Senior Director, International Patient Engagement, Northern Europe, Australia and Distributors

Job Description

The Senior Director, International Patient Engagement (IPE), for the Northern Europe, Australia/NZ, and Distributors (NEAD) region reports to the VP of Patient and Community Engagement. The role is responsible for developing and supporting the company’s patient engagement strategy for the NEAD region across several functional areas, including market access, communications, policy, and medical affairs. The NEAD region is a diverse region across more than 40 markets. From HTA-driven major Markets like the UK, Nordics, and Australia to markets covered by distributor companies like Central Eastern Europe, MEA, LATAM (excluding Brazil), and Russia.  As part of the distributor model, we manage the relationships and strategic engagements with the patient community in each of these countries directly.

This position will help lead the company’s ongoing efforts to build and sustain meaningful relationships and collaborations to support the needs of patients and advance our company’s goals. The role initially focuses on engagement in cystic fibrosis and hemoglobinopathies, with additional responsibility for allocated pipeline therapy areas, under the direction of the VP of Patient & Community Engagement.  The successful candidate will be responsible for projecting the highest values and ethics in line with Vertex corporate policies at all times, and for consistently keeping the focus on the patient’s perspective.

This position will work closely with the VP of Patient and Community Engagement, the International Patient Engagement Leadership Team, and the NEAD Regional leadership team to help lead the company’s ongoing efforts for the international region to build and sustain meaningful relationships and collaborations to support the needs of patients and advance our company’s goals.

Job Responsibilities:

• Develop and leverage high-level relationships with patient organizations, and stakeholders in support of Vertex goals, supporting a broader understanding of public policy and healthcare reform relevant to pipeline and rare diseases

• Maintain ongoing two-way dialogue with patient and community organizations to understand priorities and opportunities for collaboration and support, and share information on Vertex and its position on key issues;

• Develop and implement specific plans that engage patient organizations in the company’s shared goal of enhancing patient access to Vertex’s transformative medicines, focusing on disease and treatment education, public health policy, and support for capacity building of patient organizations; bring value to patients and enhance the Company’s standing and reputation;

• Represent the perspective of the patient communities within the region at the regional leadership team, to help the business deliver on it’s value of having an uncompromising commitment to patients

• Assess the capabilities required for us to effectively and appropriately engage with patient representative bodies, both in terms of FTEs and skills/behaviours in the wider organization, to significantly improve the therapy area patient engagement in-market capabilities when the time is right, in an effective manner

• Leverage creative thinking and encourage creative thinking in others to develop and implement innovative solutions to meet the demands of the function and/or the organization.

• Act as a thought leader within the business, and proactively represent the voice of the patient community in internal planning;

• Assist in analyzing and developing recommendations and strategies regarding relevant policies, and issues impacting Vertex’s portfolio

• Provide international input and support to the development and resource prioritization for the company’s global patient engagement strategy and plans;

• In partnership with the Director, Distributor markets, ensure that the patient voice is represented in our work to expand access to new geographies, and ensure that relationships with patient groups where we do not have a Vertex presence are proactively managed across the region.

• Proactively partner with the business and the patient community to facilitate, align, and mobilize alliances with key leadership and external stakeholders to accomplish strategic objectives for the enterprise

• Take an active Enterprise leadership role, driving and shaping strategic and tactical thinking in relevant LTs, in particular the regional leadership team for NEAD

• Lead NEAD IPE team, with four team members

• Demonstrates understanding of the patient-lived experience in the allocated therapy areas, identifies data gaps in this space, and works with relevant partners (HEOR, medical, etc) to fill those gaps from the patient perspective.

• Experience and insight into the specific advocacy environments in rare diseases in the International region

• Experience in managing small and agile teams in multiple countries, and resource allocation across borders. Create strong networks across the IPE team to ensure best-practice sharing and consistency of practice.

• Evidence of strong ability to build effective networks between local-international-global matrixes Seamlessly navigate the matrixed environment, influencing and informing the company with the patient community agenda, and strongly and clearly representing the company’s agenda into the patient community

• Be an appropriate partner to both the patient community and the global Grants and Donations committee in effective and compliant management of the grants and donations process

• Accurate financial management of allocated budgets

• Appoint and manage patient engagement consultants to deliver on business objectives while maintaining compliance with VRTX policies;

• In partnership with the communications team and government affairs team, integrate Vertex’s communications objectives and policy priorities with the patient advocacy strategy and identify additional communications opportunities where appropriate;

• Provide strategic input into the development and resource prioritization for the Company’s annual patient advocacy plan; and the business plan for countries and/or pipeline therapy area

• Identifying and pursuing additional opportunities to advance our company’s business objectives;

• Fulfilling other duties/projects as assigned;

• Serve as an early warning to identify threats and opportunities that may impact the business and patient community;

• Exemplifying Vertex’s core values and the Vertex phenotype in fulfilling these job duties, particularly the Company’s core value regarding its commitment to patients.

Minimum qualifications:

• Current and relevant experience in the healthcare industry, of which ideally prior experience in patient engagement, medical affairs, market access, public health policy, government relations or related field

• Experience in managing patient engagement across a wide range of different geographies, and therapy areas

• Deep understanding of EFPIA and relevant country codes of practice to ensure all activities are compliant

• Excellent, impactful, written and English, Spanish highly desirable (to lead LATAM expansion efforts directly)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated outstanding strategic planning, communication, and presentation skills;

• Ability to travel

• Pharmaceutical sector or non-profit sector and therapeutic area experience required;

• Ability to navigate seamlessly in a matrixed environment, able to work in situations with levels of ambiguity with independence

• Experience in patient advocacy, government affairs, communications, market access, or public policy. A deep understanding of the HTA/pricing/access systems relevant to the geography and therapy area

• A high level of energy and passion toward patients, science, and public health;

• Working knowledge and appreciation of the complexities of the drug development process and regulatory requirements;

• Understanding of the patient and caregiver experience in rare diseases, (especially CF) to include diagnosis, treatment, and treatment options preferred;

• Knowledge of the patient advocacy community in CF, beta-thalassemia, sickle-cell disease, and rare diseases is strongly preferred;

• Proven teamwork and collaboration skills, with a demonstrated ability to interact and influence all levels of business;

• Detail-oriented, self-initiating, well-organized, and capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously;

• A desire to work in the corporate culture of a highly innovative company aimed at redefining health and transforming lives with new medicines.

Flex Designation:

Flex Eligibility Status:

In this Hybrid-Eligible role, you can choose to be designated as: 
1.    Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week; or select
2.    On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility.