Associate Director, Commercial Field Trainer - Patient Services

About Acadia Pharmaceuticals

Acadia is advancing breakthroughs in neuroscience to elevate life. Since our founding, we have been working at the forefront of healthcare to bring vital solutions to people who need them most. We developed and commercialized the first and only FDA-approved drug to treat hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease psychosis, and the first and only approved drug in the United States and Canada for the treatment of Rett syndrome. Our clinical-stage development efforts are focused on Prader-Willi syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, and multiple other programs targeting neuro-psychiatric and neuro-rare diseases. For more information, visit Acadia.com and follow us on LinkedIn and X.

 

 

Position Summary:

In this exciting role, the Associate Director, Commercial Field Trainer may be responsible for overseeing the creation, design, facilitation, and execution of training for the Commercial Sales Team as well as the Patient Services Teams that represent our products (Nuplazid, Daybue) in support of the Commercial Team's success. This individual collaborates and partners with other members of the Commercial Effectiveness and Training (CET) team, patient services, field sales, marketing, medical, and field leadership to assess the needs of our commercial organization. This role will support key marketing tactics, elevate disease state, product reimbursement, caregiver experience, product expertise, and selling skills. Training programs managed will span the Learning Continuum from Onboarding New Hires to ongoing learning for members of the patient services teams.  The incumbent will lead the development of training plans, communication, and online learning programs & content supporting the commercial teams. This role will be instrumental in building training workshops around National and Regional Sales Meetings to support these teams. Our Patient Services teams provide expert field-based access and reimbursement support. This training expert will need to deeply understand reimbursement, specialty pharmacies, payer issues, and the patient access process and work with Centers of Excellence and caregivers to support and educate our PSS teams.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Develops and maintains commercial training curriculum from the onboarding processes, new hire training, advanced training, and ongoing learning to meet the current and emerging needs of the field's commercial employees.
• Responsible for developing, updating, and implementing all training modules, content, and programs appropriate for field commercial employees. 
• Creates training materials that enhance the learning process, including study guides, home study materials, assessments, frequently asked questions, competitive overviews, etc., and works with leadership and HR on follow-up and corrective action as appropriate.
• Interfaces and collaborates with the marketing team to develop training and communications to support the brand strategy. 
• Development of materials, job aids, sales training backgrounders, competitive backgrounders, and market updates to support brand strategy. 
• Manage contracts and expenses with external consultants and vendors within budgetary guidelines. 
• Lead content development and maintain the Learning System, which includes training modules and materials, as well as live workshop content designed for a new hire
• Manages the approval of training materials and resources through Acadia’s MLR (Medical, Legal, and Regulatory) process, including regularly attending MLR meetings
• Works with corporate compliance and/or our compliance agency partner to ensure commercial field market access employees are trained and up-to-date on policies and procedures that affect their respective functional areas

Education/Experience/skills:

• A bachelor’s degree (science or business preferred) or equivalent combination of relevant education and applicable job experience may be considered.  
• A minimum of 5 years progressively responsible experience in Pharmaceutical or Medical Sales and Learning & Development, with a minimum of 3 years in a training role. 
• Must have experience in reimbursement and caregiver support, with a strong understanding of Patient Services.
• A focus on specialty sales, rare diseases, pediatric neurology, neurology, pediatrics, and long-term care is beneficial.
• Experience with product launches and developing new hire training plans is highly desired, along with extensive experience and technical expertise associated wi