Director, Marketing

Marketing

This position is currently based in our Cambridge, MA office. Please note that our offices will be relocating to Waltham, MA later this year, and this role will transition accordingly. We follow a flexible, "magnet not mandate" approach to in-office work, encouraging collaboration and onsite engagement while supporting hybrid flexibility based on role and business needs.

Nearly 37 million Americans are currently affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. 37 million.

At Akebia we take that number very seriously and every day we come to work, with the purpose of bettering the lives of each person impacted by kidney disease and the renal community that serves them.
Our tenacious, passionate employees' challenge the status quo and work to develop unique therapeutics that have the potential to set new standards of care for people living with kidney disease.

This is life-changing work, and we are all in, are you?

Job Summary:

Position Summary

Akebia is seeking an experienced, mission-oriented and collaborate Director, Marketing to play a pivotal role in driving adoption and sustained growth of Vafseo. This position will be responsible for developing and executing the US brand strategy for HCPs, patients and payer/population health decision makers for Vafseo (vadadustat). This individual is accountable for translating brand strategy into highly impactful execution across HCP and consumer channels including personal promotion, non-personal promotion and peer-to-peer engagement.

The role requires a strategic thinker who is also highly execution-oriented and can operate in a fast-moving organization where adaptability, strong communication, and cross-functional leadership are critical to success. This individual will partner closely with Sales, Market Access, Commercial Operations, Medical, Legal and Regulatory teams to ensure strategic execution and performance.

This role reports to the Vice President, Marketing and will manage a team of three individuals.

Summary of Key Responsibilities

• Lead development of overall Vafseo brand strategy and message
• Manage day-to-day brand operations, ensuring timely execution of campaigns and materials across integrated promotional programs (personal promotion, non-personal promotion, peer-to-peer programs and Key Medical Expert engagement)
• Partner with Commercial Analytics to generate customer and performance insights and lead the translation of those insights and field feedback into clear strategic priorities and actionable marketing programs
• Partner with key stakeholders across Medical Affairs, Market Access, Sales, Regulatory, Legal and Compliance to deliver high-quality, compliant promotional and educational content
• Effectively lead agencies to achieve high quality deliverables within time and budget scopes
• Champion strategic project initiatives to drive future brand growth and operational efficiencies, including AI-enabled solutions
• Define KPIs to measure marketing performance, ROI, brand impact and contribution to prescription growth; regularly report outcomes and optimization recommendations to leadership.
• Manage budget to corporate targets
• Contribute to a collaborative, mission-driven culture focused on delivering meaningful outcomes for patients
• Effectively build, lead, coach and manage teams supporting achievement of business objectives and employee development

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree required, MBA is a plus
• Minimum of 10 years in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry and 8+ years of proven experience in brand marketing
• People management experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in nephrology is a plus
• Experience in developing and executing personal, non-personal and peer-to-peer marketing
• Proven ability to influence without authority and partner with cross-functional teams in the development and delivery of brand strategic imperatives
• Proven project and vendor management skills including budget management, planning, prioritization, objective setting, and logistics execution
• Strong written and presentation skills
• Ability to travel up to 20% to attend sales meetings, customer visits and relevant medical congresses within the U.S.

Compensation:

Targeted Base: *$213,977-$264,325

*Base Compensation for this role will depend on a number of factors including a candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies, and experience, and may fall outside of the range shown. Base pay is only one component of the company's total rewards package, all regular employees are also eligible for the corporate bonus program or the incentive compensation program (if applicable), as well as equity. Additional benefits include health care, vision, dental, retirement, PTO, etc.

Are you an Akebian?

An Akebian is curious, empathetic, and values making connections to people and ideas. Akebian's aren't afraid of diving in and owning a process or a problem, because we all want to deliver a great solution. Akebian's believe that we are better together because we are all working toward a common purpose - to better the life of each person impacted by kidney disease. Want to learn more about what it means to be an Akebian? Visit our website: www.akebia.com

Akebia is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all job applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.