Director, Market Development: Job ID - 1184

Ascendis Pharma is a fast-growing biopharmaceutical company with locations in the United States, Denmark, and Germany. We are applying our TransCon technology to build a leading, fully integrated biopharmaceutical company with an independent pipeline of long-acting prodrug therapies that address unmet patient needs. We have successfully launched our first innovative product in the US, and on the brink of expansion into new disease categories.

At Ascendis, we strive to make meaningful improvements in patients' lives. We make business decisions on patient's needs and we do our best every day to realize our products' benefits for our patients. We are passionate about realizing our shared vision and goals. We trust each other's strengths, and when we face challenges, we remain optimistic and committed to working together as one team to achieve extraordinary results.

Position Summary

The Director, Market Development is responsible for the market development strategies and tactics for two disease categories: Hypoparathyroidism and Achondroplasia. This role requires marketing competency and the ability to thrive in an entrepreneurial and growing organization. A willingness to "roll up your sleeves" and collaborate with matrixed teams is critically important for the successful delivery of brand objectives.

Compliant coordination with Market Research, Medical Affairs, Sales, Brand Leaders, Corporate Communications, Legal, Regulatory and Clinical to strategically develop relevant advisory insights and to pull through branded and unbranded initiatives for these two rare-disease treatments. This role requires significant and extensive cross-functional leadership experience. Additionally, the Thought Leader Liaison field team will report directly to this role.

The Director will establish appropriate procedures, systems, metrics, and infrastructures to support market development initiatives. She/he will possess strong leadership skills, an ability to set a vision, to lead change and collaborate across functional lines. She/he should also be adept at interacting with senior executives. The Director reports directly to the US Head of Marketing. Responsibilities include and are not limited to:

Leadership

Represent Ascendis Pharma with customers, building relationships with key opinion leaders (KOLs)

Lead the development of commercial engagement plans for KOLs

Ongoing coaching and development for team members

Strategic Management of Advisory Programs

National and Regional advisory board leadership: Collaborate with Clinical, Medical, Marketing, Market Research and Legal to develop strategic content that generates relevant product communication and promotion insights

Launch advisor leadership: Establish and manage launch-specific advisors who will provide on-going commercialization and marketing advice as we approach brand launches

Key Opinion Leader Engagement & Development

Cultivation of KOLs: build meaningful relationships on behalf of the Company with hypoparathyroidism (HP) and achondroplasia (ACH) key opinion leaders (KOLs). Identify, foster, and develop new KOLs within HP and ACH and build awareness of Ascendis Pharma with existing KOLs

Conference KOL engagement: Establish Executive level KOL engagements at scientific conferences and liaise with professional societies and Conference Management team to create robust conference KOL engagement plans

Professional Speaker Program Development

Develop branded and unbranded educational content, identify and train speaker candidates, ensure regular medical and compliance training, and support continual training and development of speakers across Health Care Professionals and Patient Ambassadors for each brand

Partner with Sales leadership and Marketing to ensure effective and successful execution of Peer-to-Peer programs

Promotional & Educational Content Creation

Branded - Compliant and label consistent branded communication content

Unbranded - Disease education/market shaping content for Health Care Providers

Brand Planning - Support development of brand launch plans via development of product insights and creation of promotional content; in collaboration with Market Research team

Innovation - Create state-of-the-art digital communications channels, digital KOL content and new ways of compliantly and regularly engaging with opinion leaders across all of our external stakeholders

Administration & Leadership

Expertly develop and manage annual budget to predefined quarterly variances, communicating changes to Marketing and Finance leads

Work collaboratively with medical education vendor to ensure high quality content and programs

Partnering with other functional colleagues in Medical Affairs, Legal, Regulatory, Sales, Advocacy and Corporate Communications will be important to successful development of key opinion leader programs

Sets a positive example for others to follow, shares own expert knowledge, models standards of performance, offers guidance and development for team members

Ensuring Marketing activities are in compliance with Regulatory and Legal requirements

Develop and roll-out/establish relevant standard operating procedures (SOPs) with Legal

Recruit, hire, train, and develop Marketing talent

Requirements

• 10 years commercial experience, ideally marketing, sales and/or market access experience within the US pharmaceutical industry
• Healthcare marketing experience including expertise creating Market Development, KOL engagement plans, brand strategy, market research and promotional/educational tactics
• BA/BS degree required; advanced scientific degree (MS, RPh, PhD) or MBA preferred
• Proven track record of creating successful KOL, speaker and advisor plans required
• People leader experience preferred
• Experience with FDA regulatory agencies (OPDP, CDRH) and policies and their impact on development of compliant promotional materials
• Experience managing multiple agencies, developing, and implementing product tactics
• Well-developed cross-functional influencing and negotiating skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to lead, focus-teams, resolve conflict and drive consensus among individuals from a variety of cultures and disciplines
• Strategic capabilities with ability to develop and branded and unbranded promotional content
• Demonstrated excellence in project management and managing multiple projects/priorities
• Strong communication skills with experience presenting before executive staff
• Track record of successful budget creating and management with an understanding of revenue forecasting, resource planning
• Ability to travel up to 35% of the time, both domestic and (infrequently) international travel
• Hybrid work schedule (3 office days/week)
• New hires based in the US will be required to demonstrate that they have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or qualify for a medical or religious exemption or accommodation to this vaccination requirement, subject to applicable law.
• Estimated Salary Range: $225-240,000/year

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid maternity leave
• Paid paternity leave
• Commuter benefits
• Disability insurance