Openings at Roche

The Opportunity

• Roche Pharma is seeking a Strategic Access Lead to join their team in Johannesburg.
• This role is designed to develop and implement strategies that ensure timely and equitable access to our medicines. This involves engaging with key stakeholders across health systems, understanding market dynamics, and navigating regulatory landscapes. Your efforts will facilitate optimal pricing and reimbursement solutions, ultimately improving health outcomes for patients and reinforcing Roche’s commitment to innovation and patient care.

Key Challenges

Market Access

• Stakeholder Engagement: Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders such as government bodies, healthcare professionals, payers, and patient advocacy groups to understand their needs and perspectives.
• HEOR & Value Demonstration: Conduct epidemiology research and demonstrate product value in terms of health outcomes and cost-effectiveness, supporting pricing and reimbursement discussions.
• Pricing Strategy & Market Analysis: Develop competitive pricing strategies aligned with local economic conditions, global pricing guidelines, and patient needs. Analyze market trends, barriers to access, competitor activities, and healthcare policy changes.
• Regulatory Compliance: Ensure market access initiatives comply with regulations in collaboration with the regulatory team for product approvals.
• Training & Internal Support: Train internal teams on market access strategies, integrating access-related content into patient journeys and professional interactions.
• Advocacy & Awareness Collaboration: Partner with patient organizations and advocacy groups to raise disease awareness and improve access to innovative therapies.
• Policy Advocacy: Influence health policies to improve access to medicines and contribute to national dialogue on policy reforms and decision-making.
• Access Initiatives: Implement programs to improve treatment access, including underserved populations, and explore reimbursement models to reduce health system burdens.
• Monitoring & Reporting: Track and report on health technology assessments (HTA), market access activities, and challenges to refine strategies and enhance patient access.
• Departmental Leadership: Champion innovation and best practices within the department while leading initiatives in focus areas such as pricing, reimbursement models, strategic stakeholder mapping, patient support, and digital solutions.

Launch Excellence

• Pipeline planning and access landscaping, work with the Pods to map new disease areas and quantify molecule potential.
• Co-create the new molecule map (1 slide snapshot of the market with key info regarding size, competitors, public and private reimbursement opportunity) with internal stakeholders (PJP, HSP, Medical etc.) 
• Collaborate with GPS on launch strategies and learnings from early launch countries.

Advocacy

• To build innovative market access solutions by researching global trends, analysing trends in the context of the specific environments, developing business models and testing solutions, engaging with experts, piloting solutions and managing implementation of successful innovations as required
• To develop and support access Policy shaping (internal and External).

Who You Are as an Ideal Candidate

Qualifications & experience 

• NQF 7-8 in health sciences related field
• At least 10 years experience in Pharma and/or Medical Scheme managed healthcare.
• 3 years market access experience. Additional experience in medical, sales and/or marketing will be advantageous. 

You Must have Knowledge of:

• Pharmaceutical industry including regulations and product knowledge
• Health systems legislation and regulations in South Africa
• Healthcare and Medical funding environment and Healthcare funding models 
• Pharmaco-economics and outcomes research would be advantageous
• Political environment and structures 
• Understanding of the NEMLC 
• In the absence of relevant qualifications, experience in the relevant field and at the relevant level will be considered.

Recommended Skills & Abilities 

• Healthcare Landscape/Stakeholders, Therapeutic Area, Pricing, Reimbursement, Partnership oriented mindset
• Analytical mindset, Project Management, Tender Process, Negotiation
• Strong entrepreneurial mindset with outstanding customer centricity
• Growth mindset, able to learn quickly, take risks and experiment
• Deep understanding of patient journey(s) and related Roche products 
• Excellent communication skills & customer engagement skills
• Systems thinker
• Strong cross-functional leadership within the organization and ability to drive and influence peers in complex (matrix) organization

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The Position

• Are you ready to lead with purpose? As the Customer Engagement Lead in Johannesburg, you will shape and guide the strategic direction and management of Roche's disease areas and product portfolio, ensuring our competitiveness in the South African healthcare market.  
• Your role, as an integral member of the Enabling Team, will contribute to Roche’s long-term vision of achieving a triple-win outcome: to patients, the business, and the broader healthcare ecosystem. This entails fostering innovation, operational efficiency, and value creation through avenues like new patient services, cutting-edge technologies, external collaborations, and global knowledge-sharing.  
• As a leader of Market Enablers, Patient Journey Partners (PJPs), and Squad Leads, you will empower teams to innovate, collaborate authentically, and ensure Roche Pharma South Africa is positioned as a forward-thinking leader both internally and externally.
• In this strategic leadership role, you will be tasked with navigating complexities while making Roche a trusted and transformative partner in the healthcare ecosystem

 Key challenges:

• Driving strategic and operational management to create effective, scalable, and sustainable business outcomes while holding teams accountable to shared visions and goals.
• Fostering a high-performing, inclusive culture that encourages innovation, growth, and ownership.
• Overseeing commercial excellence by supporting seamless execution of product strategies across therapy areas, achieving both speed-to-market and commercial success.
• Engaging with diverse stakeholders — from therapeutic area experts to funders, regulators, and patient advocates — to co-create sustainable healthcare solutions.
• Delivering on transformation, demand planning, financial stewardship, and compliance while responding to evolving legislative and market dynamics.
• Coaching and empowering your team to adapt to agile ways of working while ensuring the alignment of mindsets, skills, and capacity across the organization.

Who you are as our ideal candidate:

• We are seeking a visionary leader who thrives on making meaningful impacts. Our ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications, experience, and mindset:  

Qualifications & Experience:  

• NQF Level 7/8 in a science-related field (minimum).  
• 10 years’ experience in commercial or strategic roles within the pharmaceutical industry.  
• 8 years of management experience, including 2 years at the executive management level.  
• Demonstrated experience in strategic planning with a proven ability to implement large-scale business strategies.  
• A strong understanding of the pharmaceutical industry, including lifecycle management, marketing operations, and industry regulations.  

Knowledge and Skills:  

• Expertise in pharmaceutical commercial excellence and product portfolio management.  
• Strategic agility with the ability to anticipate trends, shape decisions, and adjust priorities.  
• Experience developing new business models and implementing innovative solutions.  
• Exceptional skills in stakeholder engagement, market analytics, and cross-functional collaboration.