Senior Director, Patient FIND

Location:  San Rafael, California Category: Commercial Operations

Description

Who We Are

BioMarin is a leading rare disease biotechnology company focused on genetically defined conditions.

Guided by our purpose to develop medicines that make a profound impact on people’s lives, our global teams have delivered a portfolio of therapies since our founding in 1997. Our revolutionary treatments for conditions like achondroplasia (the most common form of dwarfism), PKU (phenylketonuria), CLN2, a form of Batten disease, and a number of forms of MPS (mucopolysaccharidosis) offer new possibilities for patients and families who previously had few, if any, available options. More recently, with the close of the Amicus acquisition, our portfolio has expanded to include therapies for Fabry disease and Pompe disease, expanding our ability to reach more people living with rare genetic conditions.

Our success comes from our unwavering commitment to excellence, our deep understanding of patient needs, our scientific expertise, and our world-class manufacturing capabilities. At the heart of BioMarin is a dedicated team of the brightest minds in the industry working together to deliver innovative therapies to patients and families around the world.

About Commercial

Be part of the worldwide infrastructure that gets our drugs to underserved patients around the world. Our global sales force solidifies BioMarin’s commercial presence in the United States and Europe and is rapidly growing in other regions, such as South America, EuMEA, and Asia-Pacific.

About the Patient FIND Function

BioMarin's Commercial & Portfolio Strategy organization is establishing the Patient FIND function as the enterprise home for Pathway AI — our integrated, AI data-driven patient identification capability spanning digital intent data, claims analytics, LLM-read physician notes, genomics, and omnichannel field activation.

This function is being built from the ground up. The mandate is to transition BioMarin from fragmented, brand-level patient identification initiatives to a single enterprise platform that compounds analytical advantage with every new disease area, data source, and closed-loop field outcome. The Patient FIND function will operate across the entire BioMarin’s portfolio.

The Role

The Senior Director, Patient FIND is the function head for BioMarin's data-driven patient identification capability. Reporting to the VP, Global Head of Business Operations & Strategy, this leader builds the function, establishes the operating model, leads the team, and drives the cross-functional alignment that ensures Pathway AI becomes a durable competitive moat.

The role requires an uncommon combination: deep command of data, AI, and rare disease commercial strategy to be credible with commercial, medical, technical and scientific partners, and strong leadership, communication, and political savviness to move a nimble organization. The person who thrives here holds a clear point of view in commercial strategies, builds fast without cutting corners, and earns trust across functions that have not historically shared a common patient finding agenda.

The initial mandate is building the function itself, including defining its scope, hiring the team, negotiating funding sources, and establishing the operating model that ensures alignment and engagement across stakeholders and cross-functional teams. The role then transitions into leading a solid, strategically critical function at the center of BioMarin's commercial growth engine. Both phases require the same core skill: the ability to operate and lead with conviction.

Key Responsibilities

1.  Function Architecture and Scope Definition

  • Define the operating model for the data-driven Patient FIND function — what it owns directly, what it coordinates cross-functionally, how accountability flows across Commercial, Medical, DTA (Digital, Technology & AI), and R&D co-leadership
  • Establish enterprise standards for patient signal design, data source evaluation, lead scoring frameworks, model governance, and outcome measurements applicable across all disease areas
  • Build and maintain the function's investment case: translate capability activity into patient outcomes and commercial value for LRP, AOP, and SteerCo audiences
  • Proactively engage cross-functional leads of existing patient find initiatives, newborn screening, genetic testing programs, advocacy community engagement, patient support inbound referrals, to assess current capabilities, identify integration opportunities with Pathway AI, and determine what the function owns versus coordinates versus advises; apply the same evaluative lens to future-state capabilities as they are proposed and developed

2.  AI-Driven Capability Build

  • Lead the transition from external vendor dependency to an internally owned, proprietary patient identification platform — models, data assets, and institutional learning retained by BioMarin
  • Oversee with close partnership with DTA the integration of the full data signal stack: claims, tokenized longitudinal records, LLM-read physician notes, specialty pharmacy data, genomics, and digital intent
  • Drive digital intent strategy: establish BioMarin's approach to device ID-level audience targeting, caregiver intent signals, programmatic activation, and consent-compliant engagement from pre-diagnosis to treatment initiation
  • Build and govern the closed-loop feedback architecture: field call notes and patient outcomes must feed model refinement continuously, not periodically
  • Define and enforce signal-to-action Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to field force, including how high-priority leads reach field and patient services teams within hours, not days
  • Industry benchmark context: leading rare disease operators are targeting sub-48-hour signal-to-field-action windows. That is the standard this function will be designed to meet and then compress.

3.  Cross-Disease Portfolio Sequencing

  • Recommend the prioritization logic for how Pathway AI capability rolls out across the BioMarin portfolio
  • Partner with Brand teams and R&D to co-design patient identification criteria and clinical signal definitions that are medically valid and commercially actionable
  • Drive alignment between data-driven patient find, patient support (PSP), and market access — ensuring patients identified by the system can be successfully connected to treatment without friction
  • Over time, contribute patient-finding intelligence upstream: undiagnosed patient pool estimates, diagnostic funnel conversion rates, and geographic disease concentration data as inputs to business development and portfolio strategy

4.  Organizational Leadership and Change Management

  • Lead the design and structuring of the new Patient Find function
  • Recruit, build, and lead a high-performing, multidisciplinary data-driven Patient FIND team spanning data science, commercial program management, and clinical signal design
  • Drive organizational adoption across Commercial: field teams, Brand marketing, Medical Affairs, and patient services must trust the leads the system generates and act on them quickly — this is the primary risk to Pathway AI, not the technology
  • Build AI and data literacy across cross-functional partners: structured upskilling so that signal interpretation, lead validation, and outcome recording are embedded into commercial operating rhythms
  • Model the behaviors the function requires: accountability, intellectual rigor, rapid iteration, and willingness to be wrong quickly and correct faster

5.  Executive Engagement and Governance

  • Serve as a spokesperson for Patient FIND across multiple audiences, translating complex AI and data capabilities into clear strategic narratives and crisp decision asks
  • Navigate the co-leadership structure across Commercial (CaPS), DT&A, and R&D with confidence, credibility, and a bias toward clarity over consensus-seeking
  • Own governance discipline: funding decisions, milestone accountability, ROI reporting, and cross-functional mandate clarity all flow through this role
  • Represent Patient FIND in investment planning discussions, making the case for resources and capability sequencing with data-backed precision

Qualifications

Required

  • 12 or more years of progressive experience in commercial strategy, analytics, or operations in biotech or pharmaceuticals, with meaningful rare disease experience
  • Demonstrated track record building new functions, capabilities, or operating models from the ground up in complex, matrixed organizations, not inheriting and optimizing, but architecting from a blank page
  • Deep familiarity with the rare disease patient identification landscape: ICD code limitations, claims-based analytics, genetic and newborn screening programs, HCP engagement models, and patient support programs
  • Working command of healthcare data infrastructure: claims data, tokenized patient records (Komodo Health, HealthVerity, Datavant, or equivalent), EHR/EMR data, specialty pharmacy data, and digital intent signals
  • Direct experience with AI or advanced analytics in a commercial context, able to pressure-test model design, interpret outputs, and distinguish high-signal leads from noise
  • Proven ability to lead without full organizational authority, influencing senior stakeholders, setting agendas, and driving decisions in environments where governance is still forming
  • Executive communication and storytelling skills: translate technical complexity into strategic narrative for executive level audiences. Able to write a crisp one-pager and defend it in a 30-minute leadership review
  • People leadership experience: track record hiring, developing, and retaining high-performing cross-functional teams, ideally in an early-stage function or capability build context
  • Bachelor's degree required. Advanced degree in business, public health, data science, or a scientific discipline preferred

Preferred

  • Hands-on experience with LLM-based clinical signal extraction, real-world evidence generation, or NLP applied to unstructured physician notes or clinical records
  • Desired experience with digital intent data infrastructure: device IDs, programmatic targeting platforms, demand-side platforms, and consent-compliant rare disease audience activation
  • Familiarity with HIPAA, CCPA, and GDPR as they apply to AI-driven patient identification — privacy-by-design thinking.
  • Experience in rare disease launch planning, go-to-market sequencing, or top-of-funnel commercial strategy, understanding what it means when a single incremental diagnosed patient is a invaluable impact on a patient’s and their respective family’s lives
  • Experience operating in a co-leadership or dual-reporting model with shared accountability across functions and P&Ls
  • Talent market context: BioMarin is offering the right candidate direct leadership access, organizational mandate, and the resources to build something that does not yet exist at scale in rare disease.


Note: This description is not intended to be all-inclusive, or a limitation of the duties of the position. It is intended to describe the general nature of the job that may include other duties as assumed or assigned.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled

An Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

Ireland Safety Responsibility
Support the organisation’s commitment to environmental protection, injury prevention, and continual improvement of EHS management systems. Actively contribute to a safe and environmentally responsible workplace by identifying hazards, reporting incidents and participating in EHS initiatives and training.