Director Commercial Life Sciences (Middle East)

About the Role

Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. is seeking a Director, Commercial, Life Sciences (Middle East). This full-time, remote position is based anywhere in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. The Director will be responsible for defining the strategic direction for Thermo Fisher’s Life Sciences business in the Middle East, focusing on team and partner selection, performance management, growth, continuous improvement, and compliance with standardized practices. This role involves significant international travel, up to 50%, including overnight stays.

Key Responsibilities

The Director will drive the local direct sales team and establish the channel and direct business strategy and model for the Middle East region. This includes accountability for achieving agreed sales and financial targets by leveraging the Life Sciences matrix organization and Thermo Fisher corporate team. The role also involves supporting sales activities through workflow selling for Life Sciences and the broader Thermo Fisher organization, with a secondary responsibility for delivering country-level sales revenue through influence, support, and direct involvement with multiple EMEA Life Sciences businesses.

• Direct and manage local sales district managers, specialists, and channel managers.
• Build and develop highly motivated and effective teams.
• Develop and implement strategies for customers and channel partners to drive market share growth and customer value.
• Ensure cross-functional teamwork practices to support channel partners and end-users.
• Utilize strong cultural awareness to build successful relationships.
• Engage organizational resources to support regional growth.
• Lead, mentor, coach, and drive engagement within commercial teams (both internal and distributor teams).
• Implement and monitor effective performance management of channel partners, including compliance with financial and regulatory practices.
• Address and resolve channel partner issues, driving actions and solutions to completion.
• Manage relationships with customers, distributors, and global partners.
• Implement PPI and digital tools (AI) to drive efficiency in the sales team.

Qualifications and Experience

Candidates should possess 5-10 years of experience in Commercial/Sales leadership roles, specifically within the Life Science or Clinical Diagnostics industries. Experience managing both managers and individual contributors is required.

• Extensive experience in Commercial/Sales leadership roles, specifically within the Life Science or Clinical Diagnostics industries.
• Experience managing managers, as well as individual contributors.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and an ability to influence across multiple cultures, regions, and functions, operating at all business levels.
• Demonstrated presence, visibility, and personality to establish credibility with customers, channel partners, industry Key Opinion Leaders, and relevant authorities.
• Highly collaborative and engaging, a strong relationship builder, and comfortable in highly matrixed and complex environments.
• Self-confident with a balance of strategic and tactical thinking.
• Proven ability to drive employee engagement as a manager, coach, mentor, and thought leader.
• Excellent influencing, communication, leadership, and presentation skills.
• Ability to establish short and long-term business objectives.
• Willingness to travel up to 50% of working time based on business needs.