Executive Director, Field Force Effectiveness

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!

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FIELD FORCE EFFECTIVENESS

SUMMARY:

The Executive Director of Field Force Effectiveness is a high-visibility leadership role that shapes how Ionis’ field organization engages patients, providers, and stakeholders as our commercial portfolio scales. The Executive Director of Field Force Effectiveness will lead the strategic design and enablement of Ionis' field engagement model across the commercial portfolio. This role translates commercial strategy, brand priorities, and omnichannel direction into a cohesive field execution plan — defining how the organization segments and targets customers, structures and deploys its field teams, equips them to engage, and measures whether that engagement delivers results. It oversees the field effectiveness and field operations functions, encompassing segmentation and targeting strategy, field sizing and alignment, deployment design, incentive compensation strategy, account planning, and the operational infrastructure that sustains field execution at scale. The role partners closely with brand, sales, market access. patient services, omnichannel, commercial effectiveness, IT, and field leadership to ensure field plans are executed with precision and adapted as the portfolio evolves. The ideal candidate will bring a strategic mindset, deep field effectiveness expertise, strong analytical rigor, and the ability to influence and align stakeholders at all levels of the organization. Success in this  role requires a deep commitment to collaboration, effective stakeholder management, and the ability to tell a compelling story about the team’s strategy and impact.

WORK LOCATION: Carlsbad, CA or Boston, MA; Onsite, hybrid, or remote

RESPONSIBILITIES: 

Field Strategy & Go-to-Market Enablement 

• Define and lead Ionis' field engagement model across the commercial portfolio, establishing how each brand engages its customers, which channels carry which messages, and how personal and non-personal promotion reinforce one another
• Serve as the senior field effectiveness partner to brand and sales leadership, shaping go-to-market strategy from planning through in-market execution and ensuring field implications are addressed in commercial planning
• Direct customer segmentation and targeting strategy, setting the analytical requirement and business rules that determine which customers the field prioritizes and at what engagement frequency
• Lead field sizing, structure, and alignment across the portfolio, developing deployment recommendations with explicit rationale tying field investment and territory design to commercial opportunity
• Support launch planning and readiness by defining field readiness standards, overseeing territory design and targeting for newly deployed teams, and holding cross-functional partners accountable to launch milestones
• Develop a multi-year roadmap for field effectiveness capabilities, evolving the operating model to support portfolio growth, new therapeutic entries, and increasing go-to-market complexity
• Advise commercial leadership on field investment tradeoffs, bringing analytically grounded recommendations on where to add, reallocate, or hold field resources

Field Operations & Execution Oversight

• Oversee incentive compensation strategy, design, and governance, ensuring plans motivate the right behaviors, withstand audit, and scale across all field teams
• Own account planning strategy and methodology, ensuring field teams operate against consistent, data-informed account plans across the portfolio
• Oversee field operations infrastructure — including fleet, travel and expense, and field meeting operational support — maintaining the reliability the field depends on
• Build the operating processes, governance, and service standards required to scale field execution as the commercial organization grows, and redesign workflows that won’t scale with growing complexity
• Ensure the field technology and CRM roadmap supports the engagement model, partnering with IT and CRM so targeting, call planning, and account planning capabilities are delivered inside field workflows
• Oversee targeted performance analysis across field force activity, territory performance, and incentive compensation outcomes to inform execution and resource allocation
• Manage vendor partnerships supporting field effectiveness and field operations, ensuring fit-for-purpose capabilities aligned with business needs

Team & Cross-Functional Leadership 

• Lead and develop a high-performing team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement
• Lead annual budget and capacity planning for the Field Force Effectiveness team
• Establish the performance framework for field effectiveness — the metrics, dashboards, and operating review cadence by which field productivity is assessed — in collaboration with senior commercial leaders
• Drive adoption and change management for new tools, processes, and engagement models, treating field adoption as a measured outcome rather than a communication exercise
• Partner with Commercial & Omnichannel Effectiveness, Omnichannel Strategy, Learning & Development, and IT to ensure an aligned approach to analytics, reporting, and field enablement, with clear ownership boundaries across functions
• Represent the Field Force Effectiveness team with senior leaders, providing compelling narratives that translate field performance data into strategic insight and action
• Promote a data-driven culture by embedding actionable field performance insights in commercial decision-making

REQUIREMENTS: 

• Bachelor's degree required, ideally in a quantitative or business field (e.g., Economics, Statistics, Business, Health Sciences, Life Sciences); MBA or other advanced degree preferred
• At least 18+ years of combined experience in commercial operations, field force effectiveness, sales operations, or related functions in biotech/pharma or relevant professional services; experience in a launch or high-growth environment preferred
• Demonstrated ownership of core field effectiveness disciplines at enterprise scale, including segmentation and targeting, field sizing and alignment, deployment design, and incentive compensation strategy
• Track record of partnering with brand and sales leadership as a strategic peer, shaping go-to-market decisions rather than solely executing them
• Proven success leading through significant organizational scale-up, launch, or transformation, with evidence of building processes and governance that sustained growth
• Strong command of commercial data and analytics, including HCP and account-level data and field performance measurement, with the ability to translate complex analysis into a defensible recommendation
• Proficiency with CRM and analytics platforms (e.g., Veeva, Salesforce, Tableau, Power BI) sufficient to shape a capability roadmap and challenge technical tradeoffs
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with ability to influence and align stakeholders at all levels
• Demonstrated leadership experience and a track record of building and leading teams, effectively partnering across functions to gain alignment, and improving business performance
• Knowledge of compliance and privacy considerations governing field promotion and healthcare data use
• Rare disease, specialty, or orphan drug experience preferred, including familiarity with small-population targeting and account-based engagement models

Please visit our website, http://www.ionis.com for more information about Ionis and to apply for this position; reference requisition # IONIS003897

Ionis offers an excellent benefits package! Follow this link for more details: Ionis Benefits

Full Benefits Link: https://ionis.com/careers#:~:text=Highly%20competitive%20benefits

The pay scale for this position is $$240,000 to $268,000

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. PRINCIPALS ONLY.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and all its subsidiaries are proud to be EEO employers.