Director, Marketing - Rare Disease

Acadia Pharmaceuticals•San Diego, NJ

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Acadia is committed to turning scientific promise into meaningful innovation for underserved neurological and rare disease communities. Their commercial portfolio includes FDA-approved treatments for Parkinson’s disease psychosis and Rett syndrome, and they are developing a robust pipeline for Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, Lewy body dementia psychosis, and other unmet patient needs. The Director, Marketing will contribute to the overall Consumer strategy of the brand, leading the management and execution of marketing tactics, plans, and activities to promote the brand to caregivers. This role involves shaping patient and caregiver messaging across channels, including direct-to-consumer (DTC) television advertising and educational materials, ensuring alignment with brand strategy, regulatory standards, and patient-centric principles. The Director will deliver impactful communications to engage the caregiver community and play a key leadership role within the consumer marketing team, partnering with various stakeholders (advocacy, medical affairs, regulatory, legal, compliance, patient services, market access, marketing operations, training, sales, etc.) to execute brand plan programs and tactics.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, health care, life science
Targeting 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in pharmaceutical or biotech Marketing.
Rare Disease experience is highly desirable, with requirement of understanding specialty therapeutics addressing significant unmet medical needs.
Strong Biopharmaceutical brand management experience and demonstrated track record of success.
Proficient in marketing and media tactics directed towards HCPs and caregivers.
Proficient at effectively prioritizing goals and coordinating resources to achieve those goals.
Demonstrated ability to interface/collaborate with other departments as necessary to achieve goals.
Significant travel required; ability to travel up to 50% of time during peak launch time periods.
Ability to travel by car or airplane independently overnight up to 25% of the time and work after hours if required by travel schedule or business issues.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred.
5+ years in a product manager role strongly desired.
Launch experience and commercialization of new products preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the development and execution of consumer and caregiver marketing initiatives, including core messaging, direct-to-consumer (DTC) television advertising, and educational materials designed to inform, support, and empower families within the Rett community.
Oversee the caregiver speaker program, including speaker identification, onboarding, and management; development of compliant, engaging speaker content; and ongoing evaluation and optimization of program effectiveness.
Ensure caregiver speaker materials and presentations are scientifically accurate, compliant, and aligned with brand strategy, with a strong emphasis on clarity, empathy, and patient- and caregiver-focused storytelling.
Serve as the primary marketing liaison to the Family Support Educator (FSE) team, ensuring alignment between consumer marketing initiatives and field-based educational efforts to deliver a cohesive and consistent caregiver experience.
Directs the development of strategic marketing programs for inclusion into brand plan, determines metrics for program success, and evaluates performance against metrics including contributions to the development and evolution of message strategy based upon in-depth analytics and ROI analysis.
Manages within the established the US promotions budget for assigned products.
Represents the department as a member of cross-functional project teams providing guidance, insight, and recommendations relative to the goals and objectives of the Marketing function to ensure strategic alignment medical education messaging across groups.
Monitors and ensures that all Medical Legal Review (MLR) processes are followed, and all programs are compliant with legal guidance and corporate policies.
Implements the brand strategy for products and product lines.
Develops and delivers presentations as needed to commercial management and other internal groups.
Monitors progress of plans and recommends adjustments, as necessary.
Develops and maintains strong external relationships with Advocacy groups, physician speakers and Rett caregivers and families.
Mentor and develop junior team members by providing clear direction, coaching, and constructive feedback, fostering strong marketing fundamentals, professional growth, and a collaborative, high-performing team culture.
Lead day-to-day collaboration with the advertising agency of record, providing strategic direction and hands-on oversight across creative development and execution to ensure consumer-facing campaigns are aligned with brand strategy, patient-centric principles, timelines, and budget.