Director: Pharma Strategy and Competitive Intelligence

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The Director, Strategy & Market Insights is responsible for generating the market, customer, competitor, technology, and industry insights that inform Ontada’s strategic decisions and growth priorities.

This role serves as a critical connection between external market intelligence and executive decision-making, translating complex information into clear, actionable recommendations for Ontada leadership.

Working closely with the VP of Strategy, Chief Growth Officer, President, and leaders across Provider, Technology, Life Sciences, and Compile, the Director will identify emerging opportunities, competitive threats, market shifts, evolving customer needs, and industry trends. These insights will help guide strategic investments, product development, partnerships, M&A evaluation, and other growth initiatives.

The Director will also lead the development of business cases for key organic and inorganic opportunities, collaborating across Ontada and McKesson to articulate the strategic rationale, evaluate financial implications, and present recommendations to senior leadership.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Market Intelligence & Strategy Development

• Lead the collection, analysis, and synthesis of market, customer, competitor, technology, and industry intelligence to inform strategic priorities and market positioning.
• Identify and assess emerging market trends, disruptors, growth opportunities, evolving customer needs, and new business models that may influence Ontada’s strategic direction.
• Translate market intelligence into clear, actionable recommendations for senior leadership.
• Support enterprise strategy development, strategic planning, and ongoing strategic reviews.
• Ensure market insights are incorporated into strategic planning, investment decisions, resource allocation, and growth priorities.

Competitive Intelligence & Executive Recommendations

• Lead Ontada’s competitive intelligence program and translate findings into actionable business and executive recommendations.
• Monitor competitor activity across key areas, including products, real-world data and evidence, technology, partnerships, M&A activity, market positioning, and organizational changes.
• Evaluate competitive developments to determine potential business implications, opportunities, and risks for Ontada.
• Develop concise executive-level presentations and recommendations that turn competitive intelligence into strategic action.
• Establish a closed-loop approach that connects market and competitive insights to business decisions and measurable actions.
• Partner with Sales and Commercial teams to leverage primary and secondary market intelligence in support of customer and growth strategies.
• Integrate relevant market and competitive insights into established leadership forums and communication channels.

Business Case Development & Strategic Growth

• Lead the development of business cases for key organic and inorganic growth initiatives.
• Collaborate across Ontada and McKesson to define strategic rationale, assess market opportunity, evaluate financial implications, and develop recommendations.
• Apply financial modeling and business planning principles to evaluate potential investments and growth opportunities.
• Present business cases, findings, and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Support strategic evaluations related to new products, partnerships, investments, and potential M&A opportunities.

Minimum Requirements

• Degree or equivalent experience.
• Typically requires 10+ years of relevant professional experience. Fewer years may be considered with relevant Master’s or Doctoral qualifications.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in healthcare, business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Critical Skills & Experience

• 5+ years of experience in competitive intelligence, market research, corporate strategy, or a related discipline within the healthcare industry.
• Experience within biopharma, biotechnology, or healthcare competitive intelligence/market research strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex market and competitive information into clear strategic recommendations.
• Strong strategic thinking skills with the ability to connect insights across multiple business areas and workstreams in a matrixed organization.
• Experience developing data-driven business models, strategic analyses, and executive recommendations.
• Strong understanding of healthcare industry dynamics, with knowledge of biopharma and oncology highly valued.

Additional Skills

• Strong primary and secondary market research capabilities.
• Ability to synthesize complex information and communicate concise, decision-ready insights to senior leaders.
• Strong business and financial acumen, including experience with financial modeling, business cases, and financial planning.
• Demonstrated project management skills with experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Strong commercial judgment and ability to connect market intelligence to business opportunities.
• Intellectual curiosity and an ability to look beyond immediate project requirements to identify broader strategic implications.
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills across functions and levels of an organization.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and executive communication skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, matrixed environment while managing multiple strategic priorities.
• High degree of integrity, sound judgment, professionalism, and interpersonal effectiveness.
• Strong execution orientation with a focus on turning insights and recommendations into measurable business value.

Working Conditions

• Field-based position.
• Approximately 10–15% travel may be required.

We are proud to offer a competitive compensation package at McKesson as part of our Total Rewards. This is determined by several factors, including performance, experience and skills, equity, regular job market evaluations, and geographical markets. The pay range shown below is aligned with McKesson's pay philosophy, and pay will always be compliant with any applicable regulations. In addition to base pay, other compensation, such as an annual bonus or long-term incentive opportunities may be offered. For more information regarding benefits at McKesson, please click here.

Our Base Pay Range for this position

$173,800 - $289,600

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