Overview
This enterprise leader will deliver operational excellence in customer engagement, negotiation contracting, and access delivery with US private and public payers, including Medicare/Medicaid, VA/DoD, US-based commercial payers and PBMs, GPOs, and Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs). The role oversees all U.S. private and public payer account management, account administration, and field reimbursement operations to ensure seamless coverage, affordability, distribution, and access pull‑through for Celldex therapies. This VP will build and lead a team of National and Key Account Managers (NAMs and KAMs) with day-to-day responsibility for payer and PBM account management, education, communication, negotiations, contracting, and operational pull through of payer coverage policies. This leader will also oversee a team of field-based reimbursement specialists supporting provider offices and specialty pharmacies in effective benefits verification and claim adjudication. Partnering closely with the VP Access, Pricing, and Advocacy, this leader partners in ensuring seamless operations required to deliver a frictionless patient and provider experience.
Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Establish and lead the U.S. managed markets and trade strategy that drives optimal access, reimbursement, distribution readiness, and payer pull‑through for barzolvolimab and future assets.
- Develop and execute a U.S. value‑based negotiation and contracting strategy across commercial, Medicare, Medicaid, PBM, and IDN payer segments.
- Identifies, builds, and sustains productive, credible, industry-leading relationships with key decision-makers across US-based public and private payer decision-making bodies.
- Partner closely with the VP, Global Market Access, Pricing, and Advocacy to ensure U.S. strategies align with global pricing, HEOR, affordability, and evidence needs, while maintaining a distinct focus on payer execution and operations.
- Shape contracting frameworks, rebate structures, and access agreements that balance competitiveness, sustainability, patient access, and enterprise value.
- Use market insights to influence enterprise decision‑making and anticipate future payer, channel, regulatory, and distribution trends.
Market Access Customer‑Facing Leadership
- Lead U.S. teams of National Account Managers (NAMs) and Key Account Managers (KAMs) responsible for contracting, relationship management, and execution with all U.S. payer customers.
- Build strategic, trust‑based relationships with senior payer decision‑makers, PBMs, specialty pharmacy networks, trade partners, and distribution stakeholders.
- Oversee negotiation of value‑based agreements, coverage policies, reimbursement terms, distribution contracts, and specialty pharmacy service agreements.
- Ensure operational excellence in contract implementation, rebate operations, pull‑through strategies, and payer‑specific performance tracking.
Field Reimbursement & Access Operations
- Oversee the U.S. team of Field Reimbursement Specialists (FRS) who support benefits verification, prior authorization navigation, specialty pharmacy coordination, and reimbursement issue resolution for HCP offices.
- Ensure operational alignment between FRS teams and Hub services, patient assistance programs, copay support, and affordability resources.
- Drive excellence in provider experience, ensuring rapid issue resolution, clarity of messaging, and compliant access support.
- Develop training, tools, and systems enabling the FRS team to deliver consistent, high‑impact support to HCPs and patients.
Trade & Distribution Operations Partnership
- Partners closely with VP Access, Pricing , and Advocacy to ensure seamless trade and channel execution, including ensuring operational insights to day to day delivery through specialty pharmacy partnerships, Hub coordination, distribution agreements, and inventory management visibility. [NOTE: TBD work with Legal
- Oversee collaboration/touch points between payers and SDs/SPs to ensure distribution integrity, launch readiness, cold‑chain management (if applicable), and channel performance.
- Provide operational and field-voice input and ensure coordination with Patient Support Services for seamless integration between trade, reimbursement support, and affordability programs.
Cross‑Functional & Enterprise Partnership
- Serve as the primary U.S. payer execution leader and a critical counterpart to the VP, Access, Pricing, and Advocacy to ensure seamless and frictionless end-to-end access experience for HCPs and patients.
- Partner closely with Commercial, Medical Affairs, Trade, Sales, Legal, Compliance, and Finance to ensure consistent and compliant U.S. market access execution.
- Collaborate with Sales leadership on field alignment, access‑driven messaging, pull‑through initiatives, and customer segmentation.
- Integrate insights from payers, providers, specialty pharmacies, and market trends into enterprise decisions, forecasting, supply planning, and brand strategy.
Required Skills & Leadership Competencies
- Demonstrated subject matter expertise and recent track record of successful US Payer contracting experience, ideally including with innovative biologic therapeutics.
- Track record of successful field operational leadership
- Proven, strong results orientation
- Strong leadership, interpersonal, and communication skills with an ability to influence senior executives and cross‑functional partners.
- Proven ability to lead large cross‑functional and field organizations, with direct experience managing access teams.
- Proven capability to build and sustain executive level relationships with key decision-makers at US private and public payer organizations, as well as with HCP audiences.
- Analytical ability to assess, understand, and communicate enterprise short-and long-term value implications of different payer contracting and pricing strategies.
- Strong data-driven decision‑making, and ability to lead through uncertainty.
- High learning agility with capabilities demonstrated across diverse business environments.
People Leadership & Organizational Development
- Build, scale, and lead a high‑performing team of account management, trade operations, and field reimbursement professionals.
- With HR, drive talent acquisition, development, succession planning, and capability building across a diverse, distributed organization.
- Establish clear expectations, provide timely coaching, and hold teams accountable for performance, customer engagement quality, compliance, and business results.
- Cultivate a culture of inclusion, collaboration, learning agility, and enterprise‑first mindset across the team.
- Lead with equanimity through ambiguity and evolving market conditions; foster a culture of learning agility, collaboration, and enterprise‑first decision‑making.
Culture, Values & Organizational Stewardship
- Culture and Values Role Model: Serve as a role model for Celldex values and a champion of company culture across teams.
- Organization Growth and Evolution: Lead the evolution of operating norms, customer‑facing processes, and ways of working as Celldex expands into commercialization.
- Innovation: Encourage innovation, challenge rate-limiting conventional norms, and empower teams to find novel solutions to payer and access challenges.
- Enterprise Mindset: Connect individual role and responsibilities to the success of the company and the product; Prioritize clearly based on understanding enterprise impact of personal and team goals.
- Courage and Conviction: Demonstrate the courage and conviction to share, debate, challenge, defend ideas during the decision-making process. Then demonstrate alignment and championship once decisions have been made.
- Learning Agility and Curiosity: Exhibit learning agility and curiosity to understand the science underpinning Celldex, as well as cross-functional understanding for effective partnership (no silos).
- Proactivity and Problem-Solving: Operate with High degree of proactivity to deliver on commitments.
- Equanimity and Clarity: Demonstrate ability to work and lead effectively in highly dynamic business environments.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree required, preferably in relevant field (Science, Technology, Healthcare, Economics, Finance, or Business). Relevant Master's Degree (MBA, MPH, PharmD) is preferred
- A minimum of 15 years’ relevant biotechnology or pharmaceutical leadership experience, including 10 plus years’ experience in market access, managed markets, or payer relations, with a proven track record of launching at least one novel biotech product
- At least 7 years in senior management roles, specifically managing remote field-based teams (e.g., Field Reimbursement Specialists, National Account and Key Account Managers)
- Deep experience and proven track record in “at-the-table” negotiations with major commercial payers and PBMs, ideally also with Medicare negotiation experience
- Experience negotiating with payers on both Medical Benefit and Pharmacy Benefit formularies. Experience with HCP-administered and “buy-and-bill” products is strongly preferred
- This role will require travel up to 40%
- As a member of the Commercial Executive Leadership Team, this role requires the ability to be in the Celldex Hampton, NJ Headquarters
Compensation
The expected base salary range for this position is $268,676 to $348,929.We are committed to compensating employees equitably based on several factors including experience, education, licensure/certifications, skill level, location of the position, and availability of similar talent in a competitive market.
Compensation for this role includes base salary, annual discretionary bonus, long term incentive, 401(K) plan with employer contribution, health care and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), paid holidays, vacation, and sick days. A summary of our benefits can be found on our careers page.
