Exec. Director, Global Patient Engagement

COMPANY:

At BioCryst, we share a deep commitment to improving the lives of people living with hereditary angioedema (HAE) and other rare diseases. We leverage our expertise in structure-guided drug design to develop first-in-class or best-in-class oral small-molecule and injectable protein therapeutics, led by the efforts of our team of expert scientists in our Discovery Center of Excellence in Birmingham, Alabama. Our global headquarters is in Durham, North Carolina and our employees span the globe across sites in multiple countries. We are proud of our culture of engagement and accountability that rewards people for innovative thinking and achievement of key objectives. For more information, please visit our website at www.biocryst.com  or follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

JOB SUMMARY:

The Executive Director of Global Patient Engagement leads the patient engagement function, ensuring the patient voice remains central to all BioCryst activities. This role holds global responsibility for shaping and advancing the patient engagement strategy in alignment with BioCryst’s current and future therapeutic areas. It includes establishing a cohesive global vision for patient relations and fostering appropriate, strategic partnerships with advocacy organizations. The incumbent champions a patient-centric culture across BioCryst, integrating patient perspectives throughout the continuum—from preclinical and clinical development through commercialization—to ensure our current and future products and services meaningfully address patient needs.

The Executive Director leads and develops the global patient engagement team, oversees the function budget and operational execution, ensures cross-functional strategic alignment and collaboration, and leads execution of the strategy across all relevant markets. Working closely with Medical Affairs, Regulatory, Legal, Compliance, and Commercial teams, the incumbent ensures all activities meet global and local regulatory requirements and adhere to BioCryst Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) while advancing a culture of true patient centricity across the organization.

This position requires a senior, strategic leader with deep expertise in the patient journey, leadership experience, strong internal and external engagement capabilities, and the ability to influence at executive level.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Leads, coaches and develops BioCryst’ s Patient Engagement team
• Develops strategic and tactical plans for effective engagement with patient communities and advocacy organizations within BioCryst’s therapeutic areas and in key markets
• Manages and is accountable for departmental budget
• Fosters an industry-leading patient-centric culture
• Develops, tracks and evaluating metrics demonstrating the function’s impact within BioCryst
• Represents BioCryst at patient advocacy events and conferences as well as scientific congresses to foster key connections and partnerships with essential stakeholders
• Establishes and grows BioCryst’s relationships with global, national, and local patient advocacy organizations, including linking appropriate patient groups with information and resources
• Partners cross-functionally broadly throughout the organization including program teams, clinical development, clinical operations, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, HEOR and market access, SDIO, commercial, legal and compliance, corporate communications, to ensure patient advocacy organization and patient insights guide the programs throughout the development process and product lifecycle of BioCryst’s therapies
• Generates patient insights through compliant activities, such as advisory boards and discussion groups, and supports other functions in research studies and other evidence generation initiatives
• Champions patient insights and best practices throughout the organization to ensure the patient voice is reflected in relevant internal and external policies, procedures, and programs, and helps shape cross-functional initiatives to address patients’ needs
• Proactively and routinely shares patient insights and activities of the Patient Engagement function through established BioCryst communication channels
• Ensures regular training across BioCryst functions, including preconference training
• Assesses funding requests from appropriate patient advocacy groups and ensures they meet all compliance review procedures
• Develops, implements, and manages patient speakers and ambassador programs
• Facilitates development of patient communities while following relevant laws, regulations, policies and best practices
• Prepares and mobilizes patients to advocate for appropriate care and new therapies with approval and reimbursement agencies where appropriate

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related business, clinical or scientific discipline, and/or related fields in life sciences required
• A minimum of 10 years of increasing responsibility and scope in roles related to patient engagement/advocacy, including a minimum of 7 years of direct patient engagement/advocacy experience pre-and post-launch within the biopharmaceutical industry, are required - experience in rare disease is a plus
• Strong leadership skills with proven track record of defining the vision for, as well as leading and evolving the patient engagement/advocacy function in a growing biopharmaceutical organization, including strategic planning and supporting the development and growth of team members, with at least 5 years’ experience in managing direct reports
• Proven track record of building trusted, meaningful relationships with patient advocacy organizations and patient communities
• Strong understanding of the legal, regulatory, and compliance environment, including guidelines and best practices for patient advocacy engagement
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with a strong ability to influence without direct authority
• Experience serving as a company ambassador and spokesperson with external stakeholders
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced, matrixed, team environment consisting of internal and external team members
• Highly collaborative, strategic thinker, able to successfully develop and maintain strong working relationships cross-functionally with colleagues and with external stakeholders
• Other tasks as assigned
• Requires the ability to travel up to 30% of the work time with individual trips lasting multiple, consecutive days
• This position has direct reports

The statements in this position description are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. The manager may assign additional responsibilities and assignments from time to time.

BioCryst is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities without regard to age, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, Veterans status, disability and/or other protected class characteristics. Additionally, BioCryst is committed to achieving its business objectives in compliance with all federal, state and local law.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.