Associate Director,Patient Advocacy

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for an Associate Director, Patient Advocacy based in the United States.

This is a high-impact patient advocacy leadership role focused on ensuring the voices and needs of people living with rare autoimmune diseases shape business and development decisions. You will serve as a trusted partner to patient advocacy organizations and a strategic connector across internal cross-functional teams. The role spans both pipeline and in-market indications, requiring you to translate overarching advocacy strategies into meaningful local and national engagement. You will influence development milestones, patient experience initiatives, community engagement, and moments that matter throughout the patient journey. Working across Clinical, Patient Services, Commercial, and other functions, you will help embed the patient perspective throughout the product lifecycle. The position offers substantial external visibility, strategic ownership, and the opportunity to create measurable impact for underserved and rare-disease communities. This is a remote-based opportunity with up to 50% travel and flexibility to participate in patient events outside standard business hours.

Accountabilities:: Develop and execute patient advocacy strategies and engagement plans across assigned therapeutic areas, aligning advocacy priorities with broader business and development objectives.

Serve as a primary relationship owner for US patient advocacy organizations, building trusted, long-term partnerships and understanding evolving community needs.

Balance advocacy priorities across pipeline and marketed indications, translating therapeutic-area strategies into actionable national and local engagement plans.

Represent the organization at patient events, conferences, panels, and other community engagements, while enabling cross-functional colleagues to effectively engage with patient communities.

Gather, synthesize, and communicate patient and community insights to inform internal teams, development milestones, market engagement, and patient experience initiatives.

Act as a strong internal voice for patients, identifying needs and opportunities across the broader organizational ecosystem and helping teams incorporate the patient perspective into decision-making.

Partner with Patient Services and other functions to support patient onboarding and create a consistent, patient-centered experience.

Build and maintain deep knowledge of relevant disease states, patient experiences, treatment landscapes, and products to effectively support community needs.

Establish measurement frameworks for advocacy activities and assess the impact of local, regional, and national events and programs.

Manage operational aspects of advocacy activities, including compliant event execution, sponsorships, budgeting, and related processes.

Own advocacy strategies for assigned indications from development through commercialization, ensuring alignment through clear frameworks, standardized processes, and effective ways of working.

Travel regularly to build external relationships and support priority patient and community events, including occasional evening and weekend engagements.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; an advanced degree in a relevant field is preferred.

At least 10 years of industry or related professional experience, with demonstrated expertise in patient advocacy, rare disease, healthcare, or a closely related environment.

Proven success developing and implementing innovative patient advocacy programs, particularly for rare diseases and minority or underserved patient populations.

Demonstrated track record of establishing and maintaining an advocacy strategy for a specific indication or therapeutic area.

Experience engaging directly with rare-disease patient communities and understanding applicable compliance requirements.

Proficiency with Veeva and experience operating within compliant healthcare or pharmaceutical environments.

Strong understanding of patient needs and a genuine commitment to improving the experience of people living with rare diseases, their caregivers, and communities.

Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to listen actively, influence stakeholders, synthesize insights, and communicate clearly in both written and verbal formats.

Ability to integrate the patient voice across the end-to-end product lifecycle and recognize when, where, and how patient insights can have the greatest impact.

Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and the ability to build productive relationships across diverse internal and external stakeholder groups.

Strategic, adaptable, and highly organized, with the ability to balance competing priorities across pipeline and commercialized programs.

Willingness and ability to travel up to 50% and participate in occasional evening or weekend patient events; a flexible schedule will be supported to accommodate these commitments.

Benefits

Remote-based position within the United States.

Competitive compensation with eligibility for short-term and long-term incentive programs, subject to applicable plan terms.

Comprehensive benefits package including health benefits and retirement savings programs.

Opportunity to contribute directly to patient advocacy strategy and the integration of patient perspectives into the product lifecycle.

High-visibility role with significant interaction across cross-functional teams and external patient advocacy organizations.

Meaningful opportunity to support rare-disease and underserved patient communities.

Inclusive and collaborative working environment focused on innovation, patient impact, and professional growth.

Travel and flexible scheduling support for patient events and community engagement activities.

How Jobgether works: We use an AI-powered matching process to ensure your application is reviewed quickly, objectively, and fairly against the role's core requirements. Our system identifies the top-fitting candidates, and this shortlist is then shared directly with the hiring company. The final decision and next steps (interviews, assessments) are managed by their internal team. We appreciate your interest and wish you the best!  Why Apply Through Jobgether?    Data Privacy Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Jobgether will process your personal data to evaluate your candidacy and share relevant information with the hiring employer. This processing is based on legitimate interest and pre-contractual measures under applicable data protection laws (including GDPR). You may exercise your rights (access, rectification, erasure, objection) at any time.     #LI-CL1