Value & Access Contracting Lead – Trade, GPO, Specialty Pharmacy

JOB DESCRIPTION
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Make your mark for patients

We are looking for a Value & Access Contracting Lead – Trade, GPO, Specialty Pharmacy to join our Value & Market Access Contracting team

About the role

The Value & Access Lead is a people leader accountable for leading the multi-channel Market Access & Pricing contracting language strategy and execution across 3 channels (trade, gpo, and/or specialty pharmacy), leading a team of 2 Contracting Partners to deliver compliant, timely, and commercially optimized agreements for enterprise-critical books of business. This position will not only manage the team but will also have contracting deliverable requirements.

Who you’ll work with

In a demanding, fast-paced environment, this role serves as the senior cross-functional contracting liaison with Account Management, Analytics, Legal, Finance, Pricing Committee, and Operations-leading high-stakes negotiations and continuously reprioritizing to identify risk, quantify financial impacts, and manage high-value, high-complexity agreements with strong controls, documentation discipline, and a focus on scalable execution and compliance.

What you’ll do

• Set multi-channel value & access contracting language strategy across 3 channels (GPOs, Trade, and Specialty Pharmacy); translate brand/access objectives into contracting priorities, negotiation stances, and execution roadmaps.
• Own end-to-end contract lifecycle accountability for assigned portfolio(s), including providing inputs and feedback into the Analytics-led modeling deal(s) process, term sheets, and conditions to rebate. In addition, providing negotiation oversight, approvals routing, execution, amendments, and renewals-ensuring timelines, quality, and audit-ready documentation.
• Lead and develop a team of 2 Contracting Partners through clear performance expectations, coaching, training and onboarding, workload prioritization, review of work, and capability building; ensure consistent Application of negotiating principles, processes, and contract standards.
• Manage a high-volume, fast-paced portfolio by continuously triaging and reprioritizing workstreams across channels; align stakeholders on priorities, timelines, and trade-offs; and communicate proactive updates/escalations to ensure timely decisions and execution.
• Serve as the senior contracting voice in cross-functional governance with Account Management, Pricing, Finance, Legal, Compliance, and Operations; own the contracting position and recommendation (informed by Analytics-led modeling and approvals) and align on deal economics, access trade-offs, and operational feasibility prior to execution.
• Drive contract economics and risk trade-offs by identifying contractual and operational risks, understanding and communicating financial impact/exposure, evaluating financial terms, developing scenario-based recommendations, and escalating decisions that impact P&L, exposure, or channel strategy.
• Ensure compliance, controls, and appropriate risk mitigation across all agreements
• Oversee operational readiness and issue resolution for executed agreements (implementation requirements, eligibility, adjudication, chargeback/rebate implications); lead timely negotiation and resolution of disputes and contract performance exceptions.
• Establish performance management and reporting for the contracting portfolio workflow; communicate clear insights and recommendations to the Head and leadership stakeholders.
• Standardize contracting ways of working by implementing templates, playbooks, clause libraries, and training/enablement materials (e.g., onboarding guides, negotiation toolkits) and driving continuous improvement initiatives that reduce variability, improve speed, and increase negotiation leverage.
• Represent the function with executive-level presence in internal and external discussions; anticipate channel and payer dynamics, proactively surface risks/opportunities, and influence decisions to protect access, compliance, and enterprise value.

Interested? For this role we’re looking for the following education, experience and skills

Required:

• Bachelors Degree
• 10+ years of experience in Market Access/Value & Access Contracting, Pricing, Reimbursement, Market Access Strategy, Payer/Account Management, or related areas within pharmaceuticals/biotech.
• Minimum of (1) 3+ years direct people leadership experience; (2) 1-2 years direct people leadership AND 3+ years leading on cross-functional teams and/or major negotiations with clear accountability for outcomes; (3) 8-10+ years account leadership (deal strategy ownership, governance leadership, delivery against timelines and financial targets); OR (4) 8-10+ years of experience in market access/trade contract redlining and negotiations.

Preferred:

• Demonstrated experience developing and delivering training and onboarding for contracting and/or market access teams (e.g., negotiating principles, contracting SOPs, governance pathways, and contracting tools/templates) to drive consistent execution and compliance.
• Demonstrated expertise negotiating, drafting, redlining, and operationalizing complex agreements (e.g., rebates/fees, price protection, admin/service fees, dispute terms) with success balancing access, economics, and risk.
• Strong working knowledge and commitment to pricing/contracting governance and compliance requirements, including required approval pathways, documentation standards, peer reviews, and partnering effectively with Legal/Compliance.
• Advanced financial and analytical acumen to interpret deal models, identify risks, identify and understand financial impacts/exposure, evaluate scenarios, and make clear recommendations to stakeholders and leadership.
• Advanced communication and influencing skills with a track record of aligning cross-functional stakeholders
• Experience contracting across multiple US market access channels (e.g., Trade/Distribution, GPO/IDN, Specialty Pharmacy, and/or 340B).
• Prior ownership of contracting strategy for a brand launch, major indication expansion, or significant access shift (e.g., formulary wins/losses, channel re-architecture).
• Exposure to advanced contracting constructs such as outcomes-based/value-based arrangements, performance guarantees, innovative pull-through programs, and complex dispute/true-up mechanisms.
• Experience in specialty and/or rare disease market access dynamics strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of contracting operations and financial flows (rebate processing, chargebacks, fees/admin, eligibility, and audit/dispute management) and ability to partner effectively with internal operations teams.

This positions reasonably anticipated base salary range is $175,000 – $215,000. The actual salary offered will take into account related knowledge, skills, experience and location among other factors and may fall outside the expected range.

Are you ready to ‘go beyond’ to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!

About us
UCB is a global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on neurology and immunology. We are over 9.000 people in all four corners of the globe, inspired by patients and driven by science.

Why work with us?
At UCB, we don’t just complete tasks, we create value. We aren’t afraid to push forward, collaborate, and innovate to make our mark for patients. We have a caring, supportive culture where everyone feels included, respected, and has equal opportunities to do their best work. We ‘go beyond’ to create value for our patients, and always with a human focus, whether that’s on our patients, our employees, or our planet. Working for us, you will discover a place where you can grow, and have the freedom to carve your own career path to achieve your full potential.

At UCB, we’ve embraced a hybrid-first approach to work, bringing teams together in local hubs to foster collaborative curiosity. Unless explicitly stated in the description or precluded by the nature of the position, roles are hybrid with 40% of your time spent in the office.

UCB is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions will be made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. UCB invites you to voluntarily self-identify during the application process. Provision of self-identification information is entirely voluntary and a decision to provide or not provide such information will not have any effect on your application for employment, your employment with UCB, or otherwise subject you to any adverse treatment. Any information you provide will be considered confidential and will be kept separate from your application and/or personnel file and will only be used in accordance with applicable laws, orders, and regulations.

Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on US-Reasonable_Accommodation@ucb.com for application to US based roles. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments; we will not be able to support you through this channel.