Senior Director, Pipeline Market Access Strategy - Oncology

The Senior Director, Pipeline Market Access Strategy (PMAX) is a newly created role responsible for leading and inspiring the end-to-end global market access strategy for pipeline assets within their assigned Business Unit. This position will require strong enterprise leadership to navigate the organization through multiple external environment pressures on global pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement.
This role bridges early asset development and future commercialization readiness, ensuring that pricing and access considerations are embedded from the earliest stages of the drug development lifecycle and through Phase 3 design and identification of evidence needs. The Senior Director serves as the definitive voice of pipeline market access, shaping clinical trial design, evidence generation, and target product profiles through a global access and reimbursement lens. Importantly this position will need to define distinct US and international strategies to optimize global launch success.
The Senior Director will lead a team of experts across both US Pipeline Strategy and International Pipeline Strategy and will have an opportunity to define the objectives and vision for the team appropriately. This role will provide leadership across both domestic and global dimensions of pipeline access, partnering deeply with inline US and International access teams as well as R&D, Regulatory, HEOR, Global Commercial Development, Business Development, and Government Affairs to deliver integrated access strategies that position AbbVie's pipeline for long-term commercial and patient-access success.
Key Responsibilities
Pipeline Access Strategy & Portfolio Leadership
Owns the end-to-end pipeline Integrated access strategy for all pre-launch and development-stage assets within the assigned Business Unit, ensuring strategies are comprehensive in addressing evidence needs, policy considerations, pricing potential, and commercial considerations. IASs integrate global needs and dynamics through regulatory submission.
Serves as the primary voice of pipeline market access strategies at Business Unit governance forums, including LMG, TASC, CSM, ASTs , and other senior leadership reviews — communicating access risk, opportunity, and strategic direction with clarity and conviction.
Serves as the voice of access into pipeline Business Development opportunities.
Leads prioritization exercises across the pipeline portfolio to ensure resources and strategic attention are allocated to assets with the greatest near- and long-term access complexity and business impact.
Creates and optimizes launch strategies inclusive of considerations for IRA, MFN, and other market forces (US Channel dynamics) to position the asset for sequencing strategies across indications as well as geographies incorporating the pressures
Defines and delivers the Access Roadmap— a cross-functionally developed strategy that articulates the access approach for each pipeline asset by development phase, anticipated launch timing, and global evidence deliverables.
Early Development Integration
Partners with R&D and Regulatory teams to embed access-relevant endpoints, comparators, and trial design elements into clinical development programs from Phase I/II onward — ensuring studies are powered to meet payer and HTA evidence standards at launch and partners with the affiliates.
Defines and champions Target Product Profiles (TPPs) from a market access perspective, translating payer value requirements into actionable clinical and evidence generation guidance for asset teams.
Generates and maintains global payer and HTA evidence requirements across major markets (US, EU5, Japan, and emerging markets), ensuring development programs proactively address the evidence gaps that govern access and reimbursement decisions.
US & International Strategy Alignment
Provides strategic leadership and direction to the US Pipeline Strategy Lead and International Pipeline Strategy Lead, ensuring both domestic and global perspectives are fully integrated into a cohesive, Business Unit-level pipeline access strategy.
Aligns US payer strategy, formulary positioning, and value communication frameworks with international HTA, pricing, and reimbursement approaches — creating a globally consistent access narrative that can flex to local market requirements.
Anticipates cross-market reference pricing dynamics, parallel trade risks, and HTA precedent effects, incorporating these considerations into early pipeline access strategy to protect long-term portfolio value across geographies.
Partners closely with US and International Pipeline Strategy Leads to develop and execute a structured pipeline-to-launch transition framework, ensuring that market access strategies, payer evidence packages, and reimbursement submissions are fully prepared ahead of regulatory approval.
Collaborates with US and international commercial, medical, and market access teams to ensure seamless knowledge transfer and strategic handoff at the point of regulatory approval — including payer communication plans, launch sequencing strategies, and country-level access readiness assessments.
Leads cross-functional launch readiness reviews in partnership with US and International teams to identify and resolve access gaps (evidence, pricing approvals, formulary positioning) prior to approval, ensuring no delays to patient access at launch.
Ensures that affiliate and in-country market access teams are equipped with globally aligned value messages, health economic tools, and reimbursement dossiers well in advance of launch — bridging the transition from pipeline to commercial ownership.
Cross-Functional Leadership & Partnership
Provides strategic direction and partnership to cross-functional groups including HEOR, R&D, Regulatory, Global Commercial Development, Global Marketing, Government Affairs, and Business Development — ensuring market access perspectives are fully integrated into all pipeline asset decisions.
Leads the development of Integrated Evidence Plans (IEPs) in close collaboration with HEOR, ensuring real-world evidence, health economic modeling, and outcomes research strategies are aligned with anticipated payer and HTA requirements at launch.
Partners with Government Affairs to anticipate and shape the evolving policy and reimbursement landscape, embedding policy risk and opportunity assessments into pipeline access strategies.
Collaborates with Global Commercial Development and Global Marketing to ensure pipeline access strategies are aligned with brand positioning, indication sequencing, and long-range commercial forecasts.
Business Development & Asset Evaluation
Works closely with Business Development to inform the market access potential of in-licensing, partnership, and acquisition opportunities — providing rigorous payer landscape assessments, reimbursement probability analyses, and access risk evaluations to support BD decision-making.
Establishes and communicates access-based licensing priorities, ensuring that pipeline expansion decisions account for payer value evidence requirements, competitive access dynamics, and global pricing sustainability.
Serves as the access subject matter expert in due diligence processes, assessing the payer readiness and evidence maturity of externally sourced pipeline assets being evaluated for AbbVie's portfolio.
Governance, Stakeholder Engagement & People Leadership
Represents pipeline market access priorities at senior leadership governance forums, portfolio review committees, and cross-Business Unit strategy sessions — serving as the definitive voice on access considerations that should inform pipeline investment and development decisions.
Builds, develops, and retains a high-performing pipeline access team, providing mentorship, career development, and performance management for direct and indirect reports across US and international functions.
Fosters a culture of innovation, rigor, and affiliate-centricity within the pipeline access team — ensuring that affiliate launch needs, in-country market dynamics, and local payer requirements are actively incorporated into global strategy development.
Education
An advanced degree (MBA, MPH, PhD, PharmD, or equivalent) in business, health economics, public policy, life sciences, or a related field is required.
Formal training or demonstrated expertise in health technology assessment (HTA), health economics, outcomes research, or pharmaceutical development is strongly preferred.
Bachelor's degree in a scientific, business, or public health discipline is required as a minimum baseline.
Experience
A minimum of 12–15 years of progressive, senior-level experience in market access, pricing, reimbursement, HEOR, or a closely related pharmaceutical/biopharmaceutical function — with a substantial portion of that experience focused on pipeline and pre-launch strategy.
Demonstrated expertise in global market access, including a deep working knowledge of HTA processes, payer evidence requirements, pricing and reimbursement frameworks, and access decision-making dynamics across major international markets (US, EU5, Japan, and additional key markets).
Proven experience shaping clinical development strategy from a market access and outcomes evidence perspective — including direct experience contributing to clinical trial design, endpoint selection, and Integrated

Skills
Business Development, Due Diligence

Employment type
Full-time

Work arrangement
Hybrid