Associate Director, Patient Advocacy & Medical Affairs

Location

Cambridge, MA | United States

Job description

At Editas, we’re driven by a collective purpose, to bring transformative and life changing therapies to people living with serious diseases with the greatest unmet needs. This fuels our drive to excel in scientific innovation, allowing us to harness the power and potential of CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cpf1 (Cas12a) gene editing.

We believe our people are at the core of everything we do, and we’re committed to cultivating a culture where every individual feels valued and included. To do this, we strive to integrate belonging, inclusivity, diversity, and equity into every aspect of our organization.

Together, we are leading the way towards a healthier and more equitable future.

Position Summary

The Associate Director of Patient Advocacy and Engagement (PAE) is responsible for supporting the company’s PAE strategy and assisting in developing the PAE function. This position will work closely with cross-functional teams, including Communications, Commercial/Government affairs, and Medical Affairs to ensure excellence in launch readiness. This role will help lead the company’s ongoing efforts to build and sustain meaningful relationships and collaborations to support the needs of patients and advance our company’s goals. This role will be responsible for grassroots patient and community education across disease areas of interest. 

Requirements

Key Responsibilities:

• Creates and implements Patient Advocacy and Engagement (PAE) strategic plans. Assists in building PAE function.
• Engages externally and develops relationships with relevant, patient advocacy groups (PAGs) at a national, state, and local level to understand the needs of the patient communities we serve and identify opportunities to partner to address those needs. Inform Editas’ business goals, approaches, and decision-making process with patient community insights.
• Collaborates with and facilitates advocacy coalitions for specific public policy goals, including rare disease awareness and disease-specific policy issues
• In partnership with cross-functional stakeholders, integrate Editas’ state/regional patient advocacy strategy and identify additional opportunities to increase rare disease awareness and disease burden awareness
• Supports representation of PAE in launch readiness and commercialization activities on all relevant internal cross-functional teams
• Informs Medical Affairs real world evidence and publication strategies through incorporation of the patient perspective (e.g., patient exit surveys, publications, etc.). Interprets and communicates relevant findings to patient community.
• Develops policies in cross-functional partnership with relevant functions (e.g., Quality, Commercial) in preparation for launch and commercialization
• Collaborates with Corporate Communications, Commercial, Government Relations, Medical Affairs, Clinical Development/Operations, Human Resources, and other internal stakeholders to: (1) develop a consistent, clear, compassionate, and compliant Patient Communications plan and (2) ensure that state public policy goals are aligned to meet company objectives and most effectively serve the needs of patients.
• Supports management of external vendors as it relates to PAE

Benefits

Qualifications

• BA/BS/MS with a minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in the patient advocacy and/or public affairs realm in the biopharmaceutical industry and/or patient advocacy organizations (prior sickle cell disease focus preferred but not required)
• Demonstrated ability to build and sustain relationships with members of advocacy groups, government, and community leaders 
• Demonstrated outstanding strategic planning, communication, and presentation skills 
• Experience in patient advocacy, public health policy, campaign work, or coalition building. 
• Strong understanding of the patient and caregiver experience in rare diseases, including diagnosis, treatment, and treatment options preferred 
• Proven teamwork and collaboration skills, with a demonstrated ability to interact and influence all levels of business 
• Detail-oriented, self-initiating, well-organized, and capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously 
• Travel may be required 25% of the time

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with rare disease patient communities and launch readiness/commercialization strongly preferred 
• Knowledge of the patient advocacy community/individuals 
• Experience working in a small, pre-commercial or startup environment, preferred 

Job tags

Salary