Job Description
General Summary:
The Associate Director, Commercial Supply Chain is responsible for planning supply chain activities with the business, a key aspect of this role is supporting the growth in Brazil, entry into new markets and managing supply chain relationships with distributors in the region. He/she will collaborate with cross-functional teams in LATAM and Europe including Manufacturing, Commercial Operations, External Service providers, Quality and Regulatory.
This is a hybrid role based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
**Responsibilities**:
Partner & engage with Vertex Brazil and distributor market teams to enable the commercial strategy
- Partner with country management in Brazil and distributor management teams to understand the commercial strategy and work across supply chain sub-teams (launch, supply planning, logistics) to enable the strategy
- Act as the first supply chain point of contact for Vertex Brazil, internal Vertex distributor management teams and supply chain counterparts at external distributors
- Proactively engage with and influence stakeholders to ensure supply chain capabilities are considered in strategy development
- Manage stakeholders to ensure alignment relating to product supply.
Lead the Sales & Operations Planning activities
- Lead the monthly country and/or regional Sales & Operations Planning process
- Stay abreast of activity in the market and capture market intelligence
- Drive consensus planning for the region
- Review/interrogate commercial forecasts, and monitor demand trends
- Collaborate with the regional teams to continuously drive forecast improvements and provide inputs on trend analyses
- Assist in the development and validation of long-range planning and forecasting models for budget and production needs of the business.
Translate regional requirements into supply plans, considering the supply chain network capability
- Understand and monitor regulatory, reimbursement, and customer requirements
- Translate demand forecasts and requirements to the CMSC organization in a concise format that can drive optimal decision making and implementation
- Understand various demand scenarios, assess impact on the supply chain, and identify related costs or risks
- Work cross functionally to develop supply strategy for the region, and mobilise teams across the organization matrix
- Educate organization regarding markets specificities (packaging, shelf life etc.)
- Identify launches required within the region to implement a launch strategy based on countries requirement and ways of supplying.
Provide operational support to central supply chain teams
- Act as the escalation point of contact for customers in the region to resolve daily supply issues
- Support the Quality organization in the region for any supply chain related Quality issue
- Support the central logistics team in management of local logistics service providers & "last mile" distribution in the region
- Coordinate various aspects of launches for the region, working with the Product Launch & Lifecycle team to ensure product readiness
- Engage with Strategy & Continuous Improvement team to lead "voice of the customer" initiatives and identify areas for improvement in the region.
Responsible for Performance management
- Responsible for monthly performance review with distributors in the region (channel partner management)
- Coordinate launch execution to ensure product readiness
- Collaborate with the logistics teams to ensure timely deliveries to the markets, including import documentation required
Manage the supply chain relationship with distributor partners in the region
- Support distributor selection and review contracts or service agreements to ensure supply chain terms are appropriate and agreeable
- Ensure Vertex supply chain requirements are communicated to distribution channel partners and met
- Support distributor audits and supply chain compliance together with adjacent functions (Quality, Security, Pharmacovigilance, etc.)
- Maintain operational oversight of distributors' supply chain activities, including the "last mile" distribution and performance metrics reviews
- Support distribution partners for named patient supply to countries outside the Vertex footprint.
Work with Commercial and other functions to develop go-to-market models for expansion territories
- Support commercial teams in the development of supply strategies for new markets - either via named patient supply, distributor, regional hub, affiliate, etc.
- Understand market landscape, regulatory requirements, and impact to supply chain
- Contribute to business cases for market expansion
- Identify, assess, and mitigate risks to supply chain associated with new market entries
Qualifications and Experience:
- Bachelors or above with significant experience in pharmaceutical supply chain or operations
- Demonstrated experience and knowledge in GMP and working with Quality and manufacturing organizations
- Working kn