Senior Director, GCS Early Pipeline and Business Development

Vertex Pharmaceuticals LLC; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Vertex Pharmaceuticals seeks a Senior Director or Director, GCS Early Pipeline and Business Development to serve as the global commercial lead for priority pre-clinical diseases in the Vertex Sandbox. You will own commercial assessment, disease strategy, and market forecasting across geographies, guiding asset selection and early development decisions with a data-driven north star.

This role partners with R&D, External Innovation, Finance, and regional teams to shape strategy and value-based

Qualifications

• Experience in commercial assessments for pre-clinical or early-development assets.
• Ability to translate scientific and market data into actionable development strategies.
• Strong forecasting and market access knowledge.
• Collaborates with R&D, Medical, Regulatory, and Commercial teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead global commercial assessment and disease strategy for two pre-clinical Sandbox diseases.
• Develop market models by geography and patient segment with bottom-up rigor.
• Engage with healthcare professionals, patients, payers, and other stakeholders to inform strategy.
• Translate complex data into executive recommendations and decision-ready materials.

Skills

Commercial strategy

Market sizing & forecasting

Primary market research

Epidemiology understanding

Cross-functional leadership

Job description

Job Description

General Summary

The Senior Director or Director, GCS Early Pipeline and Business Development will serve as the global commercial lead for two priority pre-clinical diseases in the Vertex Sandbox. These diseases have been prioritized for potential advancement through internal research and external innovation. The role will build the deep commercial understanding required to guide research choices, evaluate future assets, and enable rapid, informed development decisions when a program is ready to enter the clinic.

This leader will represent Commercial on the early Disease Strategy Teams (eDSTs) for the assigned diseases and own the commercial opportunity assessment and disease strategy. The role will develop a detailed view of the market today and how it may evolve, translate the opportunity into market value by geography and patient segment, and build revenue forecasts for both the future asset and broader market. The goal is to establish a clear commercial north star and target product profile before asset-specific development decisions are made.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

• Serve as the global commercial lead and eDST Commercial representative for two assigned pre-clinical Sandbox diseases, owning the commercial assessment, disease strategy, and recommendations for advancement.
• Build a comprehensive understanding of each disease, including etiology and pathophysiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, patient heterogeneity, disease burden, unmet need, clinical practice, treatment guidelines, patient journey, and intervention points.
• Develop a rigorous view of the current and future market, including diagnosed and addressable populations, treatment rates, market evolution, future standards of care, competitive entry, pricing and access assumptions, and commercialization potential by geography and patient segment.
• Own market sizing, valuation, and forecasting for the assigned diseases, creating transparent bottom-up models that quantify the market today and in the future by geography and patient segment, translate the opportunity into market value, and forecast revenue for both the future asset and broader market.
• Lead primary market research with healthcare professionals, patients, caregivers, payers, and other stakeholders, including qualitative and quantitative research, advisory boards, and expert engagement.
• Integrate insights from analytics, claims and other real-world data, competitive intelligence, epidemiology, market access, HEOR, scientific literature, and external experts into a fact-based commercial perspective.
• Define the commercial requirements for a successful product, including target populations, desired positioning, meaningful clinical outcomes, differentiation thresholds, evidence needs, formulation and administration considerations, and access requirements.
• Develop and maintain disease-level and asset-relevant target product profiles that provide a clear north star for Research and Development and can be rapidly applied when an internal or external asset is ready to advance.
• Actively engage in the eDSTs and partner with Research, External Innovation, Development, Medical, Regulatory, Value & Access, BI&A, Finance, and regional Commercial teams to shape disease priorities, research choices, translational plans, and development strategies.
• Provide the commercial perspective for Sandbox and early disease governance, clearly articulating market attractiveness, strategic fit, differentiation potential, risks, evidence gaps, and recommendations.
• Support evaluation of internal programs and external innovation opportunities within the assigned diseases, including commercial due diligence, scenario development, opportunity sizing, and investment implications.
• Establish and manage integrated learning agendas and workplans for each disease, sequencing the research and analysis needed to resolve the most important uncertainties before key decisions.
• Monitor changes in disease science, clinical practice, competitive pipelines, policy, access, and market dynamics and update the commercial assessment and TPP as the external environment evolves.
• Translate complex scientific, clinical, market, and financial information into clear executive recommendations and decision-ready materials.
• Manage external research and consulting partners while maintaining strong internal ownership of the strategic questions, assumptions, synthesis, and recommendations.

Knowledge and Skills

• Demonstrated experience developing commercial opportunity assessments for pre-clinical or early-development diseases or assets and translating findings into clear development or investment recommendations.
• Strong experience integrating primary market research, epidemiology, analytics, competitive intelligence, market access, and forecasting into a coherent view of market attractiveness and product requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to build detailed current and future market models, including patient-based forecasts, market evol