Director, Strategy & Commercial Excellence, Middle East & Africa (MEA)

Work Schedule

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Job Description

Director Strategy & Commercial Excellence Middle East & Africa (MEA)

At Thermo Fisher Scientific our mission is clear: to enable our customers to make the world healthier cleaner and the Middle East & Africa (MEA) this means unlocking growth in complex high-potential markets while strengthening commercial execution and customer impact.

The Director Strategy & Commercial Excellence MEA is responsible for driving commercial performance execution rigor and scalable growth across the Middle East & Africa region.

This role serves as the primary commercial excellence leader for MEA translating APMEA strategy into country-level execution strengthening direct and channel effectiveness and improving performance visibility and decision quality across highly diverse markets.

Operating in a complex developing-market context the role focuses on practical execution standard work cadence analytics and capability building while partnering closely with country leaders channel teams and regional functions. A strong understanding of Thermo Fishers operating model and portfolio is essential.

Key Responsibilities

Commercial Excellence & Execution (MEA)

• Lead the Commercial Excellence agenda across MEA ensuring consistent execution of regional priorities.
• Embed standard work across:
  • Sales performance management
  • Forecasting and pipeline rigor
  • Funnel health win-rate and productivity analytics
• Elevate the quality of commercial reviews (MBRs / QBRs) from reporting to decision-making.
• Support country leaders with structured problem-solving (A3s recovery plans deep dives).

Strategy & Marketing (MEA)

• Translate APMEA strategy into MEA-specific priorities initiatives and execution plans.
• Support MEA country STRAPs (strategy plans) by:
  • Ensuring clarity rigor and comparability
  • Tracking execution progress and risks
• Ability to develop marketing plans and strategy including digital e-commerce and execute through country teams and COEs driving demand.
• Well versed with alla aspects of digital marketing ecommerce and lead generation.
• Identify cross-country themes constraints and growth opportunities unique to MEA and escalate appropriately.

Channel Management & Partner Effectiveness

• Drive Channel Management Standard Work across MEA including:
  • Partner segmentation and coverage models
  • Partner performance scorecards and reviews
  • Governance cadence and accountability
• Partner with country leaders to optimize direct vs. channel GTM models by market.
• Improve partner productivity execution consistency and customer experience through disciplined channel management.
• Act as the regional connector between APMEA channel frameworks and local execution realities.

Commercial Analytics & Performance Visibility

• Establish strong commercial performance visibility across MEA:
  • Revenue funnel win rates pipeline quality
  • Channel vs. direct performance
• Partner with Finance and Digital teams to improve forecast accuracy and transparency.
• Use data to drive fact-based decisions prioritization and resource allocation.

Capability Building & Enablement

• Build commercial capability across MEA sales and channel teams through:
  • Training tools and playbooks
  • Best-practice sharing across countries
• Support adoption of regional tools and programs (e.g. sales effectiveness tools incentive apps win-room mechanisms).
• Strengthen commercial maturity while respecting local market constraints and realities.

Stakeholder Management & Governance

• Act as a trusted commercial partner to MEA country leaders.
• Represent MEA in regional/ global Commercial Excellence forums and reviews.
• Ensure alignment between MEA execution and regional/ divisional governance cadence and expectations.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelors degree required; Masters degree preferred.
• 15 years of experience across commercial operations sales excellence strategy execution or consulting.
• Demonstrated experience working across emerging and developing markets ideally within MEA.
• Strong understanding of direct and channel-based GTM models.
• Proven ability to drive execution in resource-constrained high-variance environments.
• Strong analytical influencing and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience within life sciences healthcare industrials or adjacent sectors preferred.