Rare Disease Specialist Lead (Strategic Accounts)
Abeona
Summary
Abeona Therapeutics is seeking a highly motivated and strategic Rare Disease Specialist Lead to manage a team of Rare Disease Specialists responsible for identifying, engaging, and developing referral networks that support patients living with Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa (RDEB). Reporting to the National Director, Strategic Accounts, this remote, field-based leadership role is responsible for driving performance across the strategic account organization while ensuring alignment between patient identification, referral generation, and treatment center success.
Job description
Leadership and Team Development
- Recruit, coach, develop, and lead a high-performing team of Rare Disease Specialists.
- Establish clear performance objectives, accountability measures, and development plans aligned with organizational goals.
- Conduct regular field coaching, business reviews, and performance assessments to drive individual and team excellence.
- Partner with Commercial Leadership to translate national strategies into actionable field execution plans.
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, compliance, and customer focus.
- Support onboarding, training, and ongoing professional development activities for new and existing team members.
- Provide field insights, customer feedback, competitive intelligence, and market dynamics to inform strategic decision-making.
- Drive consistent execution of account planning, stakeholder engagement, referral development, and business planning processes across the team.
Education and Stakeholder Engagement
- Deliver compelling and compliant educational presentations tailored to the needs of healthcare professionals and institutional stakeholders.
- Identify opportunities for regional advisory boards, speaker programs, and educational initiatives that support disease awareness and patient identification.
- Facilitate collaboration among key stakeholders to enhance understanding of RDEB, patient identification, and referral pathways.
- Build and maintain relationships with key opinion leaders and influential stakeholders within the EB community.
- Support local and regional educational initiatives that align with Abeona's commercial strategy.
Conference Planning and Management
- Support Abeona's presence at key medical, scientific, and industry conferences, including national and regional meetings.
- Partner with Medical Affairs, Commercial, Marketing, and Corporate Communications to develop congress objectives and stakeholder engagement plans.
- Identify opportunities for internal subject matter experts and external thought leaders to participate in speaking engagements and educational programs.
- Coordinate customer engagement activities associated with conference participation.
- Represent Abeona at relevant industry, advocacy, and scientific meetings as appropriate.
Strategic Account Leadership and Treatment Center Excellence
- Serve as the commercial lead for assigned Qualified Treatment Centers (QTCs), maintaining responsibility for treatment center success, patient pull-through, stakeholder engagement, and long-term partnership development.
- Develop and execute strategic account plans designed to optimize treatment center performance, patient progression, and overall account success.
- Build and maintain executive-level relationships with physicians, nursing leadership, care coordinators, administrators, and operational stakeholders within assigned QTCs.
- Partner closely with Patient Services, Medical Affairs, Market Access, and Operations to identify and resolve barriers impacting patient progression from referral through treatment.
- Monitor referral activity, patient progression, treatment conversion, and account performance metrics to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
- Lead strategic business reviews with QTC leadership and internal stakeholders to align on objectives, performance expectations, and growth opportunities.
- Ensure effective coordination between field referral generation activities and treatment center capacity, readiness, and patient management processes.
- Identify and share best practices across treatment centers to improve patient experience, account performance, and operational effectiveness.
- Provide strategic recommendations to Commercial Leadership based on treatment center performance trends, customer feedback, and evolving market dynamics.
- Ability to travel approximately 50-70%, including customer meetings, field coaching, treatment center visits, and national conferences.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences, Healthcare, Business, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred.
- Minimum of 10 years of experience within biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, rare disease, specialty therapeutics, or related healthcare sectors.
- Minimum of 5 years of field leadership experience with direct people management responsibility.
- Demonstrated success leading high-performing field-based teams in rare disease, specialty therapeutics, gene therapy, oncology, or other complex healthcare environments.
- Proven experience in strategic account management, treatment center engagement, Centers of Excellence, or complex healthcare ecosystem leadership.
- Demonstrated ability to influence and engage a broad range of stakeholders, including physicians, clinical staff, administrators, and executive leadership.
- Strong coaching, talent development, and organizational leadership capabilities.
- Exceptional presentation, communication, and relationship-building skills.
- Demonstrated ability to develop and execute strategic business plans within complex healthcare environments.
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives across Commercial, Medical Affairs, Market Access, Patient Services, Advocacy, and Operations.
- Strong analytical, business planning, and problem-solving skills.
- Working knowledge of applicable legal, regulatory, and compliance requirements governing pharmaceutical customer engagement.
- Advanced degree in Life Sciences, Healthcare, Business, or related field (preferred)
- Rare disease experience strongly preferred; dermatology, genetic disease, or gene therapy experience highly desirable.
- Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S.
Benefits
- Annual discretionary bonus
- Equity opportunities
- Health coverage
- FSA/HSA options
- Dental & Vision plans
- Lifestyle spending account
- 401(k) retirement plan
- Up to 160 hours PTO
Company overview
Abeona Therapeutics Inc. is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative cell and gene therapies for serious and life-threatening rare diseases. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the company has established itself as a leader in genetic medicine with its FDA-approved autologous cell-based gene therapy, ZEVASKYN™ (prademagene zamikeracel), which represents the first and only treatment for wounds in patients with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB). Abeona operates a fully integrated cell and gene therapy cGMP manufacturing facility that supports commercial production and clinical development. The company's research portfolio includes adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapies targeting ophthalmic diseases with high unmet medical needs, along with novel next-generation AAV capsid technologies designed to improve tropism profiles for various devastating conditions. With a workforce of 201-500 employees, Abeona combines scientific innovation with manufacturing excellence to advance transformative treatments for rare genetic disorders.