Senior Director, Strategic Development & Advocacy National Lead

ANI Pharmaceuticals • Princeton, NJ

32d

About The Position

The Senior Director, Strategic Development & Advocacy (SD&A) will serve as the national lead for ANI’s Portfolio, Pulmonology, and Acute Care businesses, encompassing multiple therapeutic areas and a rapidly growing segment of ANI’s Rare Disease organization. This newly created position is designed as a national enterprise leadership role, providing strategic direction, organizational leadership, and performance oversight to a team of seven SD&A Directors and Associate Directors supporting the Portfolio, Pulmonology and Acute Care businesses nationwide.
This non-sales field marketing leadership role will report directly to the Vice President, Brand & Engagement Excellence as part of ANI’s Commercial organization.
The Senior Director will lead national Thought Leader (TL) engagement strategy across the portfolio, set standards and expectations for SD&A execution, and serve as the primary SD&A leader across cross-functional stakeholders. This Senior Director will provide national leadership across specialty and acute care areas including Rheumatology, Nephrology, Neurology, Pulmonology, Podiatry and Acute Care. This role is critical in ensuring that TL insights, speaker programming, advocacy engagement, and stakeholder partnerships are executed with consistency, aligned to portfolio strategy, and compliant with all company policies.

Requirements

• Leadership: Demonstrated ability to inspire, guide, and develop SD&A leaders and direct reports in a distributed national team environment.
• Strategic Thinking: Strong capacity to align national TL strategy with brand vision and tactical execution.
• Influence, Collaboration & Negotiation: Ability to influence without authority, drive alignment across complex cross-functional stakeholder groups, and effectively navigate negotiations with internal and external partners.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills for executive-level internal alignment and external engagement.
• Business Acumen: Understanding of business principles, including organizational design, resource prioritization, and operational efficiency.
• Market Awareness: Deep understanding of the pharmaceutical or biotech landscape, particularly within specialty and rare disease markets.
• Field Expertise: High-level understanding of Thought Leader engagement models across academic and community-based settings (without direct field execution responsibility).
• Project Management: Capable of overseeing multiple national initiatives and team deliverables.
• Problem-Solving: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to identify challenges, develop solutions, and drive continuous improvement.
• Adaptability: Resilient and resourceful in responding to portfolio complexity, launch dynamics, and organizational change.
• Relationship Building: Strong interpersonal skills to cultivate and maintain relationships with thought leaders, advocacy organizations, and other key stakeholders.
• Ethical Conduct: Commitment to ethical business practices and compliance with industry regulations and company policies.
• Industry Knowledge: Deep understanding of the pharmaceutical or biotech industry, particularly in specialty and rare disease markets, with familiarity across multiple therapeutic areas.
• 15+ years of commercial experience in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry with a similar including leadership in strategic field marketing or franchise-level TL engagement.
• Experience managing direct reports and leading field-based SD&A or comparable strategic engagement teams required.
• Bachelor's degree in life sciences, pharmacy, or a related field; advanced degree is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively at a national, enterprise leadership level.
• Proven track record in developing and implementing Thought Leader strategies through compliant and engaging interactions via existing and meaningful relationships.
• Travel: Willingness to travel nationally, including weeknights and weekends, to attend meetings and industry events (~40%).

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading or supporting Thought Leader engagement within at least one of the following therapeutic areas is strongly preferred: Rheumatology, Nephrology, Neurology, Pulmonology, or Acute Care.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the national SD&A lead for ANI’s Portfolio, Pulmonology, and Acute Care business, ensuring consistent strategy, execution, and insight generation across therapeutic areas.
• Develop and implement portfolio-level Thought Leader (TL) engagement strategies that align with commercial objectives while allowing for therapeutic-area nuance.
• Provide direct managerial oversight, mentorship, coaching, and performance guidance to seven SD&A team members across the United States.
• Lead the hiring, onboarding, and organizational integration of SD&A team members supporting ANI’s Acute Care expansion, ensuring alignment with SD&A standards and operating model.
• Collaborate with Marketing, Legal/Compliance, Medical Affairs, Analytics, Operations, and Training teams to align portfolio strategy, prioritize initiatives, and drive cross-functional planning.
• Lead national speaker bureau strategy, including Thought Leader identification, contracting oversight, prioritization, and impact evaluation.
• Ensure effective national oversight of congress strategy and participation, including SD&A presence at major meetings and alignment to portfolio objectives.
• Manage national insight aggregation and synthesis, ensuring timely, strategic routing of insights to brand teams and senior leadership.
• Set and evolve the national SD&A operating model, defining priorities, ways of working, and expectations across the portfolio.
• Establish functional goals and success measures to ensure high-quality execution, insight value, and organizational effectiveness across the SD&A organization.
• Identify, develop, and retain top SD&A talent, proactively managing performance, development plans, and succession readiness.
• Champion innovative, compliant approaches to Thought Leader engagement that advance SD&A impact across therapeutic areas.
• Involved with Sponsorships and Patient Advocacy Organizations for the purpose of enterprise-wide coordination (not tactical) of specific functional activities.
• Operate in accordance with ANI’s code of conduct and all policies and procedures, maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct and compliance.

Benefits

• ANI Pharmaceuticals offers a variety of benefits to eligible employees, including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, retirement savings plans, paid leave programs, paid holidays and paid time off. Many of these benefits are subsidized or fully paid for by the company.
• In addition to base salary, this position is eligible for participation in a competitive short term incentive program based on performance and company results.

What This Job Offers

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