Vice President, Sales

  • Full-time
  • Department: Commercial Field

Company Description

Aurinia is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies in disease areas of high unmet medical need. We are currently developing voclosporin, an investigational drug, for the treatment of Lupus Nephritis (LN) and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). Additionally, we are advancing voclosporin ophthalmic solution (VOS), a topical formulation, for the treatment of dry eye syndrome (DES).

Job Description

The Vice President, Sales will be responsible for building and leading the national sales organization for Aurinia. This position will be expected to play a hands-on role in developing and executing the company’s sales strategies, recommending sales resourcing alignment in collaboration with commercial operations, conducting regular business reviews, leading sales management, insuring sales accountability, providing input into incentive compensation programs, and developing effective sales coaching and communications plans in collaboration with commercial operations colleagues. Additionally, this position will be responsible for establishing and maintaining relationships with key opinion leaders, other external stakeholders and collaborating with internal stakeholders across the company.  As part of the US Commercial leadership team this position will collaborate closely with peers in commercial operations, market access and marketing to be accountable for the sales goals for the organization.  This position reports to the General Manager of Americas.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Leads the recruitment, retention and development of a high performing sales team through the leadership of a team of Area Vice Presidents and Regional Business Directors
  • Owns the development and execution of innovative and compliant sales strategies that align with the commercial vision for achieving commercial success for Voclosporin for the treatment of Lupus Nephritis (LN)
  • Executes regular business performance reviews with sales team leaders to drive accountability and address the performance of the sales team to ensure targets are met
  • Prepares and delivers updates on progress against targets to the Aurinia management team and as requested to the Board
  • Develops and manages the sales budget consistent with the financial goals and objectives of the company
  • Collaborates effectively with Commercial Operatoions to drive impactful training programs and ensure appropriate investment in technology enablement for the sales organization
  • Ensures the effective and consistent implementation of sales plans and materials 
  • Understands the needs of HCPs that treat autoimmune/rare disease (such as Rheumatologists and/or Nephrologists) in order to propose solutions that fulfill Aurinia's sales goals
  • Builds and nurtures relationships with key opinion leaders in the HCP community
  • Partners with the Marketing team to develop effective sales resources 
  • Develops and implements a comprehensive business plan for the national sales team that will be inclusive of budgets, travel, territory management, goal setting, etc 
  • Interacts closely with other Departments, such as Marketing, Commercial Operations, Market Access, Information Technology, HR and Medical Affairs, enabling identification, development, and execution of new products and services to Aurinia’s customers
  • Leads by example with rigorous training programs to ensure compliance with corporate policies and procedures as well as US healthcare laws and regulations
  • Keeps up-to-date on relevant disease knowledge
  • Collaborates with Market Access to understand payer access goals and supports this positioning throughout the sales organization
  • Develops, drives and supports the sales team. Through regular assessments, assigns training necessary to continuously grow the team’s expertise
  • Stays current on the payor and reimbursement environment in US 

 
 

Qualifications

  • Proven experience as a VP Sales or similar leadership role in building and leading a sales force of 50-100 people on a national footprint 
  • Minimum of a bachelor’s degree and 15 years’ sales management experience in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry 
  • Robust experience launching multiple new products (preferable those whom are first approved for an indication) with demonstrated success on consistently meeting and/or exceeding sales objectives and goals 
  • 10+ years of direct sales leadership experience in rare disease or autoimmune focused bio-pharmaceutical organization with a history of proven past performance that has met and exceeded expectations
  • Detailed experience supporting product with limited distribution through a specialty pharmacy network 
  • Experience with implementation of a high-touch patient services through a hub model 
  • Successful experience in fast-paced entrepreneurial environment 
  • Extensive network in Pharmaceutical and Biotech industry with ability to quickly build out sales team with proven sales performers 
  • Bachelor of Science degree in life science, biology, business, or marketing, with an MBA preferred 
Skills:
  • Proven leadership skills in leading, motivating and promoting sales professionals, and experience with second level leadership included executives and company board members 
  • Possesses a good blend of strategic and operational experience with the ability see the big picture but can dive into details as needed 
  • Ability to operate in a highly analytical and performance-oriented culture of accountability 
  • Strong communication skills with the ability to effectively present ideas and influence others that achieve desired results 
  • Strong collaboration skills and the ability to drive to consensus 
  • Negotiates skillfully and gains the trust of others quickly 
  • Demonstrated ability to work through conflict resolution in a collegial and respectful manner 
  • Flexible, diplomatic and able to effectively deal with ambiguity
  • Ability to develop and deliver a well-articulated Aurinia value proposition to HCP stakeholders to external parties, key opinion leaders, and executive management 
  • Excellent negotiation and customer service skills
  • Outstanding strategic sales account planning skills
  • Superior listening and problem-solving skills
  • Ability to possess a positive attitude and an understanding of the dynamics involved with organizational growth and change
  • Ability to travel up to 50% of the time 
     

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.