At Bristol Myers Squibb, our employees often ask, “Who are you working for?”—a question that fuels collaboration, accountability, and urgency in our work. Our purpose-driven culture inspires us to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines to prevail over serious diseases. We offer uniquely interesting and meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and a supportive environment that values inclusion, wellbeing, flexibility, and comprehensive benefits. This is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it.
Role Purpose
The Associate Director for APAC Cell Therapy Operational Account Management is the single accountable owner of the end-to-end operational oversight and support between BMS and its network of certified treatment centers and apheresis collection sites across the assigned region. Acting as the strategic account lead, this role ensures every account – from initial onboarding through ongoing performance – receives customer centric services across patient scheduling, cell logistics, and apheresis operations for BMS Clinical and Commercial CAR T-cell therapies.
The role combines two dimensions of operational account ownership: (1) leading the regional CT360 Customer Support team that serves as the primary point of contact for treatment centers, apheresis centers, commercial and clinical internal teams within Japan; and (2) leading the regional Apheresis Operations team responsible for onboarding, training, and sustaining the performance of collection sites across the APAC region. By uniting these functions under one account management framework, the role delivers a seamless, consistent customer experience across the full account lifecycle.
This position manages a combined regional team, with purpose of driving and implementing a holistic view and management of customer interactions related to operations, while collaborating closely with global peers within Global Patient Operations ensuring regional and global account strategies are aligned.
Key Responsibilities
Account Management & Customer Relationships
- Own the operational account strategy and relationship health for all BMS certified clinical and commercial treatment centers and apheresis collection sites across Japan serving as the senior escalation point and trusted partner for each account.
- Develop operational account plans that capture each site’s needs, performance history, growth opportunities, and risks, and review these regularly with cross-functional partners.
- Lead customer communication and issue management in complex or high-stakes situations that cannot be resolved by CT360 Customer Support Specialists or Apheresis Managers, ensuring rapid, well-coordinated resolution.
- Collect and act on Voice of Customer (VOC) and Voice of Business (VOB) feedback, translating account insights into continuous improvement of processes, tools, and service levels.
- Facilitate internal and external communications, including coordinated responses to major events impacting multiple treatment or collection sites.
- Monitor and assess account and vendor performance and capacity after site launch, partnering with Quality Assurance and internal business partners to sustain account health.
- Partner with order orchestrations teams, ensuring operational information and data are consolidated at an account level, analyzed and insights are shared with internal cross functional teams in support of customer engagements.
- Identify and develop account management strategies and ways of working in collaboration with senior leadership.
Account Onboarding & Site Readiness
- Partner with Clinical and Commercial CAR T teams to enable the apheresis collection footprint supporting clinical trial and commercial site plans for the assigned region and countries.
- Oversee coordination with internal teams and collection site staff to ensure required onboarding activities are completed, and new accounts are ready to perform collections for BMS within required timelines.
- Ensure the team communicates onboarding status to Clinical and Commercial stakeholders and oversee development and execution of mitigation plans for any delayed timelines.
- Ensure the team performs technical site assessments and trains collection center staff on BMS collection requirements, setting each account up for long-term success.
- Manage the rollout of process changes to assigned accounts, ensuring changes land smoothly and with minimal disruption to the customer.
Team Leadership
- Lead and develop a combined team of 10+ colleagues, including Cell Therapy 360 Customer Support Specialists and regional Apheresis Managers, to deliver customer focused services to accounts across assigned regions or countries.
- Foster team health and engagement, motivate people, resolve blockers, and ensure adequate training and development of the management team (performance, coaching, delegation).
- Own the regional Contact Center and operational account service strategy, including processes, KPIs, training plans, execution plans, and measurement/auditing methods and supporting technology.
- Track account and operational trends over time, propose and implement solutions to business problems with the customer experience as the end goal.
- Manage activities and project milestones to implement changes and improvements; lead and own multiple projects as assigned, including regional Change Control.
- Ensure regional goals are met and aligned with global goals, collaborating closely with global Senior Managers for alignment, cross-support, and consistent team management.
Quality & Compliance
- Provide and oversee Quality Systems support, including participation in deviation activities and impact/investigation assessments for cell collection centers.
- Ensure the team collects and enters account and operational data into electronic data management systems accurately and on time.
- Comply with all applicable SOPs and regulations and champion a culture of quality and compliance across the account portfolio.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Build and maintain strong partnerships with key regional stakeholders across Global Patient Operations, Global Logistics Solutions, Quality, Commercial, Clinical Operations, Medical, Legal, Regulatory, and Patient Access Support Services to deliver customer-focused experience.
- Closely collaborate with Cell Therapy Quality, Logistics, and Apheresis partners at all levels to align on account needs and improve business processes, including defining cross-functional workflows, communication, rules of engagement, and objectives.
- Represent Global Patient Operations in global, highly matrixed teams to support launch readiness, clinical trial readiness, life cycle management, and process optimization as assigned.
- Take initiative to close gaps and resolve misalignment or miscommunication within Cell Therapy cross-functional teams before they affect accounts.
- Present to senior leadership on account portfolio health, team strategy, goals, and project status.
Education & Experience
- Required: Bachelor’s / Undergraduate degree; Life Sciences or Engineering (e.g., Registered Nurse, Biomedical Engineer) preferred or equivalent work experience.
- Required: 5+ years of people management experience; experience managing managers preferred.
- Required: 5+ years of experience in a regulated environment (hospital or pharmaceutical/biotech; cGMP/FDA).
- Required: Fluent reading, speaking, and writing skills in English and Japanese.
- Strongly preferred: 8+ years of account management, case management, patient services/navigator, or customer service/call center experience in a pharma/biotech or health services environment.
- Preferred: Experience working in Apheresis, Cellular Therapy, or Stem Cell Transplant programs.
- Preferred: Prior customer-facing role in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry and experience working with critical raw material suppliers or contract manufacturing organizations.
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
- Live the BMS core values of Integrity, Passion, Innovation, Accountability, Urgency, and Inclusion.
- Customer-driven mindset with proven ability to build, deepen, and sustain strategic account relationships.
- Excellent leadership, communication, presentation, and influencing skills; able to engage and operate as a senior management team member.
- Skilled in planning and organizing, conflict management, decision-making, relationship building, innovation management, and resource allocation.
- Ability to rapidly solve problems, navigate organizational complexity, and make sound decisions in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
- Medical, scientific, and clinical knowledge, with understanding of applicable regulations and standards.
- High attention to detail and strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities in parallel with urgency.
- Highly self-motivated, self-aware, professional, and flexible in responding to change and evolving business needs.
- Passionate about leading teams and developing people.
We hire for skills and capabilities, not just credentials – if this role excites you, but doesn’t perfectly match your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway.
How We Work
Where you work matters – because collaboration, innovation and patient impact happen in many settings. Our roles are structured across four work models: site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design. The model assigned to this role is based on its core responsibilities. Learn more at https://careers.bms.com/ways-of-working.
Supporting People with Disabilities
BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to adastaffingsupport@bms.com. Visit careers.bms.com/eeo-accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.
Candidate Rights
BMS will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.
For roles based in Los Angeles County only: If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information: https://careers.bms.com/california-residents/
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R1607958 : Associate Director, APAC Cell Therapy Operational Account Management