Senior Director, US Payer Account Management

Cytokinetics is a specialty cardiovascular biopharmaceutical company, building on its over 25 years of pioneering scientific innovations in muscle biology, and advancing a pipeline of potential new medicines for patients suffering from diseases of cardiac muscle dysfunction.

The Senior Director, US Payer Account Management position reports to Vice President of Global Value, Access & Distribution.  This strategically important role for the organization is responsible for the creation and implementation of short- and long-term business plans that will optimize appropriate coverage, payment of and patient access to Cytokinetics products. The person selected for this position will have a significant breadth of subject matter expertise in market access across the GPOs, PBMs, and National and Regional health plan accounts, and will be accountable for creating profitable formulary access and driving significant revenue growth.

This individual will assess sales implications of short- and long-term actions with each payer customer and take action to move payer decisions in a direction that continues to open patient access to care.  These actions will be a result of building strong relationships with payer Medical and Pharmacy Directors (clinical and administrative), Case Managers, and other Pharmacy and Medical benefit managers. Efforts will include working with headquarters of managed care organizations and executing pull-through and contracting strategies, as well as initiatives with other large and local managed care organizations. 

This individual will work closely with Sales, Marketing and Finance leadership, to ensure consistent exchange of important payer information and messages that should be communicated. This role will provide periodic market updates to Commercial leadership that link important provider, payer and health care reform trends and issues as well as documents initiatives and their outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manage a team of diverse talent of Payer Account Directors (PADs) deployed across multiple National and Regional payers in the US to achieve agreed upon business objectives
• Provide strategic guidance to the Payer Accounts Team for market readiness so they can identify potential barriers to access to ensure a successful launch of all products
• Lead team to ensure appropriate coverage / access of therapies across all assigned  customers (Commercial payers, Medicare payers, federal accounts (VA/DoD) and State Medicaid)
• Develop PAD team to be able to identify barriers to access and develop the solutions to address
• Lead PAD team to anticipate and evaluate reimbursement scenarios for all sites of care
• Internal / External subject matter expert (SME) on US coverage, coding, payments, and financial dynamics for the Cytokinetics portfolio of products and lead PAD team to be experts
• Provide mentorship and guidance to the Account Directors in negotiations and contracting with assigned accounts
• Guide the team to support relationships with senior executives based on an expert understanding of the customer’s organizational structure and strategic priorities
• Ensure key metrics are in place to measure success and communicate with senior leadership on strategic impact
• Create clear messages for dissemination to sales on important payer trends, reimbursement changes, and billing requirements that will affect product utilization
• Represent the Cytokinetics Market Access Team at priority payer organization meetings and state-based managed care organizations
• Partner with the Cytokinetics Patient Support Services Team to ensure accurate coverage determinations are rendered and resolve customer issues

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree with 12+ years’ field-based pharmaceutical/biotech Sales and/or Marketing experience and 5+ years of direct managed care experience
• 3+ years’ experience leading a team of market access Account Directors
• Strong consultative and networking capabilities, with established relationships with Group Purchase Organization (GPO) & Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM) Executives, Trade Relations Leaders, Pharmacy Directors, and Medical Directors, and contracting experience with payers, health systems, and organized customers (at the national and regional level)
• Recent launch experience with market preparation and planning
• Demonstrated knowledge of payer decision-making for formulary processes, coverage, coding, billing, and patient access to drugs
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to work effectively with senior executives, and to communicate effectively with leadership and lead presentations up through board level
• Demonstrated ability to develop and sustain highly collaborative and effective cross-fun