Overview
Celldex is seeking an accomplished market access leader to serve as Executive Director, National and Key Accounts, reporting to the Vice President, Managed Markets. This individual will lead the national and regional payer account organization responsible for securing and optimizing access for barzolvolimab, Celldex's investigational therapy in development for chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), subject to regulatory approval. The Executive Director will translate the market access strategy into disciplined account execution across national and regional health plans, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), integrated delivery networks, Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), government channels, and other priority customers.
The role requires exceptional leadership capabilities, deep market access expertise, and the ability to effectively represent account team insights, customer needs, reimbursement challenges, and market opportunities to Celldex Executive Leadership while ensuring alignment with the company's overall strategic direction. The successful candidate will build and lead a high-performing team of National Account Managers, Regional Account Managers, and Key Account Managers, establish clear performance expectations, guide complex access and contracting negotiations, and ensure launch readiness and post-launch execution. This role requires deep payer expertise, strong command of medical-benefit and buy-and-bill dynamics, sound judgment, and the ability to influence senior internal and external stakeholders.
Responsibilities
- Lead, coach, and hold accountable the National Account Manager and Regional Account Manager teams responsible for payer access and account execution for barzolvolimab.
- Develop and execute the national and regional account strategy plan in alignment with Celldex's overall market access, pricing, contracting, distribution, and commercial strategies.
- Establish account segmentation, prioritization, call planning, objectives, milestones, performance standards, and operating rhythms across the payer account organization.
- Ensure account strategies align with Celldex's overall commercial, market access, and corporate objectives.
- Direct engagement with national and regional health plans, PBMs, specialty pharmacies, integrated delivery networks, government accounts, and other strategic customers, as appropriate.
- Lead and support complex product access and contract negotiations, including medical-benefit and buy-and-bill arrangements, while protecting long-term product value and adhering to approved governance.
- Ensure the team communicates a compelling, compliant clinical and economic value proposition to payer and population-health decision-makers.
- Anticipate payer policy, utilization-management, reimbursement, and competitive barriers; develop account-specific strategies to improve timely and appropriate patient access.
- Partner closely with Market Access Strategy, Pricing and Contracting, Trade and Distribution, HEOR, Medical Affairs, Marketing, Sales, Finance, Legal, Compliance, and Patient Services.
- Provide high-quality account intelligence, access forecasts, policy updates, contracting insights, and risk assessments to senior leadership and cross-functional launch teams.
- Build launch-readiness capabilities, tools, dashboards, and key performance indicators; monitor execution and take corrective action when performance is below expectations.
- Recruit, onboard, develop, retain, and succession-plan a diverse team of market access professionals; foster a culture of ownership, transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Manage the function's budget and external resources responsibly and ensure all activities comply with company policies and applicable laws and regulations.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree in business, healthcare, pharmacy, public health, or a related discipline preferred.
- Minimum of 15 years of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, managed markets, healthcare account management, or related commercial experience.
- Minimum of 8-10 years of progressive leadership experience, including responsibility for leading national account management, market access, or customer-facing organizations.
- Demonstrated success leading Payer Account Directors, National Account Managers, Regional Account Managers, or comparable customer-facing market access teams.
- Substantial experience negotiating product access and contracts involving medical-benefit, specialty, infused/injected, or buy-and-bill products.
- Deep understanding of payer decision-making, formulary and medical-policy processes, utilization management, specialty pharmacy, reimbursement, distribution, and provider economics.
- Proven ability to lead teams through pre-launch planning, launch execution, and evolving market conditions with clear goals and measurable accountability.
- Strong executive presence, negotiation skills, business judgment, financial acumen, and ability to communicate complex issues clearly to senior leaders and customers.
- Exceptional leadership, coaching, organizational development, and talent management capabilities.
- Track record of effective cross-functional leadership in a matrixed, fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
- Ability to travel up to 60%, including overnight travel, based on business needs.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in immunology, allergy, dermatology, rare disease, or other specialty markets with complex payer and provider access dynamics.
- Experience building or expanding a payer account organization for a first or early commercial launch.
- Knowledge of government pricing, contracting governance, gross-to-net considerations, and the compliance requirements applicable to payer engagement.
- Established credibility and relationships with senior payer, PBM, and organized-customer decision-makers.
Leadership Capabilities
- Enterprise leadership: Connects account decisions to Celldex's broader clinical, commercial, financial, and patient-access objectives.
- Performance leadership: Sets unambiguous expectations, uses data to assess performance, gives direct feedback, and follows through on commitments.
- Strategic negotiation: Balances access, value, affordability, customer priorities, and long-term product economics.
- Team development: Builds capability, empowers sound decision-making, and creates strong succession and talent pipelines.
- Collaboration and influence: Aligns stakeholders without relying solely on authority and constructively challenges assumptions.
- Strong executive presence with demonstrated ability to communicate complex business issues, customer insights, organizational needs, and strategic recommendations to executive leadership teams.
Compensation StatementThe expected base salary for this position is: $233631.00 to $303417.00. We are committed to compensating employees equitably based on several factors including experience, education, licensure/certifications, skill level, location of the position, and availability of similar talent in a competitive market. Subject to eligibility and applicable plan terms, compensation includes base salary, annual discretionary bonus, long term incentive, 401(K) plan with employer contribution, health care and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), paid holidays, vacation, and sick days. A summary of our benefits can be found on our careers page
