Associate Director, Field Operations

Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Dublin, Ireland, Ionis has been at work for more than three decades discovering medical breakthroughs that have redefined life for people with serious diseases. We're pioneers in RNA-targeted medicines, and our platform continues to revolutionize drug discovery and transform lives for patients with unmet needs. With multiple marketed medicines and a leading pipeline in neurology, cardiology and select areas of high patient needs, we continue to drive innovation in RNA therapies in addition to advancing new approaches in gene editing to provide greater value to patients and are well positioned financially to deliver on our strategic goals.

At Ionis, we pride ourselves on cultivating a challenging, motivating and rewarding environment that fosters innovation and scientific excellence. We know that our success is a direct result of the exceptional talents and dedication of our employees.

With an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of human health, we look to add diverse individuals, skill sets and perspectives to our exceptional team. We continue to invest time, money and energy into making our onsite, hybrid and remote work environments a place where solid and lasting relationships are built and where our culture and employees can thrive.

We're building on our rich history, and we believe our greatest achievements are ahead of us. If you're passionate about the opportunity to have meaningful impact on patients in need, we invite you to apply and join us. Experience and contribute to our unique culture while you develop and expand your career!

Associate Director, Field Operations

Summary:

The Associate Director, Field Operations will be a key member of the Commercial Operations team, responsible for driving operational excellence across Ionis's field-based functions, including Sales, Market Access, and Patient Services. This role is pivotal in optimizing field execution, ensuring operational readiness for upcoming launches, and serving as a strategic business partner to field leadership.

This individual will own the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of the field operating modelenabling the right tools, processes, and analytics to drive performance and customer impact. The ideal candidate is both strategic and execution-oriented, with a deep understanding of field team dynamics in rare and specialty disease, and the ability to operate in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.

Responsibilities:

• Act as a strategic thought partner to Sales, Market Access, and Patient Services leaders to understand field needs and co-develop operational solutions.
• Build strong, trust-based relationships with field leadership and cross-functional stakeholders (Marketing, IT, HR, Compliance, Medical Affairs).
• Serve as the field operations point of contact for real-time issue resolution, performance questions, and operational support needs.
• Lead the coordination of national and regional field planning processes, including call planning, targeting, resource allocation, and prioritization tools.
• Drive execution of business reviews and cycle meetings, including content development, logistics, stakeholder alignment, and post-meeting action planning.
• Ensure clear visibility into goals, performance, and strategic alignment across all field-facing functions.
• Collaborate with IT and vendors to develop, implement, and enhance field-facing tools, such as call planning platforms, iPad enablement, and CRM-integrated reports.
• Own the onboarding and ongoing training resources for field technologies and processes to ensure high usability and adoption.
• Proactively identify opportunities to simplify workflows and improve field efficiency through digital solutions.
• Partner with Incentive Compensation to ensure accurate field territory alignments, quota setting, payout execution, and field communications.
• Deliver field-facing dashboards, KPIs, and scorecards that enable actionable insights and support coaching conversations.
• Respond to ad hoc field data and compensation inquiries, escalating to IC or Data & Analytics teams as appropriate.
• Contribute to territory and field team design aligned with market opportunity, HCP targeting, patient journey, and cross-functional integration.
• Support the build and scale of field operations infrastructure in preparation for commercial launch milestones.
• Participate in launch readiness workstreams to ensure field teams are operationally equipped and aligned with brand strategy.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree required; MBA or relevant advanced degree preferred.
• At least 12 years of experience in biotech/pharmaceutical commercial operations, field support, or field enablement roles.
• Strong understanding of commercial field team dynamics in specialty, rare, or ultra-rare disease markets.
• Demonstrated success building and optimizing field-facing operations and tools in a launch or growth-stage company.
• Experience collaborating across Commercial, IT, Data & Analytics, and Compliance in a matrixed environment.
• Strong project management skills, with ability to manage multiple complex initiatives in parallel.
• Proficiency with Excel, PowerPoint, and common commercial platforms (e.g., Veeva CRM, Qlik, Snowflake, Anaplan).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; high attention to detail; proactive problem-solver with a team-first mentality.

The pay scale for this position is $135,063 to $190,000.

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. PRINCIPALS ONLY.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and all its subsidiaries are proud to be EEO employers.