Senior Business Systems Analyst

Ionis Pharmaceuticals • Carlsbad, CA

5d

About The Position

Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Dublin, Ireland, Ionis has been at work for more than three decades discovering medical breakthroughs that have redefined life for people with serious diseases. We're pioneers in RNA-targeted medicines, and our platform continues to revolutionize drug discovery and transform lives for patients with unmet needs. With multiple marketed medicines and a leading pipeline in neurology, cardiology and select areas of high patient needs, we continue to drive innovation in RNA therapies in addition to advancing new approaches in gene editing to provide greater value to patients and are well positioned financially to deliver on our strategic goals. At Ionis, we pride ourselves on cultivating a challenging, motivating and rewarding environment that fosters innovation and scientific excellence. We know that our success is a direct result of the exceptional talents and dedication of our employees. With an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of human health, we look to add diverse individuals, skill sets and perspectives to our exceptional team. We continue to invest time, money and energy into making our onsite, hybrid and remote work environments a place where solid and lasting relationships are built and where our culture and employees can thrive. We're building on our rich history, and we believe our greatest achievements are ahead of us. If you're passionate about the opportunity to have meaningful impact on patients in need, we invite you to apply and join us. Experience and contribute to our unique culture while you develop and expand your career! SENIOR BUSINESS SYSTEMS ANALYST Position Summary: We are seeking a Senior Business Systems Analyst to support the execution of business initiatives as part of the Global Product Strategy and Operations (GPSO) IT team. This cross-functional role is responsible for translating business needs into well-defined requirements, data specifications, and test artifacts that enable timely, compliant, and high-quality data delivery. This role ensures data accuracy, process consistency, and system reliability across data pipelines, platforms, and analytics products. The Senior Business Systems Analyst partners closely with Data Management & Governance, as well as key Product and Technology leads, to support delivery of scalable, fit-for-purpose data solutions across Market Access, Patient Services, Trade & Distribution, Commercial Operations, and IT teams. This is a hands-on, execution-focused role centered on requirements management, data analysis and validation, testing, and day-to-day stakeholder coordination to ensure data readiness stays off the critical path for launches and ongoing operations.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a bachelor's degree; or 3 years and a master's degree; or equivalent work experience in Information systems, Data Science, Business, or related field.
• 4-8+ years of experience as a Business Analyst, Data Analyst, or similar role in pharma/biotech.
• Experience supporting Market Access, Patient Services/HUB, or Trade & Distribution.
• Technical Skills Strong knowledge of: Specialty pharmacy & HUB data flows
• Payer and formulary data concepts
• Trade/distribution data (3PL/wholesaler)
• Familiarity with cloud data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, Azure, etc.).
• Experience writing BRDs, user stories, and data mapping documents.
• Understanding of APIs, batch processes, and data integration workflows.
• Proficiency with reporting tools (Tableau, Power BI, Qlik).
• Business & Functional Skills Deep understanding of the patient access journey and specialty distribution model.
• Ability to translate ambiguous business needs into precise technical requirements.
• Strong problem-solving, data validation, and investigation skills.
• Comfortable working in agile project environments.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working with data vendors (e.g., McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal, Lash Group, AssistRx, Inovalon, TrialCard/Agadia, etc.).
• Background supporting commercial data ecosystems or platforms (MDM, CRM, data lakes).
• Experience with privacy compliance considerations (PHI, HIPAA, de-identification).
• Certification in Agile (CSM, PO), Business Analysis (CBAP), Six Sigma, ITLT or similar
• Hands-on experience with SQL (read/write basic to intermediate queries).
• Experience with patient data tokenization
• Experience with patient consent mastering

Responsibilities

• Business Requirements & Analysis Partner with Market Access, Patient Services, Trade, and Commercial Ops stakeholders to translate business needs into clear system, data, reporting, and integration requirements.
• Lead requirements gathering for new and evolving data feeds (e.g., specialty pharmacy, HUB, payer, copay, consent, claims, lab, trade and distribution partners).
• Create and maintain BRDs, FRDs, user stories, acceptance criteria, workflows, and data mapping documents.
• Challenge, validate and refine requirements to ensure solutions are scalable, feasible, and aligned with enterprise architecture.
• Data Management & Quality Partner with IT, Data Governance, and external vendors to enable intake, translate business needs into data requirements, define validation checks, and operational use of key data feeds, including: HUB services data (referrals, benefits investigations, prior auth, enrollments).
• Specialty pharmacy data (dispenses, inventory, patient status).
• Payer/coverage data (formulary, restrictions, step edits, copay accumulators, rejections).
• Trade & distribution data (3PL, wholesalers, chargebacks, returns, channel inventory).
• Define data quality rules, perform root-cause analysis, and coordinate remediation with data aggregator, external vendors, and IT teams.
• Manage metadata, data dictionaries, and lineage documentation.
• Systems & Product Ownership Support Work closely with IT engineering and architecture teams to support data platform and pipelines (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, MDM).
• Support design, testing and UAT for enhancements to dashboards, data models, and APIs.
• Assist with vendor evaluations, SOW reviews, and ongoing solution performance monitoring.
• Collaborate with IT teams supporting data warehouse, omnichannel, and reporting platforms to maintain integrated, high-quality data flows.
• Participate in enterprise data governance councils and represent GPSO IT in cross-functional data working groups as needed.
• Reporting & Analytics Enablement Develop business logic for KPIs and metrics related to: Patient journey oversight (referral → benefits check → PA → approval → dispense → adherence).
• Payer coverage, affordability, and pull-through.
• Specialty pharmacy operational performance.
• Channel inventory, demand, and distribution flows.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for visualization tools (Power BI).
• Partner with analytics teams to ensure trust in insights and consistency in metric definitions.
• Support ad-hoc reporting and dashboard enhancements as needed.
• Stakeholder Management & Communication Manage aligned stakeholder expectations across Market Access, Patient Services, Trade & Distribution, Finance, and Commercial Operations.
• Communicate timelines, risks, data delays, and production issues clearly and professionally.
• Facilitate cross-functional workshops to align on key data definitions and business processes.
• Manage day-to-day coordination with business stakeholders, IT delivery teams, and data vendors.

Benefits

• Ionis offers an excellent benefits package!
• Full Benefits Link: https://www.ionis.com/careers/working-at-ionis/#:~:text=our%20employee%20spotlight-,Benefits,-Employees%20are%20rewarded

What This Job Offers

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