Associate Director, Strategic Accounts - West Coast

Position Summary:

Apellis is seeking an experienced and talented business professional for the role of Associate Director, Strategic Accounts - West Coast. This role represents an excellent opportunity to make a significant impact working with key Retina physician practices and large consolidated Retina and Ophthalmology accounts for the first ophthalmic commercial launch at Apellis.

The candidate has to be located on the West Coast.

The Associate Director, Strategic Accounts primary roles will be to manage the business relationship with large privately-owned retina practices, private equity owned retina / ophthalmology practice leadership and large consolidated practices that span multiple geographies. The primary focus will be to educate these target customers on Apellis' Ophthalmology portfolio and product access and support services, as well as utilize quarterly business reviews. Individual will serve as a customer-facing lead to targeted ophthalmology practices and will play an active role in driving the customer experience and strategy across the brand.

This role will be a key partner with marketing to inform and coordinate meaningful and appropriate efforts for key accounts collecting and providing valuable insights. The role requires strong collaboration with multiple cross-functional partners to build plans and establish the infrastructure and operational considerations necessary to support the strategic plan. A strong business mindset, a bias to action, collaborative focus on performance, and deep cultural alignment with the Apellis values are essential for success in role.

The urgent priorities for the Associate Director, Strategic Accounts will be to work closely with the Senior Director, Strategic Accounts and Professional Organizations, Ophthalmology and other Sr. Leadership to pull through a practice-specific strategic plan and associated timeline for evaluation of business opportunities with retina accounts to clearly establish a holistic view of success within the target market for the potential product in Geographic Atrophy (GA). The role requires strong collaboration with multiple cross-functional partners to build business plans and establish a practice-specific strategy and operational considerations necessary to support the launch of a new product.

Associate Director, Strategic Accounts will be accountable for delivering the established goals in the strategic plan for US Value, Access and Policy. This position will report to the Senior Director, Strategic Accounts.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• Practice-specific account strategy, business reviews, and issue resolution with strategic account and IDN practices
• To leverage available data, analytics, and other content to inform customer engagement planning and optimization. Identify and answer questions around established contracts (if applicable and appropriate)
• Develop and maintain ongoing business relationships with practices and their leadership
• Provide marketplace feedback in a timely manner to corporate leadership detailing customer business trends both globally and individually, competitive programs and industry issues as well as insights regarding the Retina practice environment to guide corporate activities.
• Build productive relationships and create advocacy for Apellis and our therapies with strategic account business leaders.
• Coordinate pull-through of targeted account initiatives by working closely with sales leadership, reimbursement teams, sales professionals, and other internal partners in support of achieving financial and strategic objectives
• Deliver effective and compelling presentations to key practice decision makers with the ability to anticipate and address potential objections
• Provide insights on emerging trends, changes to market conditions and areas of opportunity to incorporate into activities with targeted practices
• Communicate effectively and compliantly with sales leadership, marketing, and brand leads for development of customer solutions and contracts
• Develop and implement strategic business plans to maximize market penetration
• Provide retina business practice insights to Market Access/GPO contracting team on market awareness activities, services, and promotional activity to GPO members
• Execute yearlong communication plan in partnership with our corporate affairs and marketing teams to drive disease state awareness with ophthalmic societies
• Participate and/or lead other projects as assigned by the Senior Director, Strategic Accounts and Professional Organizations Ophthalmology

Education, Registration & Certification:

• BS/BA degree required; MBA or other related graduate degree preferred

Experience:

• 10+ years of biotech/pharma commercial experience
• Retina (ophthalmology) clinic account management experience
• Direct involvement in establishing and managing corporate accounts
• Demonstrated expertise level knowledge and experience with pharmaceuticals and biologics in a buy and bill environment
• Strong scientific background and ability to digest and communicate complex scientific data
• 2+ years of corporate accounts management experience preferred

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities:

• Proven knowledge of and working relationships with key business executive level decision makers at retina (ophthalmology) practices
• Subject matter expertise as it relates to Retina (ophthalmology) market including the retina landscape
• Previous experience in launching new Buy and Bill Pharmaceutical/Biologics products or indications preferred
• Knowledge and understanding of the current environment and policy trends in the provider landscape including alternative payment models
• Excellent business acumen skills with an ability to analyze, interpret, and draw insights from financial-related information relating to clinic economics
• Excellent interpersonal skills including networking, influencing, negotiation, presentation, and written and verbal communication
• Demonstrated leadership, independent project management, and strategic thinking to manage complex market evolution with a bias towards results
• Clear communicator and successful influencer with excellent presentation skills and a demonstrable ability to present complex matters in a simple and engaging way
• Able to stay positive and demonstrate high stress tolerance in a commercial start-up environment
• A proven work ethic and the ability to self motivate
• Demonstrated success of teamwork and working in a collaborative matrix environment (sales, account management, market access, customer service, marketing, etc.)
• Understanding of financial concepts and contracting constructs with demonstrated ability to measure contract performance
• Demonstrated proficiency in the use of PowerPoint and advanced Excel skills
• Willing to travel domestically up to 75% of the time and attend events outside of business hours (e.g., occasional weekends and evenings)

Benefits and Perks:

Apellis offers a great benefit package which includes: health insurance with full premium coverage, 401K with company match, paid time off (PTO), long- term disability insurance, life insurance and more! Visit https://apellis.com/careers/ to learn more.

Company Background:

Apellis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a global biopharmaceutical company that combines courageous science and compassion to develop life-changing therapies for some of the most challenging diseases patients face. We ushered in the first new class of complement medicine in 15 years and now have two approved medicines targeting C3. These include the first and only therapy for geographic atrophy, a leading cause of blindness around the world. With nearly a dozen clinical and pre-clinical programs underway, we believe we have only begun to unlock the potential of targeting C3 across many serious diseases.

For more information, please visit http://apellis.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn

EEO Statement:

Apellis is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state and local fair employment practices laws. Apellis strictly prohibits and does not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, sex (including pregnancy), gender (including gender nonconformity and status as a transgender or transsexual individual), age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, past, current or prospective service in the uniformed services, genetic information, marital status, AIDS/HIV status, smoker/nonsmoker, and occupational pneumoconiosis or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or local law.

For San Francisco postings: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Other Duties:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.