Head of Planning & Commercial Excellence
22 hours ago
Alicante
Mantell Associates is partnered with a fast-growing B2B pharmaceutical company specialising in small-molecule finished dosage forms, who is seeking an energetic and analytically strong Head of Planning & Commercial Excellence to elevate its strategic planning, commercial performance, and decision-making capabilities. This is a key hire and offers a clear development path into senior leadership positions across Sales, Marketing, or broader Commercial functions. This opportunity is ideal for a down-to-earth, dynamic leader with a blend of planning, marketing, commercial operations, and quantitative analysis experience, as well as exposure to international transformation initiatives. Head of Planning & Commercial Excellence - Responsibilities: • Lead the annual strategic planning and forecasting cycles, ensuring alignment across Commercial, Finance, Marketing, and Senior Leadership, • Drive commercial excellence initiatives, enhancing processes, KPIs, dashboards, and performance tracking across all business units, • Oversee budgeting, scenario modelling, and advanced financial/quantitative analysis to support high-quality decision-making, • Review, challenge, and refine business cases, investment proposals, and in-licensing opportunities with analytical depth and strategic insight, • Partner closely with Sales, Marketing, and Finance to shape brand planning, market assessments, and commercial strategy, • Mentor and develop a small but growing team (currently 1 direct report), with scope to expand as the function scales, • Build and maintain strong senior-level relationships internally and externally, acting as a trusted advisor across the organisation, • 6-10+ years' experience in commercial excellence, strategic planning, business operations, commercial finance, or marketing operations within the pharmaceutical industry, • Background in small-molecule FDF or broader B2B pharma strongly preferred, • Strong analytical skill set with demonstrated experience in financial modelling, forecasting, KPI development, and scenario evaluation, • Experience reviewing and challenging business cases, investment proposals, and cross-functional commercial strategies, • Proven ability to work across multifunctional teams, influence senior stakeholders, and communicate complex insights in a clear, actionable way, • Experience in organisational or commercial transformation within international environments, • Leadership experience, ideally managing and developing small teams with potential for expansion, • Energetic, collaborative, pragmatic, and comfortable operating in a fast-moving commercial environment