Associate Director, Forecasting

Summary The Associate Director (AD), Forecasting will lead development and communication of high-quality, assumption-driven commercial forecasts and value assessments to support decision making across pipeline assets, BD&L opportunities and Established Medicines portfolio. The role will partner cross-functionally to ensure alignment on key inputs, drive forecast governance and documentation standards, and enable leadership with insights on performance drivers, upside/downside, and investment trade-offs. The role brings strong commercial judgment, analytical rigor, and project management capabilities to translate market dynamics, strategic choices, and evidentiary uncertainty into transparent forecast narratives, risks, and scenarios.

About The Role Associate Director, Forecasting Location – Hyderabad Hybrid Major Accountabilities

• Develop and maintain transparent, assumption-driven forecasts for Established Medicines and select pipeline/launch assets, applying appropriate methodologies, challenging assumptions, and documenting key inputs from analogs, epidemiology, patient flows, competitive intelligence, and cross-functional partners.
• Quantify the impact of market dynamics and internal events such as LOE, pricing, contracting, indication expansion, label changes, and supply constraints through scenarios, sensitivities, and risk/opportunity assessments; track forecast-to-actuals, identify variance drivers, and refresh models as needed.
• Support pipeline, launch, and BD&L deliverables through timely forecast updates, market sizing, revenue modeling, due diligence support, clear narratives, and alignment on key assumptions, uncertainties, and value drivers.
• Drive standardization, simplification, and automation of forecasting processes, models, templates, data pipelines, and dashboards to improve scalability, transparency, speed, and decision support, using advanced analytics where appropriate.
• Lead and develop a high-performing HYD forecasting capability team with clear accountability, decision rights, and performance expectations, while partnering with the US GM organization, US Finance, I&A pillars, and AIDE leadership on capability priorities, talent, operations, and site-level initiatives.

Minimum Requirements

• Minimum 10 years of experience in pharmaceutical forecasting, data analytics, or sales operations, preferably in branded, pipeline, marketed, Specialty, or Rare Disease products, with strong knowledge of the US pharmaceutical commercial model, market dynamics, and analytics ecosystem.
• Undergraduate degree in Business or STEM required, with deep expertise in forecasting and analytics, including pharmaceutical datasets such as Rx and APLD, ROI/financial modeling, statistical analysis, and data-driven decision support.
• Strong ability to partner cross-functionally, build consensus, communicate uncertainty, and explain insights from aggregate business trends to modeling mechanics for diverse stakeholders, including senior leadership.
• Proven self-starter with high standards, innovative thinking, strong analytical, interpersonal, communication, project management, and change management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines.
• Strong organizational agility, political awareness, and ability to navigate complex environments to get things done, with excellent PowerPoint and Excel skills.

Preferred Skills

• Preferred to have master’s degree in data analytics, data science, or finance workstreams
• Experience operating through a large-scale organizational transformation or operating model redesign
• Experience across multiple enterprise analytics organizations and experience in establishing capabilities in GCCs
• Breadth in experience in forecasting techniques, projects and managing stakeholder constraints across different brand portfolios and market
• Fluent English, other languages desirable.

Location: Hyderabad NKC | Hybrid | 3 days a week in office is mandatory.

Direct Reports: 3-5 Internal Associates + team of External Associates.

Why Novartis: Helping people with disease and their families takes more than innovative science. It takes a community of smart, passionate people like you. Collaborating, supporting and inspiring each other. Combining to achieve breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. Ready to create a brighter future together? https://www.novartis.com/about/strategy/people-and-culture

Benefits and Rewards: Learn about all the ways we’ll help you thrive personally and professionally.

Read our handbook (PDF 30 MB)