Associate Director/Director, Payer Marketing

About This Role

Axsome Therapeutics is seeking an Associate Director/Director, Payer Marketing to drive Payer Marketing efforts and to ensure that Axsome’s products are represented effectively and appropriately to payer decision makers. The Associate Director/Director, Payer Marketing will play a critical role in ensuring that patients have affordable access to the Company’s innovative medicines. This position will collaborate cross functionally with the rest of the Market Access organization, Brand Marketing, Market Research, Advocacy, Medical and the Operations teams to develop and articulate payer marketing strategy. This role reports directly to the Executive Director, Payer Marketing.

Job Responsibilities and Duties

• Support the payer marketing team in the development of access and pricing strategies, with a particular focus on interpreting and quantifying the impact of proposed and implemented legislation, political actions, and PBM/payer initiatives.
• Monitor and interpret federal and state healthcare policy developments (e.g., CMS guidance, Medicare Part D rules, Medicaid coverage standards, commercial market regulations) to assess implications for payer access and affordability strategy
• Translate complex policy and regulatory changes into clear strategic guidance for payer marketing, brand teams, and senior leadership, working closely with Executive Director
• Partner with market access, legal, compliance, and government affairs teams to ensure payer strategies and materials align with current and emerging policy requirements
• Evaluate how policy changes (e.g., utilization management rules, inflation rebates, IRA provisions, coverage mandates) affect formulary positioning, access barriers, and payer decision-making
• Work across payer marketing team to integrate policy-driven insights into payer value propositions, and account-specific strategies across Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial segments
• Support scenario planning and forecasting by assessing downstream impacts of policy shifts on access timelines, contracting leverage, and payer behavior
• Develop internal education and training resources to improve cross-functional understanding of policy-driven access dynamics
• Engage in strategic planning for launches, LOE planning, and lifecycle management by incorporating policy uncertainty and payer response models
• Partner with the HEOR team to deliver value messaging to payers that is substantiated by real world evidence generation / synthesis
• Manage, effectively and efficiently, multiple projects that require cross-functional buy-in across different indications and therapeutic areas

Requirements / Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in science, Business, Accounting, Finance, Mathematics, or related field required, MBA preferred
• 8-12 years of Pharmaceutical Industry related experience
• 6-10 years of Payer Marketing, Government Affairs, or PBM/Health plan experience or other Market Access related activities
• Ability to work onsite Monday, Tuesday & Thursday. We are unable to consider candidates who are looking for fully remote roles

Experience, Knowledge and Skills

• Deep understanding of the U.S. healthcare market: reimbursement, payment models including legal and compliance requirements is critical to the role
• Excellent problem-solving abilities and demonstrated critical thinking
• Strong understanding of the payer landscape and how payer decision making impacts providers and their patients
• Possess a strong intellectual curiosity and the desire to learn how clinical trial data and RWE factors into payer decision making
• Proven project management experience
• Ability to influence internal and external stakeholders
• Excellent oral, written and presentation skills with ability to use number and data to tell a story, influence decision makers, and explain complex concepts clearly to a variety of audiences
• Previous product launch experience, preferably in the CNS space
• Familiarity with current legal and regulatory landscape pertinent to the industry