Executive Director, Head of Strategic Market Insights

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.•Boston, MA

1d•$230,000 - $265,000

About The Position

The Executive Director, Head of Strategic Market Insights sets the long-term, enterprise vision, strategy, and standards for market insights across Ionis’ portfolio and serves as the senior leader accountable for how insights inform company-wide decisions. This role sets the long-range strategy, operating model, capabilities, and performance standards for the Market Insights function, and provides strategic direction to cross-functional partners across Commercial, Medical Affairs, Market Access, R&D, Supply, Communications, Investor Relations, and other functions, while leading a high-performing team of insights experts. You will: Shape the end-to-end market insights agenda to inform brand, franchise, and portfolio decisions across the lifecycle. Serve as a trusted, consultative advisor to senior leadership and cross-functional teams across Commercial, Medical, Supply, R&D, Communications, Investor Relations and other functions. Ensure that market, patient, and customer insights are translated into clear, actionable recommendations that drive competitive advantage and sustainable growth. Your team will act as the single point of contact from Insights & Analytics (I&A) to cross‑functional partners, coordinating strategy and execution across Market Insights, Competitive Intelligence, Forecasting, and Portfolio Planning. Reporting to the VP, Insights & Analytics, this role operates with significant autonomy and executive visibility.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required, advanced degree preferred
15+ years of Pharma / biotech experience in market insights or related roles
Demonstrated success leading integrated market insights strategy for specialty and/or rare disease therapies
Proven track record building and leading scalable, high‑performing teams, including people leaders
Diverse commercial background (e.g., prior roles in Marketing, Sales, Strategy, or Market Access) with mastery of how insights inform P&L, investment decisions, and resource allocation, strongly preferred.
Demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity, create structure, synthesize multiple data sources into coherent, actionable narratives and recommendations, driving alignment on complex, cross functional issues
Deep experience in the U.S. market launches required, global market insights experience preferred
Strong executive presence with a proven ability to influence cross‑functional and enterprise‑level decisions, including VP/EVP‑level stakeholders
High emotional intelligence, with a track record of reconciling dissenting views, negotiating tradeoffs, and driving to outcomes that balance enterprise, functional, and brand needs
Excellent judgment and willingness to take prudent risks, grounded in objective data and market realities
Innate curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit, with strong personal drive and ownership
Insatiable learner with demonstrated ability to rapidly get smart on new therapeutic areas, markets, and methods, and to continuously raise the bar for the function
Proven ability to operate in a high-velocity, fast-changing environment, setting pace and priorities for others while maintaining composure and sound judgment
Exceptional conceptual thinking and pattern recognition skills, with a track record of spotting connections and implications that are not obvious to others

Nice To Haves

Experience in Neurology, Cardiology, as well as broad and rare disease markets strongly preferred

Responsibilities

Define and drive the long-range market insights functional vision, operating model, and ways of working aligned with evolving brand, franchise, and corporate priorities to support effective decision-making
Establish and maintain enterprise-wide standards, governance, and operating principles for market insights, ensuring consistent methodologies and decision frameworks across brands, franchises, and functions.
Design and execute the annual functional plan for Market Insights, establishing clear objectives, and aligning resources and budgets with critical business needs, adapting to evolving priorities as required
Build and maintain scalable capabilities, frameworks, and knowledge management systems to maximize the impact of insights and analytics on portfolio expansion and future product launches
Champion advanced analytics, digital, and AI-enabled approaches within Market Insights, in close partnership with Forecasting and cross-functional analytics partners
Lead, develop, and inspire a high performing market insights team of individual contributors and people leaders; attract, hire, and onboard new talent as appropriate, and build a team that is known for rigorous thinking, extreme attention to detail, pace, and the ability to see patterns and implications others may miss
Model and reinforce Ionis’ leadership competencies and culture principles, fostering a culture of collaboration, inclusion, accountability, and continuous improvement
Coach and develop direct reports, including timely and ongoing feedback; elevate team capabilities through mentoring, training, and stretch assignments
Creates a culture of accountability – sets clear performance standards and expectations, holds cross-functional partners and vendors to commitments, drives individual development, and productively escalates when risks to quality or timelines emerge
Drives productive debate – is not afraid to challenge assumptions, pressure-test thinking, and lead rigorous, data-driven discussions with senior stakeholders to get to the best answer
Own creation of integrated, end to end market insights strategies and plans, prioritizing critical business questions for each brand and pipeline program
Validate and maintain long-term insights roadmaps across the product lifecycle (pre/clinical, pre launch, launch, post launch) and key stakeholder groups (HCPs, patients, payers, specialty pharmacy, etc.)
Ensure high standards for research quality and appropriate methodology, leveraging fit for purpose qualitative and quantitative primary research, secondary data, analytics, and competitive intelligence
Pressure test conclusions and implications from market insight initiatives to ensure assessments are objective, data driven, and grounded in business reality
Translate complex findings into clear, actionable insights and strategic recommendations that inform brand strategy, lifecycle management, evidence plans, and portfolio decisions
Provide forward‑looking analysis and perspective on macro market shifts, policy changes, and competitive moves, and proactively elevate risks and opportunities to leadership
Monitor and communicate key performance indicators for Market Insights impact and operational excellence, and drive continuous improvement
Identify, cultivate, and manage strategic partnerships with agencies, vendors, and experts to support efficient and high‑quality execution of insights projects, in line with industry best practices and company standards
Demonstrate extraordinary attention to detail in the design, execution, and interpretation of insights work, while maintaining a clear line-of-sight to the bigger strategic picture
Synthesize large, complex bodies of information from multiple sources at speed, distilling them into simple, actionable narratives and options for senior decision-makers
Connect non-obvious dots across markets, customers, internal data, and competitive moves to surface risks, opportunities, and inflection points before they are broadly visible
Oversee the insights team in serving as the principal strategic advisors and single points of contact from I&A to their assigned brands, franchises, and above brand initiatives
Partner closely with Commercial, Medical Affairs, Market Access, Government Affairs, Supply, R&D, and other functions to ensure cohesive pull through of insights into brand / lifecycle plans, and portfolio strategy
Serve as a principal strategic advisor to senior leadership, providing executive-level recommendations on implications of market trends, customer dynamics, and competitive activity for program, franchise, portfolio, and enterprise strategy
Lead and influence strategic and tactical planning, helping cross functional teams frame choices, evaluate trade-offs, and make data driven decisions
Lead or co-lead high priority, cross functional strategic initiatives and ad hoc projects (e.g., new indication/product/market evaluations, scenario analyses, go to market strategy questions).
Reconcile dissenting views, negotiate with, and persuade others on complex and sensitive topics, applying high emotional intelligence to drive alignment and positive business outcomes
Partner with executive leaders across functions to shape company-wide policies, investment priorities, and resource allocation using data-driven insights, scenarios, and risk/benefit assessments