Director of Advocacy and Professional Relations- Oncology

The Director of Oncology Advocacy and Professional Relations is focused on improving the lives of patients, their caregivers, and their families. This position serves as the U.S. commercial face of AbbVie to patient advocacy organizations and professional medical associations. Responsible for developing, implementing, and leading an internal patient advocacy and professional services team to deliver strategy and programs. Responsible for positioning the company as a preferred partner for influential global and U.S. patient and professional organizations within the hematology and solid tumor therapeutic areas. This position will be responsible for building and leading a best in class internal patient advocacy group that oversees all patient facing initiatives s across the commercial oncology portfolio.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as U.S. Commercial Oncology's primary Advocacy and Professional Relations Leader to build and maintain collaborative partnerships with key patient advocacy and professional medical associations and work to prioritize the organizations with which to partner for purposes of furthering mutual goals.
• Define and standardize best practices in advocacy relations; Based on a clear understanding of and empathy for the patient experience, lead the internal advocacy team to design and create processes, systems, solutions, and tools that will contribute to the effectiveness and success of the patient advocacy plans to support the U.S. oncology portfolio.
• Proactively and on an ongoing basis advocate priorities and objectives with senior leadership and opinion leaders at targeted associations with direct team-to-team meetings and participation in industry focused society boards/committees.
• Participate in internal product planning process and team meetings to create one-year and multiple-year operating plans related to advocacy opportunities for U.S. oncology portfolio products and relevant company initiatives.
• Lead internal advocacy team participation in brand planning and product team discussions to ensure the plans account for advocacy and professional organization opportunities
• Partners with cross functional departments including regulatory affairs, medical affairs, government affairs, commercial, and other corporate and field-based functions
• Understand the mission and vision of each advocacy organization in order to develop and recognize how to work most effectively with these partners; Expected to determine the best mix of organizations based on the expertise of the identified therapeutic space
• Educate internal and, in collaboration with other AbbVie teams, external partners, on global political and social trends affecting the pharmaceutical industry and AbbVie products
• Serve as an internal resource and identify opportunities to maximize resources in current and potential patient relations programs
• Coordinate and collaborate on strategic initiatives of mutual interest with internal government affairs and policy teams.
• Bring forward the patient's voice and patient experience in an appropriate and balanced way during product planning and strategy development processes for U.S. Oncology portfolio products
• Coaches team to develop skills required to influence brand and franchise strategies and programs, including relevant scientific, medical, economic and policy-related matters related to therapeutic areas.

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant scientific or clinical discipline. Advanced degree preferred (MD, PharmD, MSN, PhD,).
• Minimum 7-10 years of patient advocacy experience required. Oncology disease experience required.
• Demonstrated leadership and collaboration skills with a proven ability to build and maintain relationships with diverse groups of people and audiences
• Proven understanding of key trends in both internal and external environment with an impact on patient and consumer engagement, specifically in areas that affect political and social norms of relevance to oncology
• Solid understanding of the applicable regulatory environment and industry standards.
• Possesses compassion, empathy, and a high degree of integrity and accountability.
• Ability to build, maintain, and influence effective working relationships with key internal stakeholders, including marketing, medical affairs and corporate communications.
• Demonstrated technical, organizational, project management, negotiation and budgeting capabilities and a self-starter with excellent ability to lead, coach, implement and execute.
• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation communication skills. Adept at creating and communicating a clear vision and purpose.
• Ability to travel up to 30%; domestic and limited international