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

Work Schedule

Standard (Mon-Fri)

Environmental Conditions

Office

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 safer. In 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 Fisher’s 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 COE’s 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

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s 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.