Director, Strategic Customer Development- NORAM (Remote)

Who is USP?

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is an independent scientific organization that collaborates with the world’s leading health and science experts to develop rigorous quality standards for medicines, dietary supplements, and food ingredients. At USP, we believe that scientific excellence is driven by a commitment to fairness, integrity, and global collaboration. This belief is embedded in our core value of Passion for Quality and is demonstrated through the contributions of more than 1,300 professionals across twenty global locations, working to strengthen the supply of safe, high-quality medicines worldwide.

At USP, we value inclusive scientific collaboration and recognize that attracting diverse expertise strengthens our ability to develop trusted public health standards. We foster an organizational culture that supports equitable access to mentorship, professional development, and leadership opportunities. Our partnerships, standards, and research reflect our belief that ensuring broad participation in scientific leadership results in stronger, more impactful outcomes for global health.

USP is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer (EEOE) and is committed to ensuring fair, merit-based selection processes that enable the best scientific minds—regardless of background—to contribute to advancing public health solutions worldwide. We provide reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities and uphold policies that create an inclusive and collaborative work environment.

Brief Job Overview

The Director, Strategic Customer Development, North America is a senior level Sales position leading commercial strategy execution for USP portfolio of standards in North America. Reporting to the Vice President, Global Business Development and Regional Manager North America, this role is responsible for driving revenue growth in the largest and most strategic region, expanding market presence, and accelerating USP’s impact across the North America Pharmaceutical Industry.

As a commercial leader, you will oversee sales operations and distribution channels across North America Region and will be accountable for meeting revenues and units growth annual targets. You will lead a geographically dispersed sales team, foster high-level customer relationships, and collaborate cross-functionally with other customer facing functions leadership to deliver exceptional customer experience and achieve commercial objectives.

You will lead creation and execution of business plans to position USP portfolio of standards for long term growth. Your focus and the one of your team will be on identifying, understanding and supporting resolution of key quality challenges that developers and manufacturers of pharmaceutical drugs are routinely facing.

The successful candidate will be results driven, with a passion for building high-performance organizations. They will enjoy working with people collaboratively, strengthening customer relationships, and developing their network in the pharmaceutical community across North America.

We are searching for a person who wants to grow and develop their own career, a commercial leader with a passion for opening new doors and creating new opportunities.

This is a remote position and requires a primary residence in one of the following US states: MD, VA, WV, DC, PA, MI, KS, FL, NC, MI, IL, MN, or in Canada. This role requires up to 60% domestic travel. This is a supervisory level position with team reporting across North America.

How will YOU create impact here at USP?

As part of our mission to advance scientific rigor and public health standards, you will play a vital role in increasing global access to high-quality medicines through public standards and related programs. USP prioritizes scientific integrity, regulatory excellence, and evidence-based decision-making to ensure health systems worldwide can rely on strong, tested, and globally relevant quality standards.

Additionally, USP’s People and Culture division, in partnership with the Equity Office, invests in leadership and workforce development to equip all employees with the skills to create high-performing, inclusive teams. This includes training in equitable management practices and tools to promote engaged, collaborative, and results-driven work environments.

The Director, Strategic Customer Development, North America, has the following responsibilities:

Revenue Growth & Market Expansion:

• Drive achievement of global revenue and unit growth targets across all North America, ensuring sustainable long-term growth.
• Lead development and execution of strategic accounts plans across North America to protect existing revenues, identify and capture new growth opportunities, and accelerate new customer acquisition through direct and distribution sales channels.
• Support team members and (if appropriate) lead commercial negotiations for multi-year supply agreements at strategic accounts.
• Identify and unlock opportunities in emerging therapeutic areas and high-growth markets, to position USP as the standard setting organization leader in the pharmaceutical market in North America.

Customer Engagement:

• Cultivate and strengthen senior-level customer relationships, positioning USP as a trusted advisor to pharmaceutical developers and manufacturers.
• Create User Forums, Quality Hours, Workshops and Webinars of topics of key interest to our customers alongside with Scientific Affairs, Science leads and Regulatory Affairs to showcase offerings and the USP value proposition.
• Build strong, collaborative partnerships with regional distributors, ensuring alignment through training, shared resources, and joint customer engagement.
• Partner with customers to understand and help address critical quality challenges in drugs development and manufacturing.
• Represent USP at industry conferences, trade associations, and professional forums, elevating the organization’s visibility and influence.

Data-Driven Insights & Market Intelligence:

• Lead the use of Salesforce CRM and data analytics to manage sales opportunities pipeline, track business performance, and drive accountability across the regional Sales team.
• Analyze and interpret sales data—direct and through distributors—to identify revenue opportunities and provide monthly and quarterly business reviews to USP leadership team.
• Monitor industry trends, regulatory dynamics, and competitive developments to anticipate customer needs and adjust commercial strategies accordingly.
• Gather and consolidate market and customer feedback, providing actionable recommendations to Global Marketing and Strategy teams.

Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Lead and develop a high-performing regional sales team including 6 Strategic Customer Development managers, 2 Inside Sales Account managers and one Sales Development Associate, fostering a culture of excellence, accountability, and growth.
• Partner with other customer facing functions leaders within the organization (Scientific Affairs, Customer Service, Technical Service, Pricing, Finance, Marketing.) to deliver a seamless and differentiated customer experience.
• Create points of intersection with peers (SCD Leads) in other USP Regions, to benchmark activities, learn from each other and foster a culture of learning and continuous improvement across North America team. Travel up to 60% of your time to engage customers, support regional team members, and expand USP’s presence across North America.

Strategic Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness:

• Accountable for defining and executing the North America Strategic Customer Development commercial strategy, establishing annual business priorities, operating objectives, and performance measures aligned with USP's growth objectives.
• Act as a key strategic advisor to the Vice President on North America commercial growth opportunities and organizational effectiveness.
• Drive a high-performance culture through effective leadership, performance management, coaching, accountability, and employee development.
• Oversee territory alignment, customer segmentation, and resource allocation decisions across the region to maximize commercial performance and business impact.
• Serve as the primary commercial leader for North America, representing regional priorities to senior and executive leadership and providing strategic recommendations on market opportunities, and growth.

Who is USP Looking For?

The successful candidate will have a demonstrated understanding of our mission, commitment to excellence through inclusive and equitable behaviors and practices, ability to quickly build credibility with stakeholders, along with the following competencies and experience:

• A commercial leader with 10+ years of experience in Sales and at least 5 years of progressive sales leadership experience, ideally in the life sciences or related industry.
• Bachelor's degree in a life sciences discipline (preferably analytical chemistry, biochemistry, biology, biotechnology).
• 5+ years of people management experience.
• Experience using CRM platform (preferably Salesforce) and data analytical platform (e.g. Tableau) is required.
• Proven track record of driving revenue growth, consistently achieving sales targets and leading a geographically dispersed sales team.
• Deep understanding of the pharmaceutical market, customer needs, and commercial dynamics.
• Passion for building high-performance teams and organizations.
• Ability to listen and gather customer/stakeholder insights and respond with creative solutions.
• Strong problem-solving skills with customer-centric approach.
• Strong relationship-builder with the ability to influence senior decision-makers across global organizations.
• Ability to gain customer confidence and build long-term relationships.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with the drive to open new doors and create new opportunities.
• Proficiency with data analytical platform (e.g. Tableau) and CRM (e.g. Salesforce).
• Bias to action and results driven with a track record of successful outcomes.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, presentation, communications skills.
• Ability and desire to work well with diverse employees and customers in a cooperative and friendly manner.

Additional Desired Preferences

• Master’s degree preferred in either business or science with an MBA. Education and training in pharmaceutical sciences and business are highly desired. 
• Experience with regulatory, clinical development, quality assurance, GMP in pharmaceutical market environment.
• Existing network of decision makers in the Northa American pharmaceutical market, such as manufacturers, trade associations and/or retailers.

Supervisory Responsibilities

Yes, team of 9+ across North America region.

Benefits

USP provides the benefits to protect yourself and your family today and tomorrow. From company-paid time off and comprehensive healthcare options to retirement savings, you can have peace of mind that your personal and financial well-being is protected.

Compensation

Base Salary Range (for US based): USD $171,833.00 – $243,289.00 annually.

Target Annual Bonus: % Varies based on level of role.

Individual compensation packages are based on various factors unique to each candidate’s skill set, experience, qualifications, equity, and other job-related reasons.

Note: USP does not accept unsolicited resumes from 3rd party recruitment agencies and is not responsible for fees from recruiters or other agencies except under specific written agreement with USP.