Country Medical Lead, Italy

Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on helping conquer cancer globally through use of its proprietary tests, vast data sets and advanced analytics. The Guardant Health oncology platform leverages capabilities to drive commercial adoption, improve patient clinical outcomes and lower healthcare costs across all stages of the cancer care continuum. Guardant Health has commercially launched Guardant360, Guardant360 CDx, Guardant360 TissueNext, Guardant360 Response, and GuardantOMNI tests for advanced stage cancer patients, and Guardant Reveal for early-stage cancer patients. The Guardant Health screening portfolio, including the Shield test, aims to address the needs of individuals eligible for cancer screening.

About the Role:

Based in Italy, the primary role of the County Medical Lead, Medical Affairs (MA), is to educate and develop academic key opinion leaders (KOL) champions with the most current study findings (abstracts, publications and evidence pipeline) supporting the clinical value of Guardant Health's products.

The Country Medical Lead will co-develop the studies and publication strategies with the MA Director South of Europe and the VP of MA International to develop clinical evidence to achieve positive guidelines and physician adoption and support private and public payer coverage. This role will report to the Medical Affairs Director South of Europe.

The role plays a major role in abstract and publication creation, and in the development and creation of physician educational slides to be deployed in focused events (such as academic grand rounds, scientific sessions, advisory boards or Continuing Medical Education (CME) lectures), and in training speakers/educators.

S/he will understand the clinical needs for the oncology focused healthcare professionals and cancer patients and build a team focused on strategic partnerships with leading cancer centers throughout Italy and community-based oncology groups with clinical utilization needs and interest for routine care +/- trials capabilities.

They will need to be effective at translating data from research and clinical utility projects as well as real world evidence data and disseminating key information through publications, and presentations at national, regional and local meetings, healthcare professional events, patient events and educational activities.

The role also involves supporting strategic commercial partnerships related to healthcare institutions, marketing and market access; education and training of the sales team, and development of regional physician influencers to drive test coverage.

The Country Medical Lead is able to drive strategic initiatives and collaboration with other senior Guardant executives, and construction of studies and publications roadmaps that achieve corporate objectives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• In depth understanding that cancer is a complex disease and identify clinical unmet needs in diagnostic and therapeutic pathways together with involved healthcare professionals, patients and payers
• Identify, develop and/or maintain strong, collaborative working relationships with premier cancer center KOL champions, to promote understanding and adoption of our novel diagnostic technologies.
• In partnership with the Sales executives, identify and support strategic healthcare partnerships that include evidence generation opportunities, pathway definition per tumor type, molecular tumor boards, advisory boards, report interpretation and registry support.
• Drive the development of clinical utility projects and investigator-initiated studies that lead to data generation required for market access purposes, generating pertinent abstracts and publications.
• Critically review and develop education slides based on new publications and research findings, for approval by the MA Director South of Europe and global Marketing.
• Lead and support speaker programs and education of leading clinicians with expertise in main solid tumors. Support continued education.
• Prepare or support the elaboration of on-site oral presentations, data reviews, and interactive education events for KOLs, also known as "deep dive"
• Synopsize and educate key personnel regarding emerging abstracts and publications relevant to molecular testing.
• Assist the MA Director South of Europe and the Medical Affairs colleagues in agenda planning and meeting facilitation of Clinical Advisory Board(s) and scientific events.
• Identify and help draft study protocols and publication plans, including drafting/first authoring of multiple abstracts and publications with external KOL coauthors.
• Be able to lead Medical Science Liaison and Clinical Oncology Specialist teams in the country to develop KOL champions at leading national centers and large oncology group strategic partners.
• Lead in major investigator-initiated, multicenter studies that expand our indications through validation and outcomes assessment.
• Work hand in hand with the country manager to secure the country´s strategy is supported by the medical plan and activities.
• Work closely with the country team, including the sales specialist team and client services.
• Support market access activities and the development of materials and dossiers required to generate or broaden payer adoption.
• Teamwork with the clinical trial manager(s) international and global (US based) to have an overview on the ongoing trials and their relevance in data generation.
• Work closely with the medical affairs team EUAA and the broader global medical affairs organization.
• Leader able to connect with US and AMEA based piers.
• Identify main scientific conferences in the country, organizing Guardant Health´s presence and goals & objectives.
• Plan the yearly budget requirements to achieve the MA country goals, in conjunction with the global MA international team, the Medical Affairs Director South of Europe and the country manager.

• Terminal degree in a scientific field of study (Pharm.D., Ph.D., M.D. or Master's Level with academic equivalent such as Associate Professor position).
• Clinical expertise or related experience in Oncology is highly desirable.  Minimum of 3-5 years of healthcare experience in the pharmaceutical, biotech, academic or cancer diagnostic industry.
• Experience working with experts at academic medical centers to build consensus around new products and/or services.
• Skilled team builder/manager.
• Successful publication as primary author or primary draftee of peer-reviewed publications.
• Track record of independent presentation at major academic centers resulting in product adoption.
• Material input and experience in study protocol design and documentation.
• Prior experience as an DMA in the introduction of a novel new clinical product is highly desired.

 Technical Skills Required

• Applies advanced knowledge of the biotechnology, diagnostics and pharmaceutical industry with main focus on Oncology.
• + 8  years of experience in the field.
• Ability to apply advanced knowledge of company product specifications.
• Intermediate-to-advanced knowledge of the following computer software programs: Microsoft Office: Powerpoint, Excel, and Word.
• Ability to work independently and remotely while maintaining a strong teamwork ethic.
• Multi-dimensional in abilities to work on simultaneous tasks, work cross-team and at different levels of the organization, whether internal or external relationships to the organization.
• Self-directed, intrinsically motivated, flexible to changes in an ever changing dynamic environment.
• Strong problem-solving skills, good attention to detail, time management skills and personal initiative.
• Ability to set priorities and self-organize the working agenda.
• Exceptional human relations skills to coordinate the accomplishment of tasks through other people.
• Outstanding oral presentation skills in Italian and English.
• Highly developed written skills, the ability to produce documents for dissemination both inside and outside the organization for presentations, technical briefs and scientific publications.
• Ability to elicit and answer clinical questions in groups ranging from individuals to larger didactic roundtables and meetings.
• Ability to address high-level experts in the scientific field at company-sponsored events and trade shows.
• Excellent proofreading skills, with the ability to proof for proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and formatting of documents. 
• Additional languages beyond English and Italian are of interest.

 Work Environment:

• Extensive travel that may require up to 3-4 days per week to meet with KOLs, attend physician education talks and conferences, including specialty society scientific meetings, scientific sessions, advisory boards, and healthcare events.
• Some weekend work might be required (eg: scientific conferences and meetings scheduled on weekends)
• Travel is estimated to be approximately 40-50% of the working time.
• Mostly national travel will be required, with the potential need to attend some selected international conferences (eg ASCO, ESMO) and team meetings, which will depend on the company´s needs and customer attendance.
• Must be physically able to handle extensive travel in vehicle, train, plane, or other modes of public transport.
• Office can be home-based, and involves extensive use of computer and keyboard while in home office.
• Requires the ability to focus on multiple tasks simultaneously, work in high-paced, high-energy environment.

Employee may be required to lift routine office supplies and use office equipment. Majority of the work is performed in a desk/office environment; however, there may be exposure to high noise levels, fumes, and biohazard material in the laboratory environment. Ability to sit for extended periods of time.

Guardant Health is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our hiring processes for candidates with disabilities, long-term conditions, mental health conditions, or sincerely held religious beliefs. If you need support, please reach out to [email protected]

Guardant Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

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