Associate Director, US Forecasting (Neurology)

Role Summary

The Associate Director, Neurology Forecasting will report into the Sr. Director, Head of Strategic Business Insights team within the US Strategy and Business Excellence department that oversees corporate and pipeline strategy, business development, business insights, and shared operations among other responsibilities. The Associate Director will support the US Neurology business as a pivotal partner in defining, understanding, and developing the strategy and expectations for our first Neurology launch. The individual will be responsible for planning, budgeting and executing pre- and post- launch market forecasting to inform the product plans, expectations and strategy. The Associate Director, Neurology Market Forecasting will act in an enterprise capacity to engage in active collaboration across multiple functions including Strategy, Sales and Marketing, Medical, Market Access, Finance, Market Research, Competitive Intelligence, Analytics, New Product Planning, and US Leadership.

Primary Responsibilities

• Design, execute, and maintain complex models to produce unbiased and objective short-term and long-term revenue forecasts for in-market products and programs in clinical stage, using appropriate methodologies (e.g. patient flow, epidemiology, TRx based)
• Identify key information needs to populate forecasting models, and work cross-functionally to obtain necessary information with stakeholders and guide the team to creating the right level of consistency and structure in inputs and outputs
• Coordinate with finance, market access and commercial leaders to define the calendar and business process for updating key commercial assumptions, structuring the development of business cases, and aligning on performance monitoring
• Lead project management and socialization of forecasts, ensuring stakeholders are providing key inputs and reviewing as appropriate
• Develop deep knowledge of the competitive landscape and market dynamics of the brand disease states, working closely with the marketing and field marketing teams to stay abreast of current and future trends
• Provide revenue forecasts and reconciliation on a rolling basis for strategic planning and as inputs for corporate processes such as long range planning and budget, both in a pre-launch and post-launch capacity
• Communicate material forecast changes for products/programs on an ongoing basis whenever such changes materialize due to new information, such as revised epidemiology estimates, updated market share projections, or emerging competitive events
• Translate forecasts into succinct Powerpoints and present to US leadership, providing optionality and context for decision-making (e.g. scenarios, sensitivities, waterfalls)
• As needed with Global R&D teams and NPP, evaluate commercial attractiveness of LCM opportunities for inline products

Education and Required Skills

• Minimum 7+ years relevant experience in market research, competitive intelligence, management consulting, and/or decision support in the biopharmaceutical industry
• Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, business or marketing, or equivalent experience; graduate degree a plus
• Ability to think critically about issues and understand context and likely challenges; ability to balance strategic awareness and direction setting with consistent tactical results
• Strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills; combines attention to detail with big-picture strategic perspective; navigates complexity and ambiguity to adapt to evolving priorities
• Launch planning experience in rare diseases and/or neurology is a plus
• Persuasive written and verbal communication skills, ability to lead, influence, resolve conflict and drive consensus among diverse cross functional stakeholders
• Effective resource/vendor management; can determine the appropriate use of internal vs. external resources and delivers results on time and on budget
• Is flexible, innovative and adaptable. Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced working environment and work diplomatically and tactfully with others
• Demonstrated expertise in biopharmaceutical forecasting required, including experience with both epidemiology-based long-term forecasts and trend-based short-term forecasts
• Extensive experience in the application of forecasting and analytical techniques to solve business problems
• Strong technical knowledge of modelling tools (e.g. Excel) and data sources (e.g. claims, Rx)
• Sufficient understanding of financial matters to challenge and pressure-test assumptions (e.g. pricing, GTN, etc) preferred

Travel and Location

Boston-area preferred, with an ability to be in office in accordance with company policy (2-3 days/week). Travel ~10% of the time for meetings/workshops with Global (Paris), external conferences, and internal meetings/off-sites.