Commercial Chief of Staff (Executive Director)

Acadia Pharmaceuticals•Princeton, NJ

21h•Hybrid

About The Position

Acadia Pharmaceuticals is dedicated to transforming scientific potential into tangible innovations for underserved neurological and rare disease communities globally. Our commercial offerings include the sole FDA-approved treatments for Parkinson's disease psychosis and Rett syndrome. We are actively developing future therapeutic breakthroughs with a comprehensive pipeline featuring mid- to late-stage programs for Alzheimer's disease psychosis and Lewy body dementia psychosis, alongside early-stage initiatives targeting other unmet patient needs. At Acadia, our mission is to make a significant difference for these patients. This role is based in Princeton, NJ, and operates under a hybrid model, requiring an average of three days per week in the office.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Life Sciences, or related field and a minimum of 12 years professionally relevant experience or MBA/advanced degree preferred with a minimum of 10 years of professionally relevant experience.
Proven professional experience in pharmaceutical or biotechnology commercial strategy, business operations, transformation, launch planning, finance, consulting, portfolio strategy, or related role is required.
Demonstrated experience working with senior executives and cross-functional leadership teams to drive strategic priorities, commercial performance, governance, decision-making, and organizational execution.
US Commercial Strategy within the healthcare sector is strongly preferred.
Strong commercial acumen, including understanding of brand strategy, field execution, market access, patient services, analytics, forecasting, launch readiness, and pharmaceutical commercialization across in-market and development-stage assets.
Exceptional executive communication skills, with the ability to synthesize complex issues into clear recommendations, decision points, and leadership-ready materials.
Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders without formal authority and build alignment across functions with differing priorities.
Proven strategic, financial, and analytical skills, including the ability to diagnose performance drivers, assess trade-offs, and recommend practical actions.
Proven ability to manage ambiguity, anticipate issues, exercise sound judgment, and operate effectively in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities.
High discretion, integrity, maturity, and executive presence, with the ability to handle confidential and sensitive business matters appropriately.
Strong organizational and project leadership skills, including the ability to create structure, manage timelines, track commitments, and ensure follow-through.
Unquestionable personal code of ethics, integrity, inclusion, and trust.
Ability to travel up to 40% both domestically and internationally.
Recognized as an influential leader and trusted advisor with the ability to operate across senior leadership forums and influence without authority.
Works on issues of diverse scope and strategic importance that require evaluation of commercial, financial, operational, organizational, and cross-functional factors.
Serves as an integrator and facilitator of decision quality, prioritization, and execution, while maintaining clear functional accountability across Brand, Field, Market Access, Patient Services, Finance, Analytics, Commercial Operations, Medical Affairs, R&D, BD, and other enterprise partners.
Decisions and recommendations may materially impact short-term and long-term Commercial performance, organizational effectiveness, resource allocation, launch readiness, and enterprise priorities.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading transformation, operating model, integration, launch readiness, capability building, or process improvement initiatives preferred.

Responsibilities

Serve as a strategic operating partner to the CCO, helping translate Commercial priorities into clear objectives, operating plans, communications, and execution across the Commercial organization.
Own and continuously improve the Commercial operating cadence, including Commercial Leadership Team meetings, quarterly business reviews, brand performance reviews, launch readiness forums, planning processes, and follow-up on key decisions and actions.
Develop agendas, objectives, pre-reads, executive materials, decision logs, and post-meeting communications to ensure leadership forums are focused, efficient, and action-oriented.
Track key Commercial commitments, risks, decisions, and action items to ensure organizational accountability, timely escalation, and disciplined execution.
Partner across Brand, Field, Market Access, Patient Services, Analytics, Finance, Medical Affairs, R&D, BD, IT, and other enterprise functions to ensure Commercial priorities are integrated into enterprise decision-making and execution plans.
Act as an internal consultant and integrator across functional teams, identifying resource needs, process bottlenecks, decision gaps, and opportunities to improve speed, quality, and impact.
Support the CCO in identifying Commercial priorities, decision points, risks, opportunities, and recommendations that require discussion at Commercial Leadership Team, ELT, Board, portfolio governance, or other senior leadership forums.
Synthesize complex commercial issues into clear executive-level narratives, recommendations, and decision points for the CCO, ELT, Board, and external audiences, as appropriate.
Partner with Brand, Analytics, Finance, Market Access, Patient Services, and Field teams to diagnose business performance, identify root causes, articulate risks and opportunities, and translate insights into actionable recommendations.
Develop the core Commercial performance story and provide input to earnings scripts, investor-related materials, Board updates, and other senior executive communications where Commercial perspective is required.
Lead selected enterprise-critical Commercial transformation initiatives, including operating model improvements, launch readiness workstreams, integration planning, capability building, planning discipline, process simplification, and adoption of analytics, AI, digital tools, or new ways of working.
Design and support training, curriculum, and change management efforts that build Commercial acumen, strengthen planning capabilities, and improve consistency of execution across the organization.
Partner with Finance to support effective quarterly close-out, forecasting, investment prioritization, resource planning, and business planning processes.
Partner with Business Development to assess commercial fit, support diligence, frame value drivers and risks, and help plan integration for external partnerships or acquired assets.
Partner with R&D, Medical Affairs, Global Product Commercial Strategy, and portfolio governance teams to ensure Commercial insights are incorporated into asset strategy, stage-gate decisions, launch readiness, lifecycle planning, and enterprise investment choices.
Support the CCO in driving Commercial Leadership Team effectiveness, communication, engagement, culture, and ways of working.
Maintain a high compliance posture and ensure adherence to company policies, quality system requirements, and applicable legal and regulatory directives.