Principal -Market Access Life Sciences

Health Management Associates; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Health Management Associates is seeking a Principal to provide expertise in operations, profitability, management, structure and strategy; develops client relationships and drives high-quality work, mentoring junior staff and aligning with HMA’s strategic objectives.

This role emphasizes market access leadership for life sciences, client advisory, business development, and cross-disciplinary collaboration, with frequent travel to client sites and HMA offices.

Qualifications

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in health policy, business management, public health, or a related discipline.
• Minimum of 15 years of progressively increasing leadership or management experience in publicly funded healthcare.
• Strong project management, time management, and networking skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication; leadership and accountability.
• Willingness to travel frequently.

Responsibilities

• Perform business development and expand funded work.
• Lead and participate in proposal development and submission.
• Meet with clients to understand requirements and present findings.
• Develop tools, dashboards, and roadmaps to manage projects.
• Mentor staff and advance internal initiatives.
• Ensure deliverables meet quality and budget requirements.

Skills

Project management

Time management

Networking

Communication

Leadership

Critical thinking

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree

Job description

Job Summary

The Principal is responsible for providing expertise and advice to help organizations improve their business performance in terms of operations, profitability, management, structure, and strategy; develops and maintains client relationships; and is responsible for achieving firm expectations for effective client services (i.e., project direction, project management, and work product quality). The Principal also mentors junior staff, contributes to HMA’s strategic objectives, meets internal administrative expectations, accepts accountability, and contributes to HMA’s culture.

Market Access, Life Sciences Responsibilities

• Build and grow HMA’s market access advisory business with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology, diagnostics, and other life sciences organizations.
• Translate policy developments, payer and channel dynamics, actuarial findings, utilization trends, and market intelligence into clear business implications and strategic recommendations.
• Advise clients on access strategy, reimbursement, pricing and contracting, evidence needs, affordability, patient support, distribution, launch planning, brand performance, and portfolio priorities.
• Develop differentiated market access offerings, go-to-market approaches, frameworks, playbooks, tools, and points of view that support consistent, scalable delivery.
• Originate, shape, sell, and expand market access engagements by developing relationships with life sciences, market access, commercialization, payer, and channel stakeholders.
• Lead and contribute to market access engagements, integrating policy, actuarial, analytics, clinical, operational, and commercial perspectives into actionable client recommendations.
• Collaborate with HMA leaders and subject matter experts to create effective co-selling and co-delivery models and connect market access opportunities to broader HMA capabilities.
• Build internal and external fluency in market access buyer needs, terminology, decision processes, and value drivers through mentoring, knowledge sharing, thought leadership, and industry engagement.

Preferred Expertise and Knowledge

• Deep understanding of the U.S. life sciences market access environment, including payer strategy, reimbursement, pricing and contracting, evidence, channels, affordability, patient services, and the commercial implications of policy change.
• Experience connecting policy, actuarial, analytics, and market intelligence to product, portfolio, commercialization, and business decisions.
• Experience advising pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology, diagnostics, or other life sciences organizations in a consulting, advisory, or comparable client-facing environment.
• Demonstrated success developing business, building executive relationships, and shaping and closing consulting or advisory engagements.
• Experience developing new offerings, go-to-market approaches, intellectual capital, or other capabilities in a growth-oriented environment.
• Ability to work effectively with multidisciplinary experts and translate technical findings into clear, commercially relevant client recommendations.

Performance Emphasis

In addition to the expectations outlined in the core Principal Job Description, success in this business sector is demonstrated through:

• Growth of HMA’s market access client base, pipeline, and funded engagements within priority life sciences markets.
• High-quality, commercially relevant client work that connects market developments and technical analysis to business action.
• Development of differentiated offerings, repeatable methods, and intellectual capital that strengthen HMA’s market access capabilities.
• Effective collaboration across HMA capabilities and development of internal and external relationships that support sustained growth.
• Contribution to the development of market access talent, knowledge, and delivery capacity.

Responsibilities

Work Performed and Job Requirements

• Business development
  • Performs business development activities to expand funded work from existing clients or new clients.
  • Develops and maintains a pipeline of future work that demonstrates a likelihood of achieving business development requirements in future periods.
  • Both lead and participate in proposal development and submission.
• Client management
  • Meets with client to understand requirements.
  • Gathers and organizes information about the issue to be solved or the procedure to be improved.
  • Analyzes data to identify and understand issues to be addressed.
  • Presents findings to clients.
  • Provides advice, implementation plans, and/or suggestions for improvement according to project objectives.
  • Evaluates the client’s needs as warranted and adjusts as appropriate.
  • Ensures that all deliverables are high quality.
• Project management
  • Serves as subject matter expert on projects.
  • Undertakes internal and external short-term or long-term projects to address identified issues and needs.
  • Develop and document tools, analysis, frameworks, tracking tools, road maps, dashboards, and other approaches to manage a variety of large and small projects
• Leadership
  • Leads and manages teams, provides feedback and development, and advances internal initiatives.
  • Serves as a mentor for other staff members, as requested.
• Performance metrics
  • Ensures performance meets or exceeds HMA expectations in the following areas:
  • Business development
  • Billable hour target attainment
  • Manages to budget/project caps established at the outset or assists in negotiating additional fees
  • Meets quality and operational standards
  • Completes and submits timesheets, expense reports, revenue forecasts, and other internal reports when due
  • Participates in and completes all HMA training and development requirements in a timely manner
  • Participates in internal activities related to business strategies, forecasts, adoption of new technologies/platforms/approaches, and other process improvements.
• All other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Education/Training

Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in health policy, business management, public health, or a related discipline is required. Equivalent work experience in lieu of a bachelor’s degree, although not desired, may be determined as acceptable. A Master’s degree in a related discipline is strongly preferred.

Experience

Minimum of 15 years of progressively increasing prior leadership or management experience in work involving publicly funded healthcare including, but not limited to policy, administration, operations, compliance, research, consulting, and/or evaluation.

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Strong project management skills.
• Solid time management skills.
• Excellent internal and excellent professional networking skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Excellent critical thinking skills.
• Exceptional oral and written communication skills.
• Superior interpersonal skills, including leadership, contribution to culture, and acceptance of accountability
• Ability to multi-task and adhere to strict deadlines.
• Capable of handling confidential information in a discrete manner.
• Ability to work extended hours when deadlines are approaching.
• Demonstrated thought leadership and deep expertise in more than one critical healthcare area.
• Maintains approach to stay current in trends in areas of subject matter expertise.

Core Competencies

Job Level Competencies

• Resource Allocation: Identifies resource gaps and escalates needs appropriately. Optimizes team resources to support delivery and budget adherence. Anticipates long-term resource needs and aligns allocation with business growth.
• Results Orientation: Tracks team progress and follows through on key deliverables. Holds team accountable for achieving defined goals and quality standards. Leads teams to exceed performance expectations through continuous improvement and accountability
• Strategic Execution: Translates strategic direction into clear team objectives. Aligns functional initiatives with organizational strategy and ensures timely execution. Drives strategic priorities through cross-functional leadership and accountability

This role requires frequent travel to client sites and HMA offices.

EEO

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals With Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)