Global Head Clinical Assurance Quality Development Unit

The Global Head CQA Development Unit will join Novartis in Basel, Switzerland, steering the quality strategy that underpins the company's most innovative medicines. In this senior leadership position you will oversee a worldwide team of Clinical Quality professionals and work closely with senior leaders across the organisation to ensure regulatory excellence, patient safety and data integrity throughout the drug development pipeline. Your daily work will involve leading and developing the global group of Clinical Quality Program Leads, shaping and executing the quality strategy for assigned development units, and providing strategic oversight for clinical programmes. You will partner with senior stakeholders to spot, mitigate and raise quality risks, champion inspection readiness, and guide audits, remediation and continuous‑improvement projects that embed quality‑by‑design and robust governance across all studies. The role requires an advanced degree in Life Sciences, Medicine, Pharmacy or a closely related scientific discipline. You must bring extensive experience in clinical development, quality assurance, pharmacovigilance or other regulated healthcare settings, together with a proven record of building and leading global teams inside a complex matrix organisation. A deep understanding of the full clinical‑trial lifecycle and worldwide regulatory expectations is essential, as is a history of managing highly complex programmes and influencing senior cross‑functional stakeholders. Strong communication, negotiation and problem‑solving skills are also mandatory. In addition to the core requirements, the posting highlights several desirable capabilities such as business acumen, collaboration, data‑integrity focus, decisive decision‑making, leadership presence, risk‑management expertise and stakeholder‑management skills. The position is based in Basel with hybrid‑working options, and Novartis notes that relocation support is not provided, so candidates must already have access to the location. The role offers a competitive salary range and a suite of benefits, but those details are not part of the required summary. What the role asks for: - Advanced degree in Life Sciences, Medicine, Pharmacy or related field - Extensive experience in clinical development, QA, pharmacovigilance or regulated healthcare - Proven leadership building and leading global teams in matrix organizations - Deep knowledge of end‑to‑end clinical trial processes and global regulations - Success managing high‑complexity programs and influencing senior stakeholders - Strong communication, negotiation and problem‑solving abilities - Nice‑to‑have: Business Acumen - Nice‑to‑have: Collaboration - Nice‑to‑have: Data Integrity - Nice‑to‑have: Decision Making - Nice‑to‑have: Leadership - Nice‑to‑have: Risk Management - Nice‑to‑have: Stakeholder Management