Director, Lyme Market Shaping Lead

Pfizer • New York City, NY

40d • Hybrid

About The Position

Vaccines is the only place in Pfizer where you can contribute to patients in a way like no other – you can prevent sickness and disease. This is at the heart of what drive us every day and it brings us great #Joy. This role will be accountable to shape and drive the strategy for providing protection against Lyme disease in the US. Lyme disease is a systemic infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria transmitted to humans by the bite of infected Ixodes ticks. It is considered the most common vector-borne illness in the Northern Hemisphere. Early symptoms of Lyme disease (such as a gradually expanding erythematous rash called erythema migrans or other nonspecific symptoms like fatigue, fever, headache, mild stiff neck, muscle and joint pains) are often overlooked or misinterpreted. Left untreated, the disease can disseminate and cause more serious chronic complications affecting the skin, joints (arthritis), heart (carditis) or nervous system. Preventive measures for Lyme disease are limited by their effectiveness and compliance (e.g., insect repellent, removing ticks promptly and reducing tick habitat) and no vaccine is currently available. The medical need for vaccination against Lyme disease is steadily increasing as the geographic footprint of the disease widens. LB6V (formerly known as VLA-15) is currently undergoing Phase 3 development for the prevention of Lyme Disease in individuals 5 years of age and older. With expected FDA approval in 1H 2027, a US marketing team for LB6V is being formed to advance key pre-launch workstreams. Reporting to the Senior Director, US Lyme Brand Lead, the US Lyme Market Shaping Lead will play a critical leadership role in developing and communicating value propositions for Lyme prevention to a broad range of decision makers across channels and lead strategic planning, key partnerships and initiatives in close partnership with a cross-functional, GLocal team. The Director, Lyme Market Shaping Lead will play a critical role and be accountable for building the strategy and implementation of market development priorities to positively affect market dynamics, set-up the foundation for introduction of LB6V to enable vaccine uptake in high incidence areas. This role is designed to establish strategy for and be implemented based on patient demand, physician willingness and ability to vaccinate, and payer reimbursement to provide full protection against Lyme Disease. The successful candidate will have a demonstrated track record of understanding vaccine market dynamics and key customer insights, developing innovative partnership initiatives with key stakeholders, thriving in complexity and ambiguity, and engaging with a complex and critical set of stakeholders.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with 8+ years, Master’s degree with 7+ years, or PhD/PharmD with 5+ years of sales and/or marketing pharmaceutical experience, including marketing (US HCP, patient and payer), strategy and new product launches
• Strong understanding of US payer and vaccine reimbursement landscape
• Strong project management skills, ability to manage timelines and dependencies
• Ability to understand customer needs, extract key insights, and translate these into meaningful strategies and in-market results
• Demonstrated initiative, strong problem solving, decision making and leadership skills
• Ability to navigate internal organization/processes
• Demonstrated matrix leadership and ability to foster a culture of collaboration and teamwork
• Strong communication skills, ability to mobilize cross-functional partners
• Bias towards action, with a sense of urgency to deliver high quality plans and tactics that deliver the desired customer actions
• Comfort with ambiguity, and complex “white space” environments
• Entrepreneurial and innovative – exploring novel approaches to solving problems with strong focus on measuring effectiveness of different marketing programs to define future direction
• Track record of highly successful partnerships with external agencies
• Experience and fluency representing opportunities and brand plans to senior leadership
• An absolute commitment to adherence to all applicable compliance rules and regulations
• Demonstrated ability to effectively work on multiple tasks with a strong sense of urgency and enthusiasm while prioritizing and meeting team goals
• Candidate demonstrates a breadth of diverse leadership experiences and capabilities including: the ability to influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, oversee and guide the work of other colleagues to achieve meaningful outcomes and create business impact

Nice To Haves

• MBA or other advanced degree
• Prior launch experience in the US is highly preferred
• Strong understanding of US vaccines business and market dynamics highly preferred and prior launch experience a plus
• Experience in building/accelerating previously unexplored or under-penetrated markets across key stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Ensure clear understanding of barriers to Lyme prevention and vaccination
• Prioritize opportunities to positively and appropriately shape the US market to support LB6V uptake post-launch
• Develop value propositions to engage key customers/channels, stakeholders and other healthcare industry experts to drive uptake that is integrated into patient care workflows
• Develop strategies and tactical plans to deliver on priority goals, including development of collaboration agreements and/or partnerships as well as additional omni-channel and med-ed initiatives (in coordination with HCP and Consumer Marketing Teams), while balancing the urgency to effect change with the appropriate pacing to best enable the engagement of appropriate partners and collaborators
• Collaborate and align with the cross-functional teams: including medical, policy, access, pricing and contracting, and global, recognizing interdependencies and ensuring synergies
• Develop a deep and comprehensive understanding of the marketplace, uncover key insights in close collaboration with IIS colleagues, translating them into actionable strategies and tactics with a focus on what matters most to quickly impact the markets
• Determine and lead innovative ways of reaching and educating key stakeholders that maximizes engagement and utility to customers
• Define a vision of success and KPIs for tracking the impact of market development, key milestones and progress
• Support the annual operating and tactical plan development, focused on market development and medical education, aligning with cross-functional team to develop schedule and investment.
• Collaborate closely with the Lyme HCP, Retail, and Consumer Teams to ensure delivery of a unified brand strategy and messaging while coordinating cross-brand Account Team deliverables
• Ensure maximal coverage across all payers at launch (CMS, Commercial, Medicaid/VFC); Lead cost and coverage resourcing and messaging for all customer-facing colleagues, and mitigation of any access specific challenges in coordination with US Market Access.
• Provide brand marketing leadership to internal portfolio Channel Strategies, Market Shaping, Public/HIT, and Market Access Teams to support portfolio strategies, messages and solutions developed, including HIT solutions and quality measures.
• Partner with Contracting Strategy Team to shape contract strategy and pull through, aligned to overall brand objectives within channels.

Benefits

• In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer’s Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 20.0% of the base salary and eligibility to participate in our share based long term incentive program.
• We offer comprehensive and generous benefits and programs to help our colleagues lead healthy lives and to support each of life’s moments.
• Benefits offered include a 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution, paid vacation, holiday and personal days, paid caregiver/parental and medical leave, and health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director