Director, Commercial & Medical Information Systems

Who We Are:


Xenon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:XENE) is a neuroscience-focused biopharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing, and commercializing innovative therapeutics to improve the lives of people living with neurological and psychiatric disorders. We are looking for great people who thrive in a respectful, collaborative, inclusive, and productive culture to join the Xenon team.


What We Do:


We are advancing an exciting product pipeline to address indications with high unmet medical need, including epilepsy and depression. Our flagship azetukalner program represents the most advanced potassium channel modulator in clinical development for multiple indications. Building upon the positive results and compelling data from our Phase 2b “X-TOLE” study in adult patients with focal epilepsy, our Phase 3 epilepsy program includes multiple clinical trials evaluating azetukalner in patients with focal onset seizures and primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures. In 2024, we are planning to initiate a Phase 3 azetukalner program in major depressive disorder, based on topline data from our Phase 2 “X-NOVA” clinical trial. In addition, we are proud of the leading-edge science coming out of our discovery labs, including early-stage research programs that leverage our extensive ion channel expertise and drug discovery capabilities to identify validated drug targets and develop new product candidates. Backed by a strong balance sheet to support our growth plans, we continue to build a fully integrated, premier neuroscience company with strong discovery, clinical development, corporate, and commercial operations.


About the Role:


We are seeking a Director, Commercial and Medical Information Systems, to join our team. This role will be the IT business partner for the Commercial and Medical Affairs functions at Xenon. The Director will partner with those groups to develop and execute against a functional technology roadmap, support existing enterprise applications such as Veeva MedComms and Vault CRM for Medical, and ensure effective and secure data exchange with external service providers. In addition to designing, building, and supporting systems, the Director will facilitate the design and adoption of effective data governance and lifecycle management processes, including the design and implementation of new technology to support these practices as needed. The Director will act as the primary point of contact for the designated user groups on all topics related to IT and will partner with colleagues in IT to resolve issues and deliver solutions. The Director will also ensure that IT-sponsored initiatives and standards are tailored to meet the needs of colleagues in the Commercial and Medical Affairs functions and are successfully adopted by those groups.
The IT group at Xenon is expanding rapidly to support the company’s growth plans. The Director will begin as an individual contributor in a hands-on role, with the expectation that their team will expand over time as new systems are implemented and as the IT operating model evolves. During this period of rapid growth and evolution, the Director will be assigned additional responsibilities (beyond the core responsibilities described above) based on company needs, the individual’s experience and expertise, and the availability of resources within IT.
This position reports to the Senior Vice President, Information Systems and will be located in the Boston, MA, USA office. The level of the position will be commensurate with the candidate’s education and industry experience. This role is a hybrid position, requiring a minimum of 2 days per week in the office.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Act as the IT owner for all relevant functional systems and collaborate with functional system owners and colleagues in IT to evolve the support model based on the needs of the users and the overall IT strategy.
• Partner with key stakeholders in the Commercial and Medical Affairs to develop and execute against a functional technology roadmap encompassing current and future systems to address existing pain points, maximize the usage and value of existing systems, and develop new capabilities to support a planned product launch.
• Serve as the primary point of contact between the Commercial and Medical Affairs functions and IT to resolve issues, align on processes and standards, and ensure awareness and alignment on key initiatives (function- or IT-sponsored). Ensure that IT standards and processes are tailored to meet the unique needs and capabilities of the Development functions.
• Actively collaborate with other IT business partners to manage common or cross-functional requirements and project dependencies, and to ensure an effective enterprise approach to system planning and design.
• Facilitate effective IT planning, governance, and project delivery as these process