to a defined commercial objective and tracked to a commercial outcome.

Key Responsibilities

1. Consumable Revenue Ownership — Primary Mandate

• Own consumable revenue as a standalone P&L line with full accountability — target trajectory from current baseline toward xx% of surgical segment revenue over 36 months.
• Conduct a complete installed base audit within the first 60 days — mapping every ZEISS surgical platform in India against consumable attach status, current consumable brand in use, and annualized consumable revenue per account.
• Design and negotiate consumable commitment agreements — 12 to 24 month contracted consumable supply tied to service agreements or equipment arrangements — converting transactional consumable revenue into contracted annuity.
• Coordinate with the Head of Key Accounts and Regional Sales Head to ensure every equipment placement in any account has a consumable conversion plan activated within 60 days of installation — equipment placement without consumable follow-through is an incomplete commercial outcome.
• Track consumable attach rate by account, by platform, and by region — identify declining attach rates before they appear in revenue data and intervene with a clinical or commercial recovery action.
• Provide monthly consumable revenue reporting to the SBU head — covering revenue vs. target, attach rate trends, recovery program status, and contracted annuity pipeline.

2. Surgical Procedure Adoption — Phaco and Vitreoretinal

• Own phaco / DORC Vitro platform utilization per installed machine — track utilization data account by account against benchmark, identify underutilization patterns, and design clinical improvement programs that address the root cause.
• Build and lead the Surgical Sales &  Clinical Application Specialist team — deploying specialists in priority accounts with the mandate of clinical partnership, not product demonstration; specialists are evaluated on utilization improvement and consumable attach, not visit frequency.
• Develop and execute surgeon-level procedure engagement programs for phaco — technique optimization clinics, outcomes data sharing, consumable quality argumentation, and case support that builds clinical dependency on ZEISS consumable quality.
• Own the vitreoretinal procedure business — drive VR platform adoption and consumable penetration among the top 30 vitreoretinal surgeons in India;
• Coordinate with the Head of Key Accounts on ZEISS Cataract Suite adoption in anchor accounts — workflow integration from IOL Master biometry through CALLISTO surgical planning to AT IOL implantation is the deepest switching cost ZEISS can build; this role owns the clinical workflow integration component.
• Work with the Head of IOL Business to ensure phaco platform and IOL relationships are commercially coordinated in shared accounts — a surgeon using ZEISS phaco should be a priority IOL conversion target; a surgeon committed to ZEISS IOL should be a priority phaco utilization improvement target.

3. Refractive Procedure Development

• Own VisuMax SMILE procedure volume growth — the refractive segment is a premium niche where procedure support, outcomes data, and patient pathway optimisation are the primary commercial drivers.
• Drive SMILE adoption among the refractive surgeons — structured procedure support programs, India-specific outcomes data, comparative clinical evidence, and patient conversion toolkit development.
• Manage refractive Practice development consultants  — deploying and developing a small, high-quality team focused on depth of engagement with priority refractive surgeons rather than broad coverage.

4. Drive Premium Workflow adoption

• Own Premium Workflow installations across the country.
• Pre-Sales Technical & Clinical Consultation: Deliver expert technical guidance and compelling product demonstrations to assist customers in selecting workflow solutions, aligning product benefits with clinical workflows and patient outcomes to drive successful deal closures.
• Value-Based Solution Selling: Engage in superior technical and clinical discussions with customers to identify pain points and deliver tailored solutions that drive premiumization and workflow sales.

5. ZEISS Surgical Education and Fellowship Programs

• Own the surgical education component of ZEISS Academy India — wet labs, simulation programs, structured surgical curricula for phaco and VR, and hands-on training programs.
• Design and launch the ZEISS Surgical Fellowship Program — targeting a first cohort of 6 to 8 surgeon fellows in phaco and VR in Year 1, creating a long-term clinical advocacy and reference network.
• Coordinate with the Head of Strategic Marketing and Professional Education on the overall ZEISS Academy India calendar — this role owns the surgical clinical content and quality; Marketing owns the program design, surgeon experience, and advocacy architecture.

6.Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Attend and contribute to the Weekly SBU commercial review — own the surgical and consumables segment, presenting utilisation trends, consumable attach progress, recovery program status, and clinical activation updates requiring commercial follow-through.
• Ensure every clinical activation — OT specialist visit, surgical support case, fellowship placement, or consumable trial — is logged in CRM within 24 hours and handed off to the relevant commercial head within 48 hours with full context and commercial readiness information.
• Respond to commercial blocker requests from the Head of Key Accounts and Regional Sales Head within 5 working days — deploy OT specialist support, clinical evidence packages, or personal clinical engagement as required to unblock commercially stalled situations.

7. Governance, Compliance, and Reporting

• Ensure all clinical specialist / Practice development consultants / Premium workflow specialist activities comply with ZEISS policies, MCI guidelines on healthcare professional engagement, local healthcare regulations, and ethical standards.
• Maintain accurate documentation of clinical visits, surgical support cases, fellowship programs, and consumable contract negotiations.
• Provide structured monthly reporting to the SBU head — covering consumable revenue vs. target, attach rate by account and platform, recovery program progress, utilisation trends, specialist team performance, and education program outcomes.
• Manage the procedure growth and consumables budget — tracking investment per program against commercial return, and actively reallocating from low-return activities to high-return ones on a rolling basis.

Qualifications and Experience

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Optometry, or related field
• MBA or postgraduate qualification in Business or Healthcare Management preferred

Experience

• 12 to 16 years of experience in ophthalmic medical devices with specific experience in surgical platforms, IOL, or consumables; ophthalmology-specific experience is non-negotiable — adjacent surgical experience in other specialties is insufficient for the clinical credibility this role requires
• Direct OT-level clinical application experience in phaco and ideally VR — has personally supported cataract and/or retinal surgical cases in a clinical capacity; this is verified through reference checks and is a hard requirement, not a preferred qualification
• Proven track record in consumable revenue management — has owned consumable attach rate targets, negotiated consumable contracts with hospital procurement, and managed consumable recovery programs with documented outcomes
• Demonstrated experience building and leading clinical specialist teams — minimum 6 to 8 specialists with evidence of team development, retention outcomes, and capability building programs
• Experience with surgical education program design and delivery — wet labs, fellowship programs, or structured clinical training that surgeons value on genuine clinical merit
• Prior experience in platform utilization management — has identified underutilized accounts, diagnosed root causes, and executed improvement programs with measurable consumable revenue outcomes

Key Performance Indicators

Consumable Revenue

• Consumable revenue vs. target — monthly and quarterly
• Consumable revenue as percentage of surgical segment revenue
• Consumable contracts signed per year

Platform Utilization

• Utilisation rate per installed phaco and VR platform — tracked account by account against benchmark
• Utilisation improvement rate — percentage of below-benchmark accounts showing measurable improvement within 6 months of specialist engagement

Procedure Adoption

• SMILE procedure volume growth
• PRESBYOND Procedure Volume Growth
• Phaco clinical engagement depth — number of surgeons with active, structured clinical partnership vs. transactional product support relationship
• ZEISS Cataract Suite workflow integration — number of accounts with full diagnostic-to-surgical workflow adoption
• Retinal / Glaucoma  workflow installations growth

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