Executive Director, Global Commercial Analytics- Market Research

Vertex Pharmaceuticals LLC; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Vertex Pharmaceuticals LLC in Boston is seeking an Executive Director of Global Commercial Analytics- Market Research to lead a global market research capability. You will shape questions, design methods, and translate findings into actionable implications for development, launch, and lifecycle decisions.

The role blends strategic leadership with hands-on craft, guiding internal teams and external partners to deliver rigorous insights that inform portfolio strategy and commercial planning on a

Qualifications

• Senior leadership experience in primary market research within biopharmaceuticals, healthcare, or complex industries.
• Deep hands-on expertise in qualitative market research: study design, guides, interviewing, synthesis, and translation of findings.
• Strong experience designing quantitative market research: sampling, questionnaire development, analysis plans, and interpretation.
• Ability to translate ambiguous business questions into rigorous research plans and actionable recommendations for senior leaders.
• Experience across pipeline, product development, launch, lifecycle, and in-line stages.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Global Market Research organization and capability agenda across pipeline, pre-launch, launch, lifecycle, and in-line disease areas.
• Partner with disease leaders to identify priority questions and build integrated learning agendas.
• Establish a hands-on research model with internal teams shaping and conducting work.
• Develop internal qualitative expertise (discussion guides, moderation, synthesis, interpretation).
• Oversee quantitative research design, hypotheses, sampling, methods, and quality review.
• Synthesize evidence into insights and recommendations for development, strategy, launch, and lifecycle planning.
• Integrate Market Research with related functions (Decision Science, Forecasting, CI, Value & Access, HEOR).
• Set governance, budget discipline, vendor strategy, and multi-year capability roadmap for Market Research.

Skills

Leadership

Market research

Qualitative research

Quantitative research

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Advanced degree preferred (MBA/PhD)

Job description

Job Description

The Executive Director, Global Commercial Analytics- Market Research will lead the global Market Research capability within Global Commercial Strategy. Reporting to the Vice President, Global Commercial Analytics, this leader will build a team of market research experts who generate deep, objective insight into patients, healthcare professionals, caregivers, markets, and other stakeholders to inform development, commercialization, launch, and lifecycle decisions.

This role requires both strategic leadership and deep research craft. The Executive Director will establish an operating model in which the internal team is intimately involved in the work: framing business questions, selecting methodologies, conducting qualitative research, designing quantitative instruments, interpreting findings, and translating evidence into clear implications. External research partners will provide reach and specialized support, but accountability for research quality, insight generation, and business application will remain with the Vertex team.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead the Global Market Research organization and capability agenda across pipeline, pre-launch, launch, lifecycle, and in-line disease areas.
• Partner with GCS disease leaders and BI&A pod leads to identify priority business questions and build integrated, decision-focused learning agendas.
• Establish a hands-on market research model in which internal team members actively shape and conduct research rather than primarily outsourcing the work to vendors.
• Build deep internal qualitative research expertise, including development of discussion guides, moderator preparation, direct observation and moderation where appropriate, debriefing, coding, synthesis, and interpretation.
• Ensure the team plays a substantive role in quantitative research design, including hypotheses, questionnaire development, sampling, choice of methods, quality review, analysis plans, and interpretation of results.
• Lead research across disease understanding, market landscapes, patient and customer journeys, segmentation, unmet need, treatment dynamics, adoption barriers, product profiles, positioning, messages, demand, and drivers of product choice.
• Ensure research incorporates the perspectives of patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, payers, and other relevant stakeholders and reflects global, regional, and local market realities.
• Establish common standards for research design, methodological rigor, ethics and compliance, documentation, knowledge management, and reuse of insights across the portfolio.
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative evidence into clear insights, implications, decision options, and recommendations for development, strategy, launch, and lifecycle planning.
• Integrate Market Research with Decision Science, Forecasting, Competitive Intelligence, Portfolio Analytics, Value & Access, HEOR, Medical, and regional Commercial insight generation.
• Create mechanisms to connect research over time, distinguish enduring insights from hypotheses, identify evidence gaps, and prevent fragmented or duplicative studies.
• Select and manage external research partners based on the capabilities needed, while maintaining strong internal ownership of research design, respondent experience, quality, interpretation, and application.
• Establish governance, prioritization, budget discipline, vendor strategy, and a multi-year capability roadmap for Market Research.
• Build, develop, and retain a high-performing global team with that strong qualitative and quantitative research skills, business judgment, therapeutic curiosity, and executive communication capability.
• Measure the quality, adoption, timeliness, and decision impact of Market Research and continuously improve the operating model.

Required Education Level

• Minimum of a Bachelor's degree in market research, behavioral or social science, psychology, business, marketing, life sciences, statistics, or a related discipline.
• Advanced degree such as an M.A., M.S., Ph.D., MBA, or other relevant qualification preferred.

Required Experience

• Extensive leadership experience in primary market research, customer insights, or related insight-generation functions within biopharmaceuticals, healthcare, or another complex industry.
• Deep hands-on expertise in qualitative market research, including study design, discussion-guide development, interviewing or moderation, observation, synthesis, and translation of findings into business implications.
• Strong experience designing quantitative market research, including questionnaire development, sampling approaches, methodological choices, quality control, analysis plans, and interpretation.
• Demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous business questions into rigorous research plans and actionable recommendations for senior commercial and development leaders.
• Experience leading research across pipeline, product development, launch, lifecycle, and in-line stages, including product-profile te