Seeking talent near: San Diego, CA; Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Princeton, NJ; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Atlanta, GA

The Director, Patient Educator Lead is a field-based leadership role within ACADIA’s commercial organization responsible for leading and developing a team of Patient Educators while directly supporting patients and caregivers living with Parkinson’s disease psychosis (PDP). Operating as a “player-coach,” this individual combines patient and caregiver engagement with team leadership, coaching, and strategic execution.

This role is accountable for team performance against defined KPIs, including both the volume and quality of patient and caregiver interactions, and for delivering education that drives measurable impact on patient readiness to engage healthcare providers. The Director partners cross-functionally with Marketing, Sales, Advocacy, and Patient Support Services to expand disease awareness, improve patient readiness for treatment discussions, and advance ACADIA’s patient-focused mission.

Success in this role requires shifting from activity-based engagement to outcomes-driven execution, ensuring patient education consistently results in more informed, confident, and action-ready patients and caregivers.

Primary Responsibilities

Patient & Caregiver Engagement

• Provide 1:1 education, in person or in a 1:1 setting, to patients, caregivers, and families regarding PDP, Nuplazid, and ACADIA support resources using approved materials.
• Support patients and caregivers with empathy and professionalism throughout their treatment journey.
• Partner with advocacy organizations, community groups, and professional societies to expand patient education efforts.
• Coordinate appropriate handoffs to Patient Access Managers (PAMs) for coverage and access support.
• Model best practices in patient engagement, communication, and education delivery for Patient Educators.
• Ensure all patient and caregiver interactions are outcomes-driven, with a focus on improving understanding of disease and increasing readiness to engage in treatment discussions with HCPs, consistent with approved and compliant messaging

Team Leadership & Performance Management

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Patient Educators through onboarding, field coaching, mentorship, and ongoing capability development.
• Establish clear expectations for engagement quality, compliance, execution, and proactive outreach.
• Own team performance against KPIs, proactively identifying gaps and taking corrective action through structured coaching, feedback, and development planning
• Conduct field observations, recurring coaching sessions, and performance reviews.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex patient or caregiver situations.
• Identify and scale best practices across the team to strengthen overall performance and consistency.

Strategic Execution & Operational Accountability

• Drive team performance against established KPIs, including meaningful patient interactions, engagement quality, documentation standards, and timely PAM handoffs.
• Use performance data and field insights to identify trends, execution gaps, and opportunities for improvement.
• Develop and manage annual team and individual MBOs aligned with brand strategy, ensuring clear linkage between strategic priorities, field execution, and measurable performance outcomes
• Conduct quarterly assessments of execution against objectives and implement coaching or corrective actions as needed.
• Drive a proactive field engagement model in which Patient Educators actively create and expand patient and caregiver interaction opportunities, with clear expectations, tracking, and accountability for this behavior across the team

Program Development & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Lead planning and execution of patient and caregiver educational programs, speaker events and community based events.
• Partner with Marketing, Advocacy, Sales, and Patient Support Services to support disease awareness and patient engagement initiatives.
• Collaborate with Marketing on patient and caregiver advisory activities and insight gathering.
• Capture and synthesize patient and caregiver feedback to inform engagement strategies, educational resources, and field execution.
• Serve as a field representative of the patient and caregiver perspective in internal discussions.
• Ensure all activities comply with legal, regulatory, and company policies.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; healthcare or life sciences preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of relevant experience in pharmaceutical or biotech environments with a focus on patient education, patient support, or advocacy.
• Prior experience leading or mentoring a field‑based team strongly preferred.
• Background in patient education, patient navigation, clinical care, pharmacy, or community health education highly valued.
• Strong leadership, coaching, and mentoring skills, with demonstrated ability to assess performance and drive improvement in team effectiveness.
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills; able to translate complex science into patient‑friendly language.
• Compassionate, patient‑focused mindset with the ability to navigate sensitive conversations with empathy.
• Self‑starter with demonstrated ability to operate independently, prioritize effectively, and drive outcomes without reliance on external prompting.
• Strong understanding of compliance and regulatory frameworks within pharma/biotech.
• Must reside within reasonable proximity to a major airport. Requires eligibility to drive a company vehicle and ability to travel independently by air. Travel may be up to 75% of the time, including occasional after-hours work based on business needs.
• Bilingual (English/Spanish) is a plus.

Physical Requirements:

This role involves regular standing, walking, sitting, and the use of hands for handling or operating equipment. The employee may also need to reach, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, and maintain visual, verbal, and auditory communication both in a standard office environment and while working independently from remote locations. Employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 20 pounds. This position requires the ability to travel independently overnight and/or work after hours as required by travel schedule or business needs.