East Africa Commercial Director

Role Overview

This is the executive seat that owns commercial growth for a healthtech and pharmaceutical supply organisation across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the wider East African region, based on-site in Nairobi and reporting to the global growth lead. Day to day the director moves between ministry and donor conversations, hospital and insurer negotiations, and coaching the country-level commercial leads who carry territory targets, while keeping pricing, forecasting and distributor performance tightly aligned. The role matters because the organisation's regulatory-vetted pharmaceutical pipeline only creates value when it is converted into recurring institutional contracts and repeat service revenue at regional scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute the multi-country market entry sequence for newly vetted generic and specialised pharmaceutical lines, deciding which markets open first, through which channel, and with what commercial evidence.
• Drive institutional business development directly with public health programmes, national medical supply agencies, ministry stakeholders, hospital networks, private insurers, donor-funded buyers and commercial wholesalers.
• Recruit, negotiate and manage strategic partnerships with regional wholesalers and distributors, setting terms that extend penetration without eroding margin or control of the end customer.
• Lead the regional commercial organisation through Regional Commercial Leads and the National Marketing Lead — setting territory targets, sales KPIs, reporting rhythms and performance expectations across countries.
• Personally steward senior relationships with hospital C-suites, ministry leadership and insurance partners, and lead complex negotiations on long-term supply agreements and master service agreements.
• Monitor the regional pipeline continuously across products, channels and geographies, intervening early where a line, a distributor or a market is underperforming and reallocating commercial effort accordingly.
• Build demand forecasts from CRM metrics, market intelligence and epidemiological data, translating them into supply and launch plans the operations and finance teams can act on.
• Shape localised pricing with Finance and Operations that remains competitive while protecting gross margin, and keep all commercial activity, import filings and product rollouts compliant with local regulatory and good distribution practice requirements, including PPB and KEBS.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Economics, Pharmacy or a related discipline; an MBA, a Master's in Health Economics or a Master's in Business Strategy is strongly preferred.
• 10–15+ years of progressive commercial leadership in pharmaceuticals, healthcare or medical distribution, with a minimum of 5 years in a senior executive role managing commercial teams and market entry across East Africa.
• Demonstrated institutional B2B track record: winning and administering government supply tenders, opening hospital formulary channels, and managing insurer and distributor networks.
• Proven experience launching and scaling new generic or specialised pharmaceutical portfolios in complex African markets.
• Advanced contract negotiation, deal structuring and key account management skills at C-suite and government level.
• Strong analytical capability in data-driven demand forecasting, pipeline management and pricing analysis.
• Working command of cross-border trade dynamics, supply chain logistics and health system regulation across East African markets.
• Executive leadership presence with a record of managing multi-country teams, plus willingness to travel frequently throughout the region from a Nairobi base.

Qualified candidates should submit an updated CV through the company's official website or application portal on or before Friday, 9th October 2026. Role enquiries can be directed to +254 784 155 512.