Director, US New Product Planning, Early Market Development

About the Role

We are seeking a Director, US New Product Planning, Early Market Development to partner closely with the Senior Director, US New Product Planning in preparing early pipeline assets for future US success. This role is ideal for a commercially minded, externally oriented leader who is energized by shaping markets well ahead of launch. The successful candidate will focus on early market development and engagement with emerging thought leaders, including both healthcare professional (HCP) stakeholders and patient advocacy/community leaders. This individual will help build the foundational understanding, relationships, and market readiness required to support future launch success in the US.

This role also offers a unique opportunity to help build out a new Business Unit for the organization. By shaping the external landscape early, identifying key stakeholders, and informing how the organization engages the market over time, this individual will play an important role in establishing the building blocks of a future US business.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Senior Director, US New Product Planning to support US planning for early pipeline assets
• Help develop and execute early market shaping strategies for assets well in advance of launch
• Identify, prioritize, and map key external stakeholders, including:
  • emerging and established HCP thought leaders
  • treatment center influencers
  • advocacy leaders
  • patient community stakeholders
  • other disease-area opinion leaders relevant to market development
• Support the design of thoughtful and compliant approaches to external engagement in partnership with medical, patient advocacy, and cross-functional teams
• Synthesize external insights to inform:
  • disease area opportunity assessment
  • patient journey understanding
  • barriers to diagnosis and treatment
  • treatment ecosystem dynamics
  • unmet need and market readiness considerations
• Help define early hypotheses around:
  • market development needs
  • stakeholder education opportunities
  • patient finding challenges
  • advocacy landscape dynamics
  • future launch risks and enablers
• Partner with internal teams to ensure external insights are translated into implications for US asset strategy and launch planning
• Support the development of planning materials, strategic recommendations, and leadership updates
• Contribute to cross-functional planning with medical, advocacy, market access, analytics, and global commercial colleagues
• Help maintain a structured view of stakeholder engagement opportunities, key learnings, and emerging market signals over time
• Contribute to the external and market-facing foundations of a new Business Unit

Requirements

• Experience in biotech or pharmaceutical commercial, new product planning, marketing, market development, field strategy, medical-commercial interface, or related roles
• Experience supporting pipeline, pre-launch, or early commercial strategy
• Demonstrated interest or experience in early market development and external stakeholder engagement
• Experience working cross-functionally in a matrixed environment
• Strong understanding of how external insights can inform strategy, planning, and launch preparation
• Experience in neurology, rare disease, or other complex specialty markets
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize insights into clear recommendations

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience engaging with or supporting strategy involving:
  • HCP thought leaders
  • advocacy organizations
  • patient communities
• Experience in US commercial planning or new product planning
• Experience in specialty or rare disease categories with high unmet need and complex patient journeys
• Exposure to global teams or cross-regional collaboration
• Experience helping shape stakeholder mapping, insight generation, or early market development plans

Skills

• Strategic curiosity — asks the right questions and looks around corners
• External orientation — strong interest in understanding HCP, advocacy, and patient community perspectives
• Insight generation — able to synthesize diverse inputs into actionable implications
• Cross-functional collaboration — works effectively across commercial, medical, advocacy, and analytics teams
• Market development mindset — understands how markets are shaped well before launch
• Execution focus — able to turn ideas into concrete workplans and next steps
• Strong judgment and professionalism — especially in navigating stakeholder interactions thoughtfully and compliantly

Why This Role Stands Out

This role offers the chance to work at the front end of pipeline strategy—where markets are still forming, assumptions are still being tested, and external insights can meaningfully influence future success. You will have the opportunity to:

• help shape how the organization prepares the US market for future launches
• work closely with senior commercial leadership
• build broad exposure across strategy, external engagement, and cross-functional planning
• play an important role in understanding the HCP and advocacy landscape early
• contribute to the build-out of a new Business Unit by helping establish the external relationships, market understanding, and strategic groundwork needed for long-term success
• grow into a larger new product planning or launch strategy leadership role over time or follow the launch into the US BU

Success in This Role Looks Like

• The organization has a sharper understanding of the early US market landscape
• Key HCP and advocacy stakeholders are identified and appropriately understood early
• External insights are translated into practical recommendations for asset strategy and market development
• Cross-functional teams are better informed about future launch risks, opportunities, and engagement priorities
• Early market shaping efforts are more focused, proactive, and aligned to future US launch needs
• The role contributes meaningfully to the early external build-out of a new Business Unit

Pay

Pay range: $196,000 - $294,000. This role is eligible for an annual bonus and annual equity awards. Some roles may also be eligible for overtime pay, in accordance with federal and state requirements. Actual base salary pay will be based on skills, competencies, experience, and other job-related factors permitted by law.

Benefits

• Inclusive market-leading benefits to meet employees wherever they are in their career, financial, family, and wellbeing journey
• Medical, dental, and vision benefits
• Generous paid time off, including a week-long company shutdown in the Summer and Winter
• Educational assistance programs including student loan repayment
• Generous commuting subsidy
• Matching charitable donations
• 401(k) retirement plan

Schedule

This is a Hybrid-Eligible role, allowing you to choose between:

• Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week
• On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility

Note: The Flex status for this position is subject to Vertex’s Policy on Flex @ Vertex Program and may be changed at any time.