Executive Director, Global Commercial Analytics- Market Research

Vertex Pharmaceuticals • Boston, MA

3d

About The Position

The Executive Director will lead Vertex’s global Market Research capability within Global Commercial Strategy. Reporting to the Vice President, Global Commercial Analytics, this leader will build a team that produces objective insight into patients, healthcare professionals, caregivers, markets, and other stakeholders to inform development, commercialization, launch, and lifecycle decisions.

The role combines strategic leadership with hands-on research expertise. The Executive Director will establish an operating model in which internal team members frame business questions, select methodologies, conduct qualitative research, design quantitative instruments, interpret findings, and translate evidence into business implications. External partners will provide reach and specialized support, while the Vertex team retains accountability for research quality, insight generation, and application.

The leader will establish governance, standards, prioritization, budget discipline, vendor strategy, and a multi-year capability roadmap; build and develop a high-performing global team; integrate Market Research with related analytics and commercial functions; and measure and continually improve research quality, adoption, timeliness, and decision impact. Vertex encourages continuous learning and thoughtful adoption of advances in AI, technology, and automation to improve decision-making, innovation, efficiency, and patient outcomes.

Requirements

• Minimum bachelor’s degree in market research, behavioral or social science, psychology, business, marketing, life sciences, statistics, or a related discipline.
• Extensive leadership experience in primary market research, customer insights, or related insight-generation functions within biopharmaceuticals, healthcare, or another complex industry.
• Deep hands-on expertise in qualitative market research, including study design, discussion-guide development, interviewing or moderation, observation, synthesis, and translation of findings into business implications.
• Strong experience designing quantitative market research, including questionnaire development, sampling approaches, methodological choices, quality control, analysis plans, and interpretation.
• Ability to translate ambiguous business questions into rigorous research plans and actionable recommendations for senior commercial and development leaders.
• Experience leading research across pipeline, product development, launch, lifecycle, and in-line stages, including product-profile testing, positioning, patient journeys, demand studies, and adoption-barrier research.
• Experience generating insights from patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, payers, and other healthcare stakeholders across multiple geographies.
• Ability to build internal market research capability and develop teams able to lead substantive research work, rather than solely manage external agencies.
• Ability to select, direct, and challenge research vendors while maintaining internal intellectual ownership and accountability for quality and interpretation.
• Strategic thinking, listening, synthesis, storytelling, executive communication, and ability to distinguish evidence from assumption.
• Success leading and developing global teams and influencing effectively in a highly matrixed organization while maintaining high standards for privacy, compliance, and research integrity.
• Curiosity, sound judgment, an external perspective, and willingness to thoughtfully adopt new capabilities that improve decision-making, innovation, efficiency, and patient outcomes.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree such as an M.A., M.S., Ph.D., MBA, or other relevant qualification.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Global Market Research organization and capability agenda across pipeline, pre-launch, launch, lifecycle, and in-line disease areas.
• Partner with GCS disease leaders and BI&A pod leads to identify priority business questions and develop integrated, decision-focused learning agendas.
• Establish a hands-on research model in which internal team members actively shape and conduct research.
• Develop internal qualitative research expertise, including discussion-guide development, moderator preparation, direct observation and moderation where appropriate, debriefing, coding, synthesis, and interpretation.
• Ensure substantive internal involvement in quantitative research design, including hypotheses, questionnaire development, sampling, method selection, quality review, analysis plans, and interpretation.
• Lead research on disease understanding, market landscapes, patient and customer journeys, segmentation, unmet need, treatment dynamics, adoption barriers, product profiles, positioning, messages, demand, and drivers of product choice.
• Ensure research includes patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, payers, and other relevant stakeholders and reflects global, regional, and local market realities.
• Establish standards for research design, methodological rigor, ethics and compliance, documentation, knowledge management, and reuse of insights across the portfolio.
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative evidence into insights, implications, decision options, and recommendations for development, strategy, launch, and lifecycle planning.
• Integrate Market Research with Decision Science, Forecasting, Competitive Intelligence, Portfolio Analytics, Value & Access, HEOR, Medical, and regional Commercial insight generation.
• Connect research over time, distinguish enduring insights from hypotheses, identify evidence gaps, and prevent fragmented or duplicative studies.
• Select and manage external research partners while maintaining internal ownership of research design, respondent experience, quality, interpretation, and application.
• Establish governance, prioritization, budget discipline, vendor strategy, and a multi-year Market Research capability roadmap.
• Build, develop, and retain a high-performing global team with strong qualitative and quantitative research skills, business judgment, therapeutic curiosity, and executive communication capability.
• Measure Market Research quality, adoption, timeliness, and decision impact, and continuously improve the operating model.

Benefits

• Annual bonus eligibility and annual equity awards.
• Medical, dental, and vision benefits.
• Generous paid time off, including a week-long company shutdown in the Summer and the Winter.
• Educational assistance programs, including student loan repayment.
• Commuting subsidy.
• Matching charitable donations.
• 401(k).
• Other inclusive benefits and resources supporting employees’ career, financial, family, and wellbeing needs.

What This Job Offers

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