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Senior Director, Commercial Operations

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals · Cambridge, MA, USA ·

Pay:
250.000
Job type:
Contract

The Senior Director, Commercial Operations is a strategic and operational leader responsible for building and advancing the capabilities, processes, systems, and services that enable commercial performance. The role serves as a senior business partner to Sales, Marketing, Market Access, Medical Affairs, Finance, and other cross-functional leaders, translating commercial strategy into disciplined execution across field operations, incentive compensation, and CRM.

This leader will develop scalable operating models, strengthen ability to assess field execution, and provide enterprise leadership for incentive compensation strategies and governance. The role will have two – three direct reports, leverage technology and automation, and ensure initiatives and resources are deployed effectively and in accordance with applicable policies and compliance requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

Operational Excellence

  • Partner with commercial leadership to translate business, brand, and field strategies into integrated operating plans, priorities, capabilities, and execution roadmaps.
  • Assess current operations, selectively benchmark external practices, and implement scalable solutions that improve effectiveness, efficiency, quality, and speed.
  • Identify and eliminate low-value, duplicative, or fragmented work; simplify processes and clarify governance, decision rights, and accountability.
  • Manage operating expenses and cost-center budgets within scope, including forecasting, prioritization, and vendor oversight.

Incentive Compensation Strategy and Leadership

  • Provide strategic oversight of the enterprise Incentive Compensation program, ensuring plans for eligible commercial field roles align with business strategy, brand priorities, role expectations, market dynamics, and desired field behaviors; guide senior leaders on design choices, tradeoffs, risks, and implications.
  • Lead Incentive Compensation governance and decision-making, establishing clear standards, decision rights, approval processes, controls, and cross-functional alignment across Sales, Finance, HR, Legal, Compliance, and other key stakeholders.
  • Oversee the end-to-end delivery of Incentive Compensation, ensuring the IC team, vendors, and partners effectively execute plan design, modeling, goal and quota setting, administration, calculations, payout validation, inquiries, disputes, and exception management with appropriate quality, controls, and service levels.
  • Set the strategic direction and accountability for the IC capability, monitoring plan effectiveness and business impact, managing vendor performance, driving continuous improvement and automation, building the multi-year capability roadmap, and developing a high-performing team with clear ownership for day-to-day execution.

Field Operations and Sales Execution

  • Lead field operations capabilities, including field-force sizing and deployment, territory design and alignment, customer targeting and segmentation, call planning, resource optimization, field communications, and execution monitoring.
  • Partner with Sales and other field leadership to identify business challenges and opportunities and deploy tools, processes, and resources that improve customer engagement and field productivity.
  • Establish a disciplined field communication and sales execution program that supports consistent rollout of priorities, initiatives, tools, and performance expectations.
  • Maintain connection to the field and customer environment through appropriate field engagement and feedback mechanisms; translate feedback into practical execution improvements.

Commercial Systems, Technology, and Automation

  • Partner with IT, AADS, Training, and business stakeholders to define and execute commercial CRM and technology strategy.
  • Integrate and automate CRM, sales-force automation, incentive compensation, reporting, and field tools to streamline work, strengthen controls, and improve productivity.
  • Identify and implement technologies and capabilities that improve execution, information flow, deliverable quality, and user experience.
  • Ensure appropriate governance, quality assurance, adoption, and compliant use of commercial systems, tools, and resources.

Leadership and Cross-Functional Partnership

  • Build, develop, and lead an effective, unified team with clear accountabilities, strong capabilities, and a culture of collaboration, candor, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to senior Commercial leaders and as a key contributor to decisions affecting commercial strategy, investment, execution, and organizational readiness.
  • Collaborate across Sales, Marketing, Market Access, Medical Affairs, Finance, HR, Legal, Compliance, IT, and other functions to deliver integrated outcomes.
  • Influence without direct authority, resolve competing priorities, and achieve results through teams in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
  • Select, manage, and hold external partners accountable for quality, value, service, controls, and delivery.

Qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree required; degree in life sciences, business, finance, or a related field preferred.
  • 10+ years of progressive experience in biopharma commercial operations, sales operations, field effectiveness, incentive compensation, or a related commercial discipline.
  • 5+ years of people-management experience, with demonstrated success building teams, developing talent, and achieving results through others.
  • Proven ability to translate strategy into pragmatic, scalable processes, systems, controls, and actions.
  • Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and managing interdependent deliverables in a matrixed organization.
  • Excellent executive communication, presentation, interpersonal, influencing, and negotiation skills.
  • Demonstrated judgment, integrity, learning agility, and ability to perform effectively in a high-growth, fast-paced environment.

About Alnylam

We are the leader in RNAi therapeutics– a revolutionaryapproach with the potential to transform the lives of people with rare and common diseases. Built on Nobel Prize-winning science, Alnylam has delivered the breakthroughs that made RNAi therapeutics possibleand are just at the beginning of what’s possible. Our deep pipeline, late-stage programs, and bold vision reflect our core values: fierce innovation, passion for excellence, purposeful urgency, open culture and commitment to people. We're proud to be a globally recognized top employer, wherean authentic, inclusive culture and breakthrough thinkingfuel one another.

At Alnylam, we commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equal employment opportunity. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their sex, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, religion, creed, physical or mental disability, pregnancy status or related conditions, genetic information, veteran or military status, marital or familial status, political affiliation, age, or any other factor protected by federal, state, or local law. Alnylam is an E-Verify Employer.

Before applying, please review Alnylam's Candidate Privacy Notice regarding how Alnylam handles Personal Data you provide with your application for employment.

State Specific Applicant Notices

  • Arizona Applicants : To the extent required by applicable law, the Company maintains a smoke-free workplace.
  • Maryland Applicants :
    • UNDER MARYLAND LAW, AN EMPLOYER MAY NOT REQUIRE OR DEMAND, AS A CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT, PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYMENT OR CONTINUED EMPLOYMENT, THAT AN INDIVIDUAL SUBMIT TO OR TAKE A LIE DETECTOR OR SIMILAR TEST. AN EMPLOYER WHO VIOLATES THIS LAW IS GUILTY OF A MISDEMEANOR AND SUBJECT TO A FINE NOT EXCEEDING $100.
    • The Company considers this Application for Employment to be a part of the personnel record.
  • Massachusetts (MA) Applicants : It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability
  • Rhode Island (RI) Applicants : The Company is subject to Chapters 29-38 of Title 28 of the General Laws of Rhode Island, and is therefore covered by the state's workers' compensation law.

I understand the Company may obtain, without using the services of a third party investigative consumer reporting agency, public records pertaining to my character, general reputation, personal characteristics or mode of living during its evaluation of my application for employment and, if employed, during my employment.

US - Voluntary Self-Identification of Veteran Status

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following:

A veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or

A person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service‑connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to.

Protected veterans may have additional rights under USERRA—the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. In particular, if you were absent from employment in order to perform service in the uniformed service, you may be entitled to be reemployed by your employer in the position you would have obtained with reasonable certainty if not for the absence due to service. For more information, call the U.S. Department of Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS), toll‑free, at 1-866-4-USA-DOL.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed above, please indicate by checking the appropriate box below. As a Government contractor subject to VEVRAA, we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA.

Submission of this information is voluntary and refusal to provide it will not subject you to any adverse treatment. The information provided will be used only in ways that are not inconsistent with the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, as amended

The information you submit will be kept confidential, except that (i) supervisors and managers may be informed regarding restrictions on the work or duties of disabled veterans, and regarding necessary accommodations; (ii) first aid and safety personnel may be informed, when and to the extent appropriate, if you have a condition that might require emergency treatment; and (iii) Government officials engaged in enforcing laws administered by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, or enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act, may be informed.

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