Associate Director - Patient Support Operations - Rare Disease

About the Department 

At Novo Nordisk, our Finance and Operations team is the engine that elevates holistic commercialization of our products. The Finance and Operations team works closely with the business across the organization to guide enterprise wide resource allocations, investment choices, drive core operations and develop insights to drive growth and operational excellence across the value chain while innovating for future capabilities. We regulate accounting, uphold workplace safety, manage our supply chain and sampling, support technology, provide commercial operations, insights & analytics, maintain our facilities and assure the integrity and completeness of all business transactions. At Novo Nordisk, you will have the opportunity to build a life-changing career in a global business environment. We encourage our employees to make the most of their talent. And we reward hard work and dedication with the opportunity for continuous learning and personal development. Are you ready to realize your potential?

The Position

Responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the Rare Disease patient access and support programs. Additionally, this person will be responsible for driving new initiatives related to the portfolio of rare disease products and appropriate patients to ensure these programs provide best-in-class support while keeping a close eye on the budget and continuously evaluating for improved efficiencies. This individual will maintain a high-level of collaboration and integration with all field teams (Sales, Field Access, and Payer), Brand Marketing, Training, Market Access, Trade, Legal, Compliance, Finance, HEOR, and Market Research. The position has high exposure to senior management and requires a highly motivated individual who is able to work cross-functionally & independently in order to accomplish objectives.

Relationships

Reports to the Director, Patient Support Programs Rare Disease. Key internal relationships include Rare Disease brand marketing, market access, commercial insights and analytics, sales, medical/CMR, legal, compliance, and regulatory. Other internal relationships include Public Affairs, Government Affairs & US Corp Giving & Social Impact. External relationships include relations with patient/caregiver consultants and, key opinion leaders (KOLs), professional organizations, customers and patient support service providers and organizations.

Essential Functions

• Operational Management & Business Support
  • Support all inline and future launch products within Rare Disease Patient Support Operations. This includes supervising HUB/call center(s), and related reimbursement support programs/services
  • Oversee existing patient support programs, day to day operations with a focus on operational excellence in support of patient needs
  • Lead design, implementation and ongoing management of all Rare Disease patient HUB patient support programs
  • Develop performance dashboards and interpret hub data for purposes of assessing market access trends, hub program utilization, and performance against defined KPIs
  • Function as subject matter expert on Rare Disease patient reimbursement support services and collaborate cross functionally within the commercial organization to design and implement programs that support the company’s patient support objectives for inline and launching brands
  • Champion integrated approach across teams to provide a best-in-class service offering to internal and external customers
  • Enhance the Rare Disease customer experience via benchmarking, customer feedback, auditing and active call monitoring
  • Ensure strong collaboration with relevant cross-functional stakeholders
  • Develop and maintain SOPs and business rules related to all US patient support. Maintain program SOPs, exceptions processes, workflows, scripting, training and reports. Manage external partner performance against contractual arrangements, SOPs, KPIs, and budget
  • Drive development of company-wide processes and guidelines to support customer-focused objectives
• Fiscal Management
  • Demonstrate fiscal discipline and accountability to effectively and efficiently manage external partners and vendors’ performance through appropriate metrics. Negotiate and executes contracts / SOWs and budgets for desired services

• Field Engagement & Issue Management
  • Builds and maintains trusting, collaborative relationships and alliances with internal and external partners, focused on addressing key business issues, objectives, and processes
  • Works closely with Sales, Marketing & Market Access teams to ensure the successful execution of high-impact program strategies that support patients
  • Responsible for communication and engagement strategies between field sales, marketing and reimbursement support partners to ensure awareness and escalation of reported issues and customer concerns
  • Engages regularly with healthcare professionals to address concerns and drive ongoing and appropriate patient support experiences
  • Develops solutions to effectively address issues/obstacles and ensures implementation and communication of best practices
  • Coordinates agency training in line with business objectives and with input where appropriate from marketing/sales/legal/compliance
  • Develops and presents compelling plans and recommendations for management endorsement
• Insight Generation
  • Identify and communicate strategic insights and trends in health plan coverage, competitive support offerings, healthcare reform, patient access and provider needs. Develop strategic recommendations and implementation plans for patient support programs
  • Support the annual brand planning process with data driven insights
  • Lead and execute ongoing analyses of the market in terms of coverage and reimbursement issues impacting Novo Nordisk’s products, existing and emerging payer policies, competitive reimbursement landscape, trends, pricing, contracting strategies and potential barriers to provider and patient access

• Customer Support
  • Acts as a key representative of Novo Nordisk, on behalf of Patient Support Programs, to outside organizations and healthcare professionals
  • Attends key customer meetings to proactively remain up-to-date on changes and related needs for patient support
  • Develops recommendations and implements program changes to ensure ongoing compliance, industry competitiveness and operational excellence
  • Collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to ensure completion of data feed enhancement and mapping with recent data capture enhancements

Physical Requirements

10-20% overnight travel required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA-preferred
• 7+ years of progressive brand management/marketing and/or sales/operations experience required
• Agency/Vendor management experience required
• Patient Support Operations experience highly preferred
• Experience with patient support hubs, specialty pharmacies and/or healthcare institutions preferred
• Ability to lead and collaborate on cross-functional teams 
• Anticipates problems and roadblocks to avoid crisis management
• Must have proven track record of developing accurate short- and long-term business plans, results and follow up
• Must have solid understanding of the pharmaceutical marketplace including legal, medical, regulatory and clinical processes
• Develops accurate short- and long-term plans, forecasting, and business analysis
• Ensures timely execution and follow-up. Meets deadlines.
• Intermediate proficiency in Windows, MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.

At Novo Nordisk we recognize that it is no longer good enough to aspire to be the best company in the world. We need to aspire to be the best company for the world and we know that this is only possible with talented employees with diverse perspectives, backgrounds and cultures. We are therefore committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates the diversity of our employees, the patients we serve and communities we operate in. Together, we’re life changing.

Novo Nordisk is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal laws, rules or regulations.

If you are interested in applying to Novo Nordisk and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply, please call us at 1-855-411-5290. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.