Vice President of Pharmacy Operations
Pay Range: $210,000 - $250,000 annually
Location: Sterling, VA
Work Model: In-person
Employment Type: Full-time
About the Role
The
VP of Pharmacy Operations leads end-to-end pharmacy operations at Akina, from prescription receipt through compounding, dispensing, and fulfillment. With a strong foundation already in place, this is a rare opportunity to build an operating model designed for scale across Akina's next chapter of expansion. The role is accountable for the department's people, capacity, financial performance, and customer experience, and for an operating model built to support our trajectory. This leader partners with Quality & Regulatory Compliance and the PIC(s) to ensure compliant execution, and builds a team capable of sustaining rapid growth in service of our mission of enriching lives through compounded medications.
Key Responsibilities1. Leadership and Management- Build and maintain the management structure required to support current operations and future growth.
- Set clear expectations, priorities, and accountability for the department's leaders and teams.
- Develop leaders and strengthen management capability throughout the department.
- Ensure the right people are in the right seats and address performance gaps when they arise.
- Create a culture of ownership, execution, and continuous improvement aligned with Akina's values and operating expectations.
2. End-to-End Pharmacy Operations- Own the end-to-end pharmacy operations execution and performance, ensuring prescriptions move consistently, accurately, safely, and timely from receipt through production planning, compounding, quality-control checkpoints, dispensing, and fulfillment.
- Ensure work moves effectively across operational stages, resolving bottlenecks, handoff failures, execution issues, and operational disruptions affecting continuity or turnaround.
- Ensure production planning and operational priorities align with order demand and required turnaround.
- Maintain compliant execution in partnership with Quality & Compliance and the PIC(s), including adherence to approved procedures, applicable USP and pharmacy standards, and required quality controls.
- Hold operational leaders accountable for the performance of their areas while retaining ownership of the end-to-end result.
3. Capacity, Resources and Financial Performance- Ensure the department has sufficient labor, equipment, facility capacity, materials, and inventory to meet current and near-term demand efficiently and profitably.
- Own procurement, inventory management, facilities, and other operational resources required to support reliable pharmacy operations.
- Own departmental financial performance, including budget performance, operating expenses, labor efficiency, waste, and departmental P&L.
- Own and continuously improve unit economics, including the major labor, material, fulfillment, and other operating costs that drive profitability.
- Evaluate and prioritize capital and resource investments based on operational need, expected impact, and financial return.
4. Operational Strategy and Scalability- Translate company growth plans into clear strategies, priorities, and multi-year operating plans.
- Design and evolve the future-state operating model, establishing standardized site models, cross-location operating practices, and appropriate redundancy to support consistent execution and scalable growth.
- Lead the operational launch and integration of new pharmacy locations, ensuring each site is brought online effectively and incorporated into Akina's broader operating model.
- Standardize the core systems, workflows, and operating processes required for consistent execution as the function scales across teams and locations.
- Identify and lead major technology, automation, and operational infrastructure initiatives required to support future growth.
5. Customer Experience and Service- Own the service experience delivered, ensuring patients and providers receive responsive, reliable, and effective support throughout their interactions with Akina.
- Set and maintain service standards for patient and provider interactions across the department.
- Use customer feedback, service trends, and recurring issues to identify systemic problems and drive improvements to the customer experience.
- Ensure communication to patients/providers is clear, consistent, and aligned with service expectations.
Key Metrics- Departmental P&L against Budget
- Customer Satisfaction Score
- Customer Retention Rate
- Total Orders Dispensed
- Order-to-Ship Turnaround Time
- Replacement Rate
- Stock Out Rate
- Pharmacy Audit Checklist Score
Qualifications (Required)- 5+ years of progressive pharmacy operations leadership experience, including significant responsibility for high-volume or complex pharmacy operations.
- 5+ years of leadership experience, including direct leadership of managers and responsibility for building, developing, and holding teams accountable.
- Direct experience in 503A or 503B compounding pharmacy operations, with meaningful exposure to both sterile and non-sterile compounding.
- Experience in other regulated, high-volume healthcare or production environments such as specialty pharmacy, central-fill pharmacy, or pharmaceutical manufacturing.
- Demonstrated experience owning end-to-end pharmacy operational performance, including prescription processing, production/compounding, dispensing, fulfillment, and customer service performance.
- Strong working knowledge of applicable USP compounding standards, state Board of Pharmacy requirements, pharmacy practice standards, and quality systems, including experience partnering with Quality/Compliance and pharmacy leadership in a regulated environment.
- Demonstrated financial ownership of an operating function, including labor productivity, operating expenses, unit economics, inventory/waste management, and P&L performance.
- Proven experience scaling operations through significant growth, including increasing volume, organizational complexity, facility capacity, automation, technology, or physical infrastructure.
- Demonstrated ability to use operational data and KPIs to identify performance gaps, make decisions, and improve operational and financial results.
- Experience leading major operational change, such as facility expansion, new-site launches, automation, process redesign, systems implementation, or material increases in production volume.
Qualifications (Strongly Preferred)- Experience leading the transition from single-site to multi-site pharmacy operations, including the opening, integration, and scaling of new pharmacy or regulated production facilities.
- Experience in a high-growth compounding pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, central-fill pharmacy, pharmaceutical manufacturing, or another high-volume regulated healthcare production environment.
- Experience with automation and pharmacy technology used to increase throughput, accuracy, scalability, or operating efficiency.
- Experience leading a patient/provider Customer Service function within pharmacy or healthcare operations.
- Advanced business or operations education such as an MBA, MHA, or equivalent.
How Akina Commits to Supporting You- Giving clear directions and expectations
- Ensures you have access to the necessary tools
- Delegates appropriately
- Holds effective meetings
- Meets one-on-one with you quarterly or more, if needed
- Rewards and recognizes your performance
Benefits & Perks- Medical and Supplementary Benefits: Akina Pharmacy offers two medical plan options with employer premium contributions up to 85%, dental and vision coverage, accident and hospital indemnity, and company paid long term and short-term disability options, available after 30 days of employment.
- Paid Time Off: Take advantage of generous paid time off to recharge, focus on personal priorities, and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
- Paid Holidays: Enjoy six scheduled paid holidays to celebrate and spend quality time with loved ones.
- 401K Match: Invest in your future with our 401K plan, featuring a Safe Harbor match up to 4%.
- Rewards & Recognition: Be celebrated for your hard work and achievements through our dedicated rewards and recognition program.
- No Cost Medication: Employees are eligible to receive prescribed compounded medications at no cost, after 30 days of employment.
