General Manager – Strategic Alliances & Strategic Growth

Industry: Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals

Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka

Client Profile: A leading, prestigious, and highly respected healthcare and pharmaceutical powerhouse in Sri Lanka.

Employment Type: Full-Time | Executive Management

Role Overview

Our client is seeking a commercially driven, highly strategic, and result-oriented General Manager – Strategic Alliances & Strategic Growth to spearhead the acquisition of new international agencies and high-yield product portfolios.

This is a high-stakes, deal-making and origination role, not merely a relationship management position. The successful candidate will hold full commercial accountability for converting corporate and clinical engagements with global pharmaceutical principals into signed, exclusive agency agreements. Your mandate is to strategically curate and onboard revenue-generating portfolios that fuel sustainable, high-margin growth for the organization.

What You Will Own

You will hold end-to-end accountability for the strategic alliance and business growth lifecycle, with clear performance expectations in the following areas:

Strategic Agency Acquisition: Proactively identify, negotiate, and conclude exclusive commercial agreements with top-tier global pharmaceutical principals and offshore manufacturers.
Alliance & Deal Execution: Lead the transition of high-potential international pipeline discussions into legally and commercially binding signed agency contracts.
Revenue & Profitability Drivers: Deliver incremental top-line and bottom-line growth by onboarding new molecular, therapeutic, and device portfolios that meet the growth and margin targets of the organization.
Portfolio Fit & Curation: Prioritize high-margin, sustainable, and clinically relevant product lines with strong market demand and long-term prospects, avoiding volume-driven additions that do not align with the strategic core.
Commercial & Evaluation: Rigorously assess the commercial viability, pricing frameworks, regulatory feasibility (NMRA), and lifecycle potential of specific pharmaceutical molecules and therapeutic areas within the local market.
Cross-Border Negotiations: Spearhead complex, cross-border contract negotiations with offshore principals, aligning on commercial margins, supply-chain parameters, governance models, and go-to-market strategies.
Lifecycle Program Governance: Maintain full ownership of the process from initial international outreach and pitching through due diligence, financial modeling, contracting, launch readiness, and post-signing transition performance tracking.
Internal Synergy & Transition: Collaborate closely with internal cross-functional business heads (Regulatory, Sales & Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain) to ensure flawless operational execution once new alliances are secured.

What We Are Looking For

This role requires proven converters and deal-makers, not facilitators. Candidates must demonstrate:

Professional Experience: Minimum of 10–12 years of progressive experience in business development, licensing, strategic alliances, or agency acquisition specifically within the Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, or Life Sciences sectors.
Proven Track Record: A documented history of converting high-level cross-border discussions into signed commercial agency agreements, with hands-on experience managing global or regional principal relationships.
Education: A Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy, Biological/Life Sciences, Business Management, or a related field. An MBA, CFA, or post-graduate qualification in finance or corporate strategy is highly desirable.
Strategic Savvy: The ability to confidently navigate long deal cycles, complex compliance standards, international legal agreements, and multifaceted stakeholder landscapes.
Commercial & Analytical Acumen: Expert capability in evaluating financial deal structures, pricing elasticity, cost-to-serve models, and long-term value creation, supported by a solid working knowledge of medical molecules and therapeutic pipelines.
Ownership & Tenacity: An absolute ownership mentality with the resilience, persistence, and commercial drive required to maintain deal momentum through prolonged international negotiations.

Why Join This Organization?

This is a rare, high-visibility opportunity to directly shape the future portfolio and growth trajectory of one of the country's most prominent healthcare groups. Your decisions and successful alliances will have a tangible impact on national access to life-saving medicines, business performance, and long-term corporate wealth creation.

​​​​​​​General Manager – Strategic Alli...

General Manager – Strategic Alli...