Associate Director, Area Sales and Operations Neurology - East Lead
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About the job: The role is pivotal in helping to execute field strategies, operations, and tactics to enhance sales force effectiveness and exceed brand targets; including sales force projects, resource allocation, performance reporting, and field technology innovation initiatives, leading call plan development, field execution reporting, and US field dashboard reporting related to resource deployment; and setting strategic direction for current and future field enablement (CRM) platforms across the US field sales organization.
Why Join Us? At Alexion, we are united by a shared purpose: to transform the lives of people affected by rare diseases. In Rare Neurology, that purpose is personal. We connect deeply with patients and their care teams, and we work together to deliver innovative therapies that make a meaningful difference. Here, your work means more, more impact, more growth, and more connection.
What You’ll DoAs an ASO, you will serve as a strategic operational partner to the Neurology leadership team. The role will help translate business priorities into disciplined execution by supporting annual planning, prioritization of strategic initiatives, cross-functional governance, performance monitoring, meeting leadership, issue escalation, and execution oversight. This role requires the ability to influence without direct authority, coordinate across functions, maintain momentum on complex initiatives, and ensure follow-through across stakeholders. The scope goes well beyond traditional coordination and is comparable to broader strategic planning and operational leadership roles embedded in other commercial organizations. You will be responsible for: • Partner with ESD, ASLs, RSDs, RAMs, and cross-functional leaders to translate Neurology strategy into a consistent operating model and disciplined field execution.• Drive business performance in service of patients by supporting IC goal achievement, physician call activity, Newly Diagnosed Alerts, AIM priorities, and other key execution metrics.• Lead and support annual planning, QBRs, MBRs, business reviews, plans of action, governance forums, national and area meetings, and field insight groups.• Help establish ULTOMIRIS as the market leader by converting insights, trends, engagement priorities, and performance opportunities into clear regional and national field actions.• Develop and support regional business plans focused on new patient identification, new initiations, priority account insights, execution quality, and scalable national learnings.• Monitor field force effectiveness, ROI, GTM execution, dashboard reporting, regional market trends, AIM insights, and other key indicators to improve decisions and execution.• Lead the regional superuser network, support AIM Insights portal planning and improvements, and help teams use reporting, insights, CRM tools, and operational resources effectively.• Coordinate cross-functional execution with Sales Force Effectiveness, Incentive Compensation, Training, Marketing, Commercial Operations, Legal, Compliance, Market Access, Patient Support, Field Reimbursement, and other Alexion/AZ partners.• Identify, escalate, and help resolve sales force issues, business risks, operational barriers, customer needs, field support requests, and execution opportunities across national, regional, territory, and account levels.• Strengthen field capability by conducting at least one RAM field visit per quarter and partnering with RSDs on coaching, clinical expertise, onboarding support, best-practice sharing, and analytics education.• Drive operational excellence and a values-based culture by improving efficiency, maintaining urgency around execution, strengthening feedback loops, and reinforcing shared accountability across sales leadership, field teams, and cross-functional partners.• Ensure compliant execution of field activities, promotional materials, selling skills, field processes, training requirements, One Alexion expectations, the Code of Conduct, and ethical business practices while maintaining strong business, product, policy, customer, compliance, and clinical acumen.
You will need to have: • Bachelor’s degree required; degree in life sciences, healthcare, business, or related field preferred.• Minimum 10 years of pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, or equivalent healthcare experience, including specialty or rare disease commercial experience.• Proven, documented track record of delivering sustained business results and leading high-performing teams to achieve or exceed objectives.• Significant experience in institutional account management, formulary strategy, hospital-based decision-making, and/or complex health system selling.• Strong understanding of healthcare systems, reimbursement processes, fulfillment pathways, multi-stakeholder decision-making, and institutional access dynamics in hospitals, academic centers, IDNs, centers of excellence, and community care settings.• Demonstrated ability to coach teams to navigate formulary and access processes, engage multidisciplinary stakeholders, influence treatment pathway adoption, and drive account acceleration within integrated health systems and key institutional accounts.• Ability to build credibility and professional relationships with healthcare providers, administrators, pharmacy leaders, access stakeholders, and key decision-makers across community and academic settings.• Strong strategic planning, analytical, problem-solving, coaching, leadership, communication, presentation, and organizational skills.• Experience using CRM tools, business analytics, performance management systems, and field coaching processes to guide execution and improve business performance.• Ability to work effectively independently and in an interdependent, team-oriented environment on a consistent basis.• Ability to travel extensively throughout the region, including frequent overnight and weekend travel as business needs require.• Valid driver’s license and clean driving record.• The duties of this role are generally conducted in a field environment. As is typical of a field-based role, employees must be able, with or without an accommodation, to travel by public transportation, automobile, train, or plane; work comfortably in clinical and institutional settings; use a computer; engage in communications via phone, video, and electronic messaging; problem solve; engage in complex and non-linear thought, analysis, and dialogue; collaborate with others; and maintain general availability during standard business hours.
We would prefer for you to have: • Advanced degree such as MBA, MS, PharmD, PhD, or other advanced healthcare-related degree.• Experience in rare disease, neurology, immunology, oncology, or hospital-based specialty care.• Orphan or ultra-orphan disease commercial experience.• Launch experience for new indications or products, particularly in complex institutional or hospital-based settings.• Experience leading teams supporting academic medical centers, integrated delivery networks, centers of excellence, and other complex specialty accounts.• Demonstrated success driving protocol adoption, formulary support, workflow integration, and multi-stakeholder account pull-through.• Demonstrated success driving cross-functional collaboration across Commercial, Medical, Market Access, Diagnostics, Patient Support, Field Reimbursement, and related enterprise partners.
The annual base salary for this position ranges from $161,856 to $242,785.
Our positions offer eligibility for various incentives, an opportunity to receive short-term incentive bonuses, equity-based awards for salaried roles and commissions for sales roles. Benefits offered include qualified retirement programs, paid time off (i.e., vacation, holiday, and leaves), as well as health, dental, and vision coverage in accordance with the terms of the applicable plans.
Date Posted
04-Sep-2026
Closing Date
16-Sep-2026 Our mission is to build an inclusive environment where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees. In furtherance of that mission, we welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of their protected characteristics. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please complete the corresponding section in the application form.
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Sales role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 1400 comparable Associate Director Sales roles across 111 biopharma companies.
Salary context
462 of 1400 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 1400 comparable roles
+ 56 more countries
Seniority mix
1400 of 1400 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
546 of 1400 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
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Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.