Associate Director, Access Contracting Enablement (ACE), Global Market Access

MSD•Rahway, NJ

21h•Hybrid

About The Position

Aligned with the core mission of Global Market Access to expand access to medicines and vaccines to people around the world, this is an exciting opportunity to help lead the development of world-class value-based contracting strategies, solutions, process, and infrastructure. We are seeking a developing leader that is experienced, customer-centric, entrepreneurial, creative, action-oriented, and passionate who thrives in a collaborative team environment. Payors around the world continue to experience growing ﬁscal tests. Healthcare systems aspire to a more value-based healthcare ecosystem. Industry continues to innovate, and existing payer value assessment pathways are often challenged to properly value these innovations. These factors, combined with our company evolving portfolio, have created the need for industry-leading, world-class, value-based contracting strategies and capabilities to help broaden access to the company’s innovations for more people. This can be achieved through practical innovations in contracting models, and optimalization of the execution thereof, to continue to advance win-win-win-win outcomes with payors for providers, consumers. Under the direction of the Access Contracting Enablement (ACE) Group Leader, this important role in Global Market Access will require a customer-centric approach with broad, cross-functional collaboration inside the global and market organizations, as well as with external partners, to achieve the objectives. The role will be part of the Sustainable Access Solutions Team so will carry speciﬁc and measurable KPIs. To achieve the objectives, the role will work extensively with various internal groups to understand anticipated market events for select franchises within the Pharma Business Unit, opportunities to be addressed through contract innovation, creation of robust strategies, establishment of world class methodologies, support for implementation, and enablement of scaling of solutions globally. The person will develop and communicate KPIs, contracting analytics, and strategic insights to relevant stakeholders and key leaders. The role will have strategic responsibility for working with our Access, Outcomes Research, Data Analytics, Finance, IT, Legal & Compliance, Marketing, Manufacturing, Trade Channels, Policy, and Research leaders across the company at all geographic levels to lead processes to shape, propose, establish, and support innovative and value-based contracting approaches to help maximize access across the company’s portfolio now and in the future. Recognizing that access is ultimately local, the role will work to ensure insights from markets are recognized and best-practices are disseminated – creating a true learning culture in contracting across the organization. Operating with a continuous improvement mindset, this position will demonstrate a purposeful focus on contracting opportunities to enable/expand/maintain patient access, impact revenue, enhance the customer experience, and increase operational efficiency. It is expected that the leader would spend some of their time developing their own functional capability and broader leadership skills as well as mentoring and leading non-FTE team members.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree (required)
Minimum of (5) years in Pharmaceutical Marketing or Sales, Pricing, Reimbursement or Access, or Finance
Knowledge and experience of the pharmaceutical and/or vaccine product access process within one or more health systems
Prior experience in health insurance industry, healthcare finance, or healthcare consulting in the area of value-based contracting, portfolio contracting, and/or innovative financing
Strong Conceptual & Analytical Thinking Skills – needed to identify and develop innovative solutions and to efficiently distill lessons learned from actual experience
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present compelling arguments to a variety of audiences at all organizational levels, both internal and external
Collaboration - must be able to collaborate with country, regional, & global colleagues on both strategic and tactical levels
Strong Project Management Skills – proven ability to manage diverse range of projects and competing priorities and effectively manage a cross-functional team
Planning and Quality Execution skills – needed to establish and execute planning standards
Quantitative Skills - Demonstrated quantitative ability, including facility with Excel and generally high level of financial acumen
Contract negotiation experience
Self-motivated and entrepreneurial with strong interpersonal and communications skills
Ability to manage ambiguity, prioritize business needs, and balance competing interests
Aptitude to handle multiple tasks and effectively prioritize to meet organizational goals
Must be able to produce high quality, accurate work under time constraints
Strong financial, analytical, and writing skills
Proficient computer skills

Nice To Haves

Master’s Degree or higher (preferred)
Strategy setting and leadership – experience of deﬁning and implementing strategic initiatives that have driven tangible impact
Customer-facing experience in pharmaceuticals or other healthcare setting
Experience in creating and implementing novel contracting solutions to increase patient access from an industry or payer perspective
Strong experience & successful track record of working in a global role to shape and implement solutions and deliver tangible results
Experience framing complex challenges and driving implementation
Cross functional team leadership experience
Formal negotiation knowledge, training, skills, and experience
Ability to creatively solve complex issues including innovative thinking
Experience and interest in contracting, value-based healthcare & novel commercial solutions
Ability to develop effective trust-based relationships across the organization and collaborate with external partners to deliver results
Ability to work with people from different cultures and backgrounds
Proven ability to deliver business impact and tangible commercial results
Demonstrated ability to lead multiple projects in a ﬂuid environment
Keen insight to understand appropriate guardrails where they exist and work constructively with key stakeholders including Legal, to define those that need additional definition
Accountability
Adaptability
Communication
Creativity
Customer Experience Management
Data Analysis
Data Management
Developing Pricing Strategies
Digital Marketing Analytics
Healthcare Policies
Health Economics Research
Interpersonal Relationships
Market Access
Market Research
Outcomes Research
Pharmaceutical Market
Strategic Planning
Strategic Thinking

Responsibilities

Help lead the development of an anticipated market event schedule and contribute to the annual priority setting aligned with the capacity of the team
Support the continued development of world class contracting capabilities to establish the company as a global leader in innovative/value-based contracting solutions to enable/expand patient access
Set out strategic opportunities to broaden patient access through novel contracting approaches informed by a deep understanding of therapeutic area priorities, long term access implications & customer challenges
Be a key subject matter expert, leader and strategic advisor on targeted contracting solution development and deployment
Oversee the development, validation, implementation of access contracting solutions in concert with market teams around the world
Responsible for contributions to key contracting KPIs
Lead the identification, sourcing, and integration of partners to achieve objectives
Strong cross functional collaboration to deepen understanding, drive innovation, and support priorities
Contribute to the upskilling of talent in regional and market teams to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to successfully localize, implement, manage, and assess value-based contracts
Lead cross functional validation and collaboration with a range of internal stakeholders (Access, CI, Legal & Compliance, Procurement, Pricing, Policy, Finance, Treasury, IT, Marketing, OR, and Medical)
Monitor and analyzes contracting trends, competitive contracting strategies, reimbursement policy, regulation, guidelines, and legislative changes
Ensure compliance with all relevant laws, regulations, and company policies