Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Dublin, Ireland, Ionis has been at work for more than three decades discovering medical breakthroughs that have redefined life for people with serious diseases. We’re pioneers in RNA-targeted medicines, and our platform continues to revolutionize drug discovery and transform lives for patients with unmet needs. With multiple marketed medicines and a leading pipeline in neurology, cardiology and select areas of high patient needs, we continue to drive innovation in RNA therapies in addition to advancing new approaches in gene editing to provide greater value to patients and are well positioned financially to deliver on our strategic goals.
At Ionis, we pride ourselves on cultivating a challenging, motivating and rewarding environment that fosters innovation and scientific excellence. We know that our success is a direct result of the exceptional talents and dedication of our employees.
With an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of human health, we look to add diverse individuals, skill sets and perspectives to our exceptional team. We continue to invest time, money and energy into making our onsite, hybrid and remote work environments a place where solid and lasting relationships are built and where our culture and employees can thrive.
We’re building on our rich history, and we believe our greatest achievements are ahead of us. If you’re passionate about the opportunity to have meaningful impact on patients in need, we invite you to apply and join us. Experience and contribute to our unique culture while you develop and expand your career!
DIRECTOR, COMMERCIAL DATA MANAGEMENT & GOVERNANCE
We are seeking a Director of Commercial Data Management & Governance to lead how commercial data is managed and governed across systems to enable effective analytics and reporting. A central focus is establishing a trusted, consistent set of metric and business-rule definitions — a governed semantic layer — so key commercial metrics reconcile across systems, dashboards, and use cases. Partnering closely with IT, which owns data integration and engineering, and with commercial and cross-functional teams, you will provide the business ownership, oversight, and controls that keep commercial data reliable and compliant across the customer (HCP/HCO), product, payer, prescription, specialty/distribution, and de-identified patient domains.
You will establish the foundational capabilities — master and reference data governance, metric and business-rule governance, data quality, metadata and lineage, and privacy and access controls — that make analytics and reporting reliable today and scale through ongoing launches and future expansion. Standing up this net-new capability for Ionis, you will combine deep subject-matter expertise with the ability to translate business needs into pragmatic requirements, standards, and controls in a fast-moving, resource-conscious environment. As a recognized SME on commercial data, you will exercise wide latitude in shaping objectives and approaches and resolve the most complex and ambiguous data challenges. The standards and decisions established by this role will have longer-term implications for launch readiness, commercial effectiveness, compliance, and the ability of multiple functions to operate from trusted data.
This position reports to the Executive Director, Commercial Effectiveness and Omnichannel Operations.
WORK LOCATION: remote with preference for Boston, MA
Key Responsibilities
Data Governance Strategy & Operating Model
- Stand up and lead the commercial data governance operating model – policies, standards, stewardship roles, and a cross-functional governance council – scaled appropriately for an emerging commercial organization.
- Define and maintain governance policies, standards, and procedures across all commercial data domains.
- Establish a business glossary, data ownership and stewardship model (RACI), and clear decision rights so accountability for data is defined across Commercial, IT, and partners.
- Prioritize governance efforts against commercial value — launch readiness, field deployment, analytics, and reporting needs.
Commercial Data Management & Oversight
- Serve as the business owner of commercial data across CRM, the data warehouse, and analytics and reporting layers, accountable for ensuring it is accurate, consistent, complete, and fit-for-purpose.
- Translate commercial analytics and reporting needs into clear data requirements, definitions, and acceptance criteria, and provide business oversight of the data integration and engineering work owned by IT.
- Partner with IT to ensure data flows, transformations, and integrations deliver reliable, well-structured data, validating outputs and aligning technical delivery with business needs.
- Establish the controls, review checkpoints, and change-management practices that keep data trustworthy as new sources, systems, and use cases are added.
Metric & Business-Rule Governance
- Establish and govern a certified library of metric and business-rule definitions — Rx and prescriber metrics, call and activity, targeting and segmentation, alignment logic — so they are defined once and applied consistently across systems, dashboards, and use cases.
- Own the standards, documentation, versioning, and change-control process for metric and business-rule changes, including approvals and communication of restatements.
- Arbitrate and reconcile conflicting definitions across teams and tools, partnering with Commercial Analytics and reporting owners who author the underlying calculation logic.
Master & Reference Data Governance
- Set the business and governance standards for customer master data (HCP/HCO), partnering with IT's MDM function on how third-party reference sources (Veeva OpenData/Network, IQVIA OneKey, NPI, DEA, state license data) are integrated and maintained.
- Provide the commercial business perspective on match/merge, survivorship, and hierarchy rules, and validate that affiliations, alignments, and identity resolution meet analytics and reporting needs.
- Govern product, payer, and territory/alignment reference data to ensure consistency across CRM, analytics, and reporting.
Data Quality & Stewardship
- Establish data quality standards, metrics, monitoring, and remediation workflows across critical commercial data domains.
- Partner with IT data stewards to profile data, define quality rules, resolve issues at the source, and track improvement over time.
Metadata, Lineage & Cataloging
- Establish and govern a data catalog, business glossary, and metadata/lineage practice — documenting end-to-end lineage from source systems and third-party feeds through to analytics and reporting.
Data Privacy, Compliance & Access Governance
- Partner with Legal, Compliance, and Privacy to embed controls that support HIPAA, PDMA, state privacy laws, transparency/aggregate-spend reporting (Open Payments), PDRP/opt-out, and consent requirements.
- Govern data classification, access entitlements, and appropriate-use standards for sensitive commercial and third-party data, honoring contractual data-use restrictions (e.g., IQVIA, specialty pharmacies, hubs).
- Support audit readiness and maintain documentation of data controls and data-use agreements.
Partnership & Cross-Functional Leadership
- Serve as the trusted governance partner to Commercial Analytics, Field Operations, Market Access, Patient Services, Trade & Distribution, Omnichannel, IT, and external data vendors.
- Chair the data governance council, and build the awareness, training, and change management needed to embed a data-governance culture.
- Create and sustain formal networks with key decision makers across Commercial, IT, Legal, Compliance, and Privacy, and represent Ionis, as appropriate, with external data partners, vendors, and industry forums to bring relevant leading practices and emerging standards into Ionis.
Expertise & Strategic Advisory
- Serve as Ionis’s principal commercial data governance advisor to senior commercial and cross-functional leaders, guiding resolution of the most critical and ambiguous data issues.
- Exercise wide latitude in setting objectives and approaches for critical assignments, applying sound judgment where information is limited.
- -term governance strategy and roadmap whose standards, decisions, and outcomes advance strategic goals and have sustained impact across multiple commercial and cross-functional teams.
- Demonstrate and uphold behaviors aligned with Ionis’s Culture, Core Principles, and Working with Each Other policy.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Extensive experience in data governance, data management, data quality, or commercial data operations, with recognized subject-matter expertise.
- Significant life sciences / pharma or biotech experience supporting commercial data.
- Demonstrated experience establishing or maturing a data governance program, standards, or stewardship model.
- Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and driving adoption across teams through influence.
- Minimum of 15 years of related experience with a bachelor's degree; or 12 years with a master's degree; or equivalent experience.
Core Expertise (Must Have)
- Deep understanding of commercial pharma data domains and sources — customer master (HCP/HCO), reference data (e.g., Veeva OpenData/Network and IQVIA OneKey), prescription/Rx, specialty pharmacy/hub, claims, and payer data.
- Proven ability to define and operationalize governance policies, standards, and stewardship models.
- Solid grasp of master data management concepts (match/merge, survivorship, hierarchies, affiliations, and identity resolution) sufficient to partner effectively with an MDM function.
- Familiarity with the compliance and privacy landscape for commercial pharma data (HIPAA, PDMA, PDRP/opt-out, Open Payments/aggregate spend, state privacy laws) and third-party data-use restrictions.
- Proven ability to act as a business data owner, translating commercial needs into requirements and overseeing integration work owned by technical teams.
- Experience establishing and governing certified metric and business-rule definitions (a semantic layer) to drive consistency across dashboards, systems, and use cases.
- Excellent communication, influence, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to align technical and business partners and drive adoption.
Technical Expertise
- Required: working understanding of CRM (e.g., Veeva) and the Databricks analytics platform as they relate to governed data — enough to partner effectively with the teams that operate them.
- Preferred/familiarity: exposure to MDM and data governance tooling (e.g., Veeva Network, Reltio, Informatica, Collibra, Alation).
- Preferred/familiarity: SQL for profiling, validating, and troubleshooting commercial data.
- Preferred/familiarity: access-governance / data-security tooling (e.g., Immuta, Databricks Unity Catalog).
Additional Preferred Experience
- Experience standing up commercial data management and governance ahead of or through a product launch.
- Experience with incentive compensation, alignment/targeting, or field reporting data.
- Data governance or data management certification, such as CDMP (DAMA) or equivalent.
Please visit our website, http://www.ionis.com for more information about Ionis and to apply for this position; reference requisition #IONIS003917
Ionis offers an excellent benefits package! Follow this link for more details: Ionis Benefits
Full Benefits Link: https://www.ionis.com/careers/working-at-ionis/#:~:text=our%20employee%20spotlight-,Benefits,-Employees%20are%20rewarded
The pay scale for this position is $215,000 to $235,000
NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. PRINCIPALS ONLY.
Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and all its subsidiaries are proud to be EEO employers.
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