More than one million people in the United States today are fighting blood cancer. While a traditional
allogeneic stem cell transplant has been the best hope for many, the transplant itself can prove fatal or lead to serious conditions, such as graft vs. host disease. Orca Bio is a late-stage biotechnology company redefining the transplant process by developing next-generation cell therapies with the goal of providing significantly better survival rates with dramatically fewer risks.
With our purified, high-precision investigational cell therapies we hope to not only replace patients’ blood and immune systems with healthy ones, but also restore their lives.
Summary: We are introducing an exciting new role to ensure a smooth commercial launch and timely patient access to our therapies. As the Treatment Center Strategy & Integration Lead, you will drive the strategy for onboarding a network of qualified treatment centers. Your focus will be on integrating Orca Bio’s cell therapy products into transplant center workflows, optimizing operations, and resolving bottlenecks. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, you will ensure sites are fully prepared for therapy ordering and administration and mitigate operational risks. You will regularly update executive leadership on progress, risks, and strategies. This role involves travel to partner hospital sites.
Estimated travel: ~30%. If candidate is local to Menlo Park, regular onsite attendance is also expected.
Responsibilities
- Develop a roadmap for onboarding a network of qualified treatment centers (sites), ensuring alignment with the company’s broader strategic and commercial objectives.
- Collaborate with the Commercial and Operations Teams to develop rollout and onboarding plans for selected treatment centers, incorporating Commercial’s prioritization strategies.
- Map and track site-specific requirements for commercial cell therapies, with a focus on the ordering and decision-making processes at treatment centers.
- Work closely with the Product Supply function to ensure a smooth vein-to-vein process, especially regarding the collection of apheresis products and therapy receipt at treatment centers.
- Ensure seamless integration of Orca Bio’s cell therapy products into transplant center operations, supporting a smooth commercial ordering process.
- Identify and address site-specific bottlenecks to ensure operational efficiency and optimize vein-to-vein times.
- Lead planning efforts to prepare treatment centers for therapy administration, ensuring all necessary approvals, qualifications, training, and certifications are secured prior to launch.
- Collaborate with internal teams (Commercial, Quality, Operations, Medical, and Clinical) to align and integrate processes across functions.
- Research and implement industry best practices, identifying potential risks and gaps based on experience with cell therapy launches.
- Develop contingency plans to address operational challenges at treatment centers during and after launch.
- Provide input on the requirements and development of the company’s site-facing cell orchestration software.
- Establish metrics and provide regular updates on progress to the senior leadership team.
Required Qualifications
- Prior experience in commercial cell therapy product launches.
- Proven track record in operational excellence in the biotech or pharma industries, with a broad knowledge of both commercial and clinical operations.
- Strong understanding of hospital operations, including navigating complex bureaucratic processes across healthcare systems.
- Strong interpersonal skills that foster trust and robust relationships with treatment centers.
- Detail-oriented and self-motivated, and able to prioritize and manage multiple tasks effectively.
- Excellent communication and problem-solving skills, capable of working collaboratively with both internal and external stakeholders.
- 7+ years of relevant experience in the industry, with a proven ability to lead and execute in a fast-paced environment, even without a large team.
Who we are
We are driven by a passion for science and compassion for patients. We act with urgency to ensure our treatments are one day accessible to all who need them.
We live by our core values of passion, courage, and integrity. Excellence in our work means the chance to unlock a better quality of life for our patients, and with that comes tremendous responsibility.
We innovate on a path that hasn’t been paved. We embrace an entrepreneurial spirit and take calculated risks to achieve our mission. We aren’t afraid to ask “why not” and challenge the status quo.
We maintain a start-up culture of camaraderie and leadership by example, regardless of title.
We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and recognize that celebrating our differences creates stronger, lasting solutions that better serve our team, our patients and their healthcare providers.
**all official communication will be from @orcabio.com; please beware of scams**
Notice to staffing firms
Orca Bio does not accept resumes from staffing agencies with which we do not have a written agreement and specific engagement for a particular opening. Our employment activities, inquiries and offers are managed through our HR/Talent team, and all candidates are presented through this channel only. We do not accept unsolicited resumes, and we rarely outsource recruitment.