Associate Director

Job Description:

As a privately-owned, biopharmaceutical company, Ferring pioneers and delivers life-changing therapies that help people build families and live better lives. Our independence helps us cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit and long-term perspective that enables us to achieve growth and scale, while remaining agile and true to our ‘people first’ philosophy. Built on a 70-year plus commitment to science and research, Ferring is relentless in its pursuit of science that drives powerful discoveries and therapies to help people build families, stay healthy, and stand up to the world’s oldest enemy: disease.

As the Associate Director, Commercial Capabilities, you will lead the Commercial Capabilities agenda in support of Ferring's commercial business objectives and organizational priorities. This role partners closely with Commercial Learning & Development, Sales, Marketing, Market Access, Commercial Operations, and Human Resources to identify critical capability needs, establish development priorities, and build integrated approaches to workforce readiness and performance.

You will be responsible for defining capability frameworks, development pathways, onboarding approaches, launch readiness strategies, competitive readiness initiatives, and adult learning methodologies that enable workforce readiness and commercial performance. In addition, you will operationalize the Learning Strategy through governance, stakeholder alignment, resource planning, risk management, and strategic communications to ensure investments are strategically aligned with business priorities and organizational needs while delivering measurable value to the organization.

Working collaboratively with Business Unit Learning Leads, Leadership Development, Learning Operations, and cross-functional stakeholders, you will advance scalable capability solutions while promoting accountability, managing risks, monitoring progress, and communicating outcomes to senior leadership. This role requires strong business acumen, systems thinking, strategic planning, and the ability to translate organizational priorities into actionable capability and learning solutions that drive performance today and prepare the workforce for the future.

With Ferring, you will be joining a recognized leader, identified as one of “The World’s Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company, and honored by Fortune with inclusion on its “Change the World List,” for addressing society’s unmet needs. Ferring US is also Great Places to Work® Certified, distinguishing it as one of the best companies to work for in the country.

Responsibilities:

Commercial Capability Strategy

• The ideal candidate is a strategic, organizational systems-oriented capability leader who can connect business priorities, workforce needs, and learning solutions into a cohesive commercial capability agenda. This individual excels at developing the strategy and translating the strategy into action, building alignment across stakeholders, and developing scalable approaches that strengthen commercial readiness and performance.

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive commercial capability strategy aligned to commercial objectives, organizational priorities, and future workforce needs.

• Identify, assess, and prioritize critical capabilities required across commercial functions, including Sales, Market Access, Key Account Management, Field Reimbursement Managers, Commercial Operations, and other business functions.

• Partner with senior leaders to translate business priorities into capability roadmaps and workforce development strategies.

• Establish capability frameworks, competency models, and role-based proficiency standards that support workforce performance and development.

• Guide strategic capability investment and resource allocation decisions to ensure alignment with commercial strategy, business priorities, workforce needs, and long-term organizational objectives.

• Evaluate current and future workforce capability needs and provide recommendations to strengthen workforce readiness and performance.

Capability Architecture & Development Pathways

• Design and govern integrated capability frameworks and development pathways for commercial roles, including Sales Representatives, Field Reimbursement Managers, Key Account Managers, District Managers, Sales Directors, Market Access, and other commercial and corporate functions.

• Partner with Business Unit Learning Leads, Leadership Development, and Learning Operations to implement and sustain onboarding programs, role-based development pathways, and development experiences.

• Drive consistency in capability standards, adult learning methodologies, and developmental experiences while enabling flexibility to address unique business requirements.

• Ensure capability solutions support the employee lifecycle, from onboarding and role transition through advanced and ongoing development.

• Develop and maintain career development frameworks that support workforce planning, role progression, and organizational development priorities.

Product Launch Readiness & Competitive Capability Planning

• Partner with Brand, Marketing, Sales Leadership, Market Access, and other key stakeholders to define capability requirements and readiness strategies for product launches and major business initiatives.

• Develop and maintain repeatable launch readiness frameworks that accelerate organizational preparedness and execution excellence.

• Coordinate capability planning efforts to ensure teams possess the capabilities required to successfully execute launch strategies and business priorities.

• Partner with BU Learning Leads, Learning Operations, and Leadership Development to translate launch readiness requirements into scalable learning and development solutions.

• Leverage internal performance data, external benchmarks, competitive intelligence, and marketplace insights to assess capability requirements across commercial roles and inform development strategies that position products for success throughout launch, growth, maturity, and lifecycle management stages.

• Partner with commercial stakeholders to build competitive readiness strategies that strengthen organizational capabilities and support sustained brand performance.

Learning Strategy, Governance & Strategic Communications

• Support execution of the Commercial Learning & Development strategy by translating strategic objectives into actionable tactics.

• Create governance processes that clarify ownership, decision-making, accountability, and execution responsibilities across Commercial Learning & Development initiatives.

• Identify, document, and proactively manage strategic risks, dependencies, and barriers that may impact capability development objectives and business outcomes.

• Develop and execute strategic communication plans that provide visibility into capability priorities, investments, progress, risks, achievements, and business impact.

• Prepare executive-level presentations, communications, and reporting materials for senior leadership, governance forums, and key stakeholder groups.

• Represent Commercial Learning & Development in internal and external forums, sharing best practices, benchmarking approaches, and supporting organizational thought leadership in capability development and workforce performance.

• Monitor external trends, emerging practices, and innovations in capability development, workforce transformation, and learning strategy to inform future investments and recommendations.

Capability Insights & Continuous Improvement

• Partner with Learning Operations to define capability success measures and leverage workforce analytics, learning effectiveness measures, and modern capability development approaches to evaluate impact, identify capability gaps, and inform workforce investment decisions.

• Utilize learning, performance, and business insights to inform capability prioritization, roadmap planning, and resource allocation recommendations.

• Collaborate with Learning Operations to assess the effectiveness of capability initiatives and recommend enhancements based on stakeholder feedback, learner insights, and business outcomes.

• Monitor evolving commercial priorities, market dynamics, workforce trends, and industry best practices to proactively identify emerging capability requirements.

• Continuously refine capability strategies, development approaches, and capability investments to ensure ongoing relevance and business impact.

Stakeholder Engagement & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as a strategic advisor to Sales, Marketing, Market Access, Commercial Operations, Human Resources, and other key stakeholders on capability priorities and workforce readiness.

• Facilitate capability planning discussions and provide recommendations that align business objectives, talent needs, and organizational capabilities.

• Collaborate with Leadership Development, Learning Operations, and Business Unit Learning Leads to ensure leadership, functional, and commercial capability initiatives are integrated, aligned, and mutually reinforcing.

• Influence stakeholders across functions and business units to drive alignment, adoption, and execution of capability priorities without direct authority.

• Build strong partnerships across the organization to create an integrated approach to capability development that supports commercial success and organizational effectiveness.

Qualifications:

Required

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree preferred.

• 8+ years of experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, or a related industry.

• 10+ years of experience in Commercial Learning & Development, Capability Development, Sales Training, Sales Leadership, Commercial Operations, Organizational Development, Commercial Excellence, or a related function.

• Demonstrated experience developing capability frameworks, competency models, development pathways, onboarding programs, or workforce development strategies that support business performance.

• Experience translating business priorities and workforce needs into capability development solutions and measurable business outcomes.

• Experience supporting commercial product launches, launch readiness initiatives, or commercial transformation efforts.

• Proven ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives and influence stakeholders across multiple organizational levels without direct authority.

• Experience partnering with commercial leaders to align budget allocation with business priorities and organizational objectives.

• Demonstrated understanding of adult learning principles, capability development methodologies, and workforce development approaches.

• Strong business acumen, strategic thinking, systems orientation, and project leadership skills.

• Excellent communication, consulting, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills.

Preferred

• Demonstrated experience establishing frameworks, governance processes, development programs, or operating models that improve workforce readiness and organizational performance.

• Experience leveraging workforce analytics, learning effectiveness measures, and business insights to inform capability decisions.

• Training, coaching, facilitation, instructional design, talent development, or change management certifications.

Ferring + you

At Ferring, we offer competitive total compensation along with an exceptional range of flexible benefits, personal support and tailored learning and development opportunities all designed to help you realize your full potential both in life and at work. From working hours that respect your lifestyle, a culture that is welcoming and equitable, and the chance to work with the industry’s most impressive people, these are just some of the ways we live our "People First" philosophy.

Our Compensation and Benefits

At Ferring, base salary is one part of our competitive total compensation and benefits package and is determined using a salary range. The base salary range for this role is $120,000 to $223,000, which is the reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount paid may differ based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, abilities, education and primary work location. Additional compensation for this role will be provided based on competitive annual incentive compensation targets in the form of an annual bonus - payouts are based on individual and company performance.

Benefits for this role include: comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, and vision) with a premium differential, inverse to base salary, to be paid by employees; a 401k plan and company match; short and long-term disability coverage; basic life insurance; wellness benefits; reimbursement for certain tuition expenses; sick time frontloaded yearly of 40 hours, or higher if state or local law requires; vacation time for full time employees to accrue between 112.5 and 150 hours yearly in the first four (4) years of employment, and additional accruals starting in the fifth (5th) year of employment; and 12 to 13 paid holidays per year. We are proud to offer 20 weeks of paid parental leave, learn more about the parental leave offering in our benefits package here. For roles that are not field-based, Ferring has a hybrid work policy that is four days in the office, with the option to work one day remotely.

Ferring is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local laws.

Join our team and your voice will be heard, and your contributions will be valued. If you love to come up with new ways to make a positive difference and see them through, you will fit right in.

We are proud to be an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer (including Disability/Protected Veterans). We maintain a drug-free workplace.

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