Develop Health is on a mission to use AI to radically accelerate access to life-saving medications. By automating complex, manual healthcare processes—like benefit verification and prior authorization— we've been growing rapidly and over the past couple of years have helped over 2.5 million patients!

We’re partnering with some of the largest pharmacy benefit managers and payers in the nation, revolutionizing how healthcare interactions occur by eliminating human delays and inefficiencies. Our small, elite team of founders and engineers have previously launched and exited successful healthcare startups including Rupa Health and Canvas Medical. We are now scaling rapidly following a major funding round.

About The Role

We're hiring a Pharma Sales Director to win and grow partnerships with pharmaceutical manufacturers and their brand teams. You carry a number and run your own deals, from the first conversation to a signed agreement and the expansion that follows.

Manufacturers work with us to get more patients started and kept on therapy. We automate benefit verification and prior authorization inside their HUB, specialty pharmacy, and direct-to-patient programs, which shortens time to therapy and cuts abandonment. Several manufacturer programs are already live and more are in contracting. Buyers sit across Brand, Marketing, Patient Services, Market Access, Trade, and Commercial. Every deal goes through procurement, legal, and compliance, and a typical cycle runs several months.

This is an individual contributor role. You'll report to our Head of Life Sciences & Partnerships and work closely with product, operations, data, and engineering, plus the HUBs and pharmacies we deliver through.

Three things define success in this role:

You build the pipeline. You open new manufacturer accounts, qualify them fast, and keep every deal current in our CRM so the forecast holds up.
You close. You shape the offer, write the business case, and take MSAs and work orders through procurement, legal, and compliance to signature.
You grow the accounts. Your pilots go live cleanly, and you expand them into new brands and therapeutic areas within the same manufacturer.

What You'll Do

Win new accounts

Source and qualify manufacturer opportunities through your own network, outbound, and industry events.
Build senior relationships across Brand, Marketing, Patient Services, Market Access, Trade/Channel, and Commercial.
Find and coach internal champions who can carry the deal through their buying committee.
Represent Develop Health at industry conferences to build relationships, generate leads, and keep up with competitors.

Run the deal

Own each deal end to end: discovery, partnership design, pricing proposal, negotiation, and signature.
Build presentations, proposals, and business cases tied to brand goals like patient acquisition, time to therapy, adherence, and HUB cost. Use our data to make the case.
Travel regularly for onsite meetings and planning sessions with manufacturer teams.
Keep the pipeline, stages, and forecast accurate every week.

Grow existing accounts

Find new opportunities inside live manufacturer accounts, including additional brands, therapeutic areas, and programs.
Hand closed deals to account management with a clean scope, success metrics, and go-live plan, and stay close to the account after launch.

Work across the company

Bring market feedback to product and operations as clear requirements, and pull in the right people for solutioning and security reviews.
Work with marketing on case studies, playbooks, and other sales materials built around what manufacturers need.
Follow trends in patient support programs, pharma commercialization, and access technology, and share what you learn with the team.

What You'll Bring On Day 1

5+ years selling to pharma manufacturers. Partnerships, business development, account management, or enterprise sales in patient services, market access, HUB services, specialty pharmacy, or digital health.
You've closed complex manufacturer agreements yourself. You can walk us through one from first meeting to signature, including who blocked it and how you got past them.
You know how manufacturers buy. Who owns the budget across brand, market access, and patient services, how procurement, legal, and compliance work, and how long it really takes.
You know the patient journey. From diagnosis and treatment start through adherence and ongoing support, and where access delays lose patients. You've sold solutions that move patient acquisition, adherence, or retention.
Working knowledge of specialty medication access. HUB workflows, benefit verification, prior authorization, affordability, and reimbursement.
Consultative selling with data. You turn data into a value story a brand lead can take to their leadership.
Pipeline discipline. You forecast honestly and keep your CRM current without being asked.
Clear writing and executive presence. Your proposals and follow-ups are short and easy to act on, and you're comfortable presenting to VPs.
Willing to travel. About 50% for client meetings and conferences.

What You'll Need To Learn Quickly

Our product: how our benefit verification and prior authorization automation plugs into HUBs, pharmacies, and provider EHRs.
Our channel: how we deliver through HUB and pharmacy partners, and where a manufacturer program fits.
Our commercial model: setup and transaction pricing, pilots, and how programs expand.

Bonus Points

Existing relationships with brand, patient services, or market access leaders at pharma.
You've helped launch a brand's access program or HUB.
You understand the regulatory and compliance landscape in pharma, including the Anti-Kickback Statute, HIPAA, and FDA promotional rules, and how they shape patient support programs and manufacturer partnerships.
Early-stage startup experience.

This Might Not Be The Right Fit If

You want to manage a team. This is an individual contributor role. You run your own deals.
You need pipeline handed to you. You'll source much of your own, especially early.
You want short sales cycles. Manufacturer deals take months and involve many stakeholders.
You need a set playbook. We're still building our pharma motion, and you'll help write it.

What We Offer

Competitive base salary, commission on closed revenue, and meaningful early-stage equity.
A direct line to our Head of Life Sciences & Partnerships and company leadership.
Work that directly accelerates access to medication for hundreds of thousands of patients.

About the company

Develop Health builds AI-powered software that streamlines medication access for healthcare providers and patients. Its core product is an AI-driven platform that automates the prior authorization process. It includes a Benefit Verification tool that processes patient insurance card images and a Clinical Eligibility tool that autofills clinical information, reducing form completion time by over 80%. The platform helps clinicians and staff cut administrative workload and speed up medication access workflows. Unlike generic automation vendors, Develop Health concentrates on the medication authorization and eligibility workflow in healthcare settings, delivering targeted automation for insurance verification, prior authorization, and clinical data entry. The company’s goal is to improve efficiency in medication access and reduce administrative burden for healthcare organizations.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Series A

Total Funding

$16.1M

Headquarters

Menlo Park, California

Founded

2022

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

CMS PA rules took effect January 2026, forcing faster payer response times.
Develop Health says customers cut approval cycles from 1.5 weeks to 20 hours.
The company added Nicolas Kernick as CCO and is hiring analytics and operations leaders.

What critics are saying

CoverMyMeds, Surescripts, and EHR vendors can bundle similar workflows by 2027.
Dependence on payer integrations and FHIR APIs slows deployments and creates brittle workflows.
If pharma sponsorships weaken, free-provider access collapses and sales cycles lengthen sharply.

What makes Develop Health unique

Athenahealth integration launched December 2025 embeds PA inside prescribing workflows.
Develop Health automates benefit verification, prior authorization, follow-up, and appeals end-to-end.
It claims 99% plan coverage versus roughly 80% for ePA-only tools.

Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?

Benefits

Flexible Work Hours

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

-3%

1 year growth

2 year growth

21%

RivalSense

Oct 3rd, 2026

Develop Health | competitive intelligence profile.

Develop Health | competitive intelligence profile. Develop Health is a company that specializes in automating medication access through AI-powered solutions. Their services focus on... Develop Health is a company that specializes in automating medication access through AI-powered solutions. Their services focus on benefit verification and prior authorization, aiming to reduce the time healthcare providers spend on these processes while increasing approval rates. Develop Health product and pricing intelligence. Leverage product insights to define key product development milestones, guide go-to-market planning, build a robust product-market fit matrix, and perform in-depth SWOT analyses. Harness pricing intelligence to support strategic pricing decisions, conduct competitive pricing analysis, and craft effective differential pricing strategies. * Nicolas Kernick of Develop Health spoke with Sheila Arquette on the NASP podcast about how its specialty pharmacy offering helps providers, patients, and manufacturers. * Develop Health is building provider-side prior authorization tools. * Develop Health breaks down barriers to prescription access by cutting waiting and paperwork. Develop Health event participations. Stay updated on where your competitors are showing up - industry conferences, webinars, podcasts, and speaking engagements - to gauge their messaging, target audiences, and strategic focus. Discover how they're positioning themselves in the market, what narratives they're pushing, and which partnerships they're cultivating. Use this intelligence to refine your own positioning, identify missed opportunities, and stay top-of-mind in your industry. * Samara Herrick, provider account executive at Develop Health, will attend the NASP Inspire Conference to show the company's work with specialty pharmacies and its podcast with NASP. Develop Health regulatory intelligence. Monitor critical regulatory events - such as issued or revoked licenses, lawsuits, investigations, and court rulings - to understand the compliance posture and legal exposure of your rivals. Spot early warning signs of operational risk, delays, or reputational damage, and use these insights to fine-tune your market strategy, mitigate your own risk, or capitalize on competitor setbacks. * Develop Health CEO Mel van Londen said legislative prior authorization reform is picking up momentum, with shorter response windows and peer review requirements making compliance more complex for health systems. Develop Health management and leadership team. Understand who's steering your competitors by tracking changes in their management and leadership teams. Gain insights into strategic direction, leadership style, and organizational priorities based on executive backgrounds and hiring trends. Use this knowledge to anticipate competitive moves, tailor your sales or partnership approach, and benchmark against industry leaders. Develop Health alternatives and competitors. Identify the competitors of your competitors to uncover indirect threats, emerging disruptors, and untapped opportunities. Understand the broader competitive ecosystem, spot white space in the market, and gain strategic context that helps you position more effectively. These insights sharpen your market intelligence and reveal angles others often overlook. * NantHealth | * SamaCare | * Glidian | * Aidence | * CureMetrix | * Flatiron Health | * Kerry Care | * Nabla | * Binah.ai | * Aetion | * Mendel AI | * Zephyr AI | * Praxis EMR | * IBM Watson | * Google Health | * Microsoft | * Amazon | * Augmedix Develop Health hiring and layoffs. Track key workforce changes - new hires, leadership shifts, and layoffs - to spot strategic organizational moves. Identify rising competitors, uncover shifts in company direction, and seize opportunities to attract top talent or engage new decision-makers. Use these insights to refine your recruitment strategy and build stronger business relationships. * Nicolas Kernick took on the Chief Commercial Officer role at Develop Health, which uses AI to improve medication access for over 3.5 million patients. * Develop Health is hiring a Lead Analytics Engineer in the United States to own analytics and build an AI-native analytics system. * Develop Health is hiring a Strategic Business Operations Lead in the USA to manage operational workflows, optimize payer and PBM partnerships, and scale automation efforts. Develop Health partnerships, clients and vendors. Monitor new partnerships, client wins, and vendor relationships to understand where your competitors are gaining traction. Spot emerging alliances, evaluate ecosystem shifts, and identify potential partners or prospects early. These insights help you refine your sales strategy, anticipate market movements, and stay one step ahead in a dynamic competitive landscape. * Develop Health processed 800 prior authorizations for an independent primary care group, reducing turnaround from weeks to two days and saving 20-30 hours of staff time weekly. Develop Health financial performance, fundraising, M&A. Track competitors' financial performance, fundraising rounds, and M&A activity to assess their growth trajectory and strategic focus. Uncover signals of expansion, market entry, or consolidation, and benchmark your position accordingly. Use these insights to inform investor conversations, identify acquisition opportunities, and fine-tune your competitive strategy. People also viewed. Ready to outsmart the competition? RivalSense cuts through the clutter of generic tools like Google Alerts, delivering laser-focused competitive intelligence without the noise. Track competitors' every move - website changes, product updates, social media buzz, news mentions, and regulatory shifts - all in one sleek platform. Uncover pricing strategies, decode market trends, and gain actionable insights to fuel your business strategy. No more guesswork. Just power. Join thousands of forward-thinking teams who trust RivalSense to automate their competitive monitoring and turn data into domination. Start your FREE trial today - no credit card needed - and see why staying ahead has never been this easy. Your competitors won't know what hit them. Outthink. Outpace. Outperform. #RivalSense

OPEN MINDS

Oct 23rd, 2025

Develop Health Raises $14.3M for GenAI

Develop Health announced a $14.3 million Series A funding round led by Wing Venture Capital, with participation from Afore Capital, J Ventures, and South Park Commons, bringing total funding to $17.6 million. The company offers an EHR-integrated platform using generative AI to automate prior authorization and medication access.

Benzinga

Aug 20th, 2025

Develop Health Raises $14.3M for GenAI Platform

Develop Health has raised $14.3 million in a Series A round led by Wing Venture Capital, bringing total funding to $17.6 million. The company uses GenAI to automate benefit verification and prior authorization, reducing treatment delays and manual work. The funding will help expand its platform beyond digital health into the medical benefit market and enhance EHR and PBM integrations. Develop Health aims to streamline medication access, improving provider efficiency and patient experience.

MobiHealthNews