VP, Market Access

Tarsus Pharmaceuticals•Irvine, CA

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

The VP, Market Access is an enterprise leader responsible for shaping and executing Tarsus’ market access strategy to expand patient access and drive sustainable commercial growth across marketed products and the pipeline. The role will help advance XDEMVY® beyond launch by maximizing appropriate patient access, accelerating new patient starts, minimizing payer friction, optimizing formulary positioning, and protecting brand economics, while building access infrastructure for future products. The position oversees payer strategy and relationships, pricing and contracting, reimbursement, patient services, and distribution channels. It partners across the organization to incorporate access considerations early in product development, inform business development opportunities, and lead high-performing teams that deliver measurable outcomes for patients and the business. The role develops payer, formulary, reimbursement, government-program, pricing, and contracting strategies; oversees access-to-revenue performance and gross-to-net economics; and builds payer value propositions grounded in clinical, economic, and real-world evidence. It shapes product value propositions and launch plans, oversees patient services and distribution strategy, and supports business development diligence. It also leads organizational capabilities, talent development, analytics, budgets, and cross-functional collaboration, while ensuring compliance with company policies and applicable laws and regulations. The position ideally will be based in Tarsus’ Irvine office, with remote work potentially available in a hybrid work environment. Some travel may be required, up to 20%. The role reports directly to the Chief Commercial Officer. Expected base pay is $300,000–$420,000, plus bonus, stock equity, and comprehensive benefits.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
15 or more years of progressive pharmaceutical commercial experience, including launch experience, payer expertise, distribution and patient services, gross-to-net oversight, cross-functional collaboration, and leadership of field-based reimbursement and patient services teams.
Blockbuster or $1 billion-plus brand experience, including a track record of taking a product from launch to $500 million–$1 billion or more in annual revenue.
Deep specialty pharmaceutical experience, including payer and PBM contracting expertise and hands-on patient access or hub experience.
Experience scaling an organization through rapid growth and building teams and infrastructure for its next stage of growth.
Managed care experience, including strong national and regional account management expertise and senior-level relationships across commercial and government payer systems, PBMs, Medicare, Medicaid, and specialty pharmacy.
Fluency in formulary strategy, utilization management, benefit design, medical versus pharmacy benefits, rebates, and gross-to-net economics.
Ability to work with integrity, accuracy, and attention to detail.
Strong technical, data-driven, and analytical skills to identify and solve problems.
Self-motivation, assertiveness, self-confidence, urgency, and passion in meeting time-sensitive deadlines.
Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to maintain productivity and innovation and complete work on time and within budget.
Ability to make thoughtful, timely decisions and act without waiting for perfect information, using data and analytics to inform judgment.
Ability to collaborate, incorporate diverse perspectives, manage relationships, strengthen decision-making, and influence without relying on hierarchy.
Entrepreneurial approach and ability to balance enterprise strategy with hands-on execution in a fast-paced, resource-conscious environment.
Mastery of Tarsus Leadership Competencies for Leading the Enterprise, including growing organizational capacity, business acumen, innovative mindset and action, effective communication, and strategic thinking.
Ability to translate access dynamics into financial implications and clear recommendations for executive decision-making.

Nice To Haves

MBA or another advanced degree.
Experience supporting Business Development due diligence for licensing, partnerships, or mergers and acquisitions from a market access, pricing, and reimbursement perspective is highly valued.
Remote work may be an option; the position is ideally based in the Irvine office.

Responsibilities

Develop, implement, and execute managed care payer strategy to drive and maintain broad, profitable access across the product portfolio.
Lead formulary and reimbursement strategies and partner with Medical on health economics and outcomes research evidence-generation needs.
Establish and expand relationships with national and regional payers, managed care organizations, PBMs, specialty pharmacies, and integrated delivery networks.
Own the access-to-revenue chain and develop strategies to reduce payer friction, prior authorization and step-edit burden, improve approval rates, and lower patient abandonment.
Build payer value propositions using clinical, economic, and real-world evidence to secure optimal formulary positioning across pharmacy and medical benefits.
Lead government programs strategy, including Medicare Part D, Medicaid, and government pricing, in partnership with Government Affairs and Legal.
Assess healthcare policy, payer requirements, and competitive dynamics; advise the Executive Team and recommend adjustments to access, pricing, and reimbursement strategies.
Attend access-related trade shows, payer meetings, and industry conferences.
Develop managed market pricing strategies aligned with customer and market dynamics and the overall portfolio.
Develop and evolve cross-functional pricing committee governance, including standard operating procedures and policies, in partnership with Legal, Finance, Compliance, and leadership.
Oversee contracting strategy, negotiation, contract performance, gross-to-net assumptions, forecasts, and net revenue in partnership with Finance.
Negotiate payer and PBM positioning, develop contracting models such as value-based, outcomes-based, or portfolio agreements, and protect brand economics.
Improve gross-to-net economics through rebate strategy, utilization-management trade-offs, and benefit-design insight; communicate financial implications to Finance and the Executive Committee.
Engage early in shaping product value propositions, therapeutic product profiles, positioning, and specifications to support access from early product development.
Oversee patient services, field reimbursement, and distribution channel strategy to drive patient support.
Partner with Business Development on diligence for licensing, acquisition, and partnership opportunities, assessing payer, pricing, reimbursement, and access dynamics.
Lead integrated market access launch plans, readiness milestones, and access strategies for new indications and acquired assets.
Collaborate with Marketing, Medical, Clinical Development, Sales, Finance, Legal, Regulatory, Government Affairs, HEOR, the Executive Leadership Team, and other departments to develop strategies that enhance access and profitability.
Scale and lead the market access organization, developing leaders and talent, building capabilities, and strengthening succession depth while aligning strategy, negotiation, and pull-through of sales and patient messaging.
Build access analytics and insights capabilities; define and use KPIs such as coverage quality, prior authorization approval rates, time-to-fill, first-fill conversion, abandonment, persistence, and gross-to-net per prescription.
Foster a culture of engagement, accountability, collaboration, innovation, and urgency in serving patients and achieving company goals.
Set functional priorities, allocate resources, and develop and manage budgets to achieve measurable results while balancing broader organizational financial objectives.
Comply with corporate policies and procedures and applicable healthcare laws and regulations; observe company Health, Safety, and Environmental guidelines.
Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.