Thought Leader Liaison (TLL), West

Position Overview

The Associate Director Thought Leader Liaison (TLL), Fibromyalgia, will directly report into the Director, Commercial Strategy and will lead executional efforts in regional and local engagement with existing and emerging Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), Advocacy Groups and Professional Societies to develop and implement education that helps simplify the early Fibromyalgia patient journey from diagnosis through treatment and monitoring. This will include identifying new and emerging opinion leaders and appropriately engaging KOLs to support speaker bureau activities, and assessing speaker programs for meaningfulness, effectiveness, education, and compliance with company policies. 

The TLL role is a field-based role (non-sales focused) position, working closely with U.S. Key Fibromyalgia Thought Leaders (KOLs) to ensure cross-functional commercial resources are made available as appropriate.  The three primary (but not exclusive) areas of focus for TLL are KOL engagement, executive encounter management, and supporting the Fibromyalgia community. 

Essential Duties

• KOL engagement – identify, profile, and maintain long-term relationships with KOLs in the Fibromyalgia community
• Engagement with national, regional, and local thought leaders, including emerging thought leaders, to identify and seek insight regarding best practices that can help simplify the patient journey
• Identification and implementation of training (product, disease state, and compliance training) for promotional speakers and related aspects of speaker programs
• Collaboration with Promotional Program Manager for speaker usage and issues
• Provide feedback regarding nomination of new speakers, when applicable
• Coordinate/facilitate new product and annual compliance training for speakers
• Work with Marketing team for annual speaker re-contracting
• Update and track KOL engagements via KOL management platform in partnership with operations lead
• Collaborate appropriately with field teams to enable local/account-level engagement with national, regional, and emerging thought leaders
• Facilitate coordination of KOL engagements at the local level
• Coordinate with field sales team, brand leads, and speaker program vendor on speaker availability and utilization  
• Ensure appropriate pull-through of speaker programs within allocated regional budgets
• Solicit, understand, and relate field feedback regarding promotional programs
• Identify potential opportunities for institutional group training
• Identify, assess, and appropriately engage with regional advocacy groups and local/regional professional societies, in collaboration with Corporate Advocacy, to develop and implement Fibromyalgia education that helps simplify the patient journey (above-brand), from diagnosis through patient monitoring
• Serve as a central point for field engagement with regional/local advocacy and professional societies
• Synthesize learnings, translate them into key insights and best practices, and regularly present these insights to Marketing and Sales leadership to help inform brand strategy, messaging, educational initiatives, and promotional programs
• Understand what KOLs are communicating through publications, congresses, podium presentations, and 1:1 interactions
• Remain on the cutting edge of data readouts (consistent with FDA-approved labeling, medical congress meeting outputs, and podium & symposia presentations)
• Engage with KOLs affiliated with key regional health systems to understand best practices for establishing diagnostic and treatment algorithms
• Help develop case studies and share with health system C-suite to encourage adoption of Fibromyalgia care pathways and treatment algorithms
• Support execution of commercial contracts, as needed

Necessary Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrated leadership skills and Self-starter with strong clinical acumen
• Strong communication and presentation skills with ability to tailor content to diverse audiences 
• Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving skills
• Understanding of legal and regulatory issues impacting pharmaceutical product marketing, as well as the dynamics driving the U.S. healthcare environment
• Proven ability to function autonomously 
• Open, collaborative nature with ability to rapidly integrate and motivate cross-functional team members and stakeholders
• High learning agility
• Ability to thrive in a rapidly evolving, complex, fast-paced environment
• Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal skills, as well as emotional intelligence
• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain strong business relationships
• Commitment to corporate culture of patient-centricity, innovation, and compliance

Educational Requirements

• BA/BS required; advanced degree preferred

Experience Requirements

• Minimum of 10 years’ experience in pharmaceutical/healthcare field
• Thought Leader Liaison/KOL Engagement experience strongly preferred
• In-depth knowledge of integrated health systems operations within current market environment
• Experience in Rheumatology, Pain, Neurology, Psychiatry are preferred
• Travel requirements: Overnight domestic travel expected for meetings with KOLs, Advocacy Groups and Professional Societies, as well as conferences.  Includes some weekend travel.  Willingness to travel up to 75%
• As a condition of employment and an essential function of the position, applicants must be able to engage in person with HCPs and other third parties at their offices, institutions, and other appropriate locations on a regular basis.  In order to gain in-person access, applicants selected for the position may be required to complete third parties’ credentialing and/or entry requirements, which often include an attestation to and/or providing proof of having received certain vaccinations.  To the extent you are unable to meet certain requirements for qualifying medical (including pregnancy-related) or religious reasons, applicants must request reasonable accommodation by contacting the Human Resources Department.