SVP – Commercial Growth — Precision-Oncology Portfolio

The mandate

A precision-oncology company is preparing for the possible launch of its first therapy in a molecularly defined solid-tumour population. Clinical results justify launch preparation, but the addressable market cannot be reached by hiring a conventional field force alone. Many eligible patients are treated in community settings, archival tissue is frequently inadequate, and testing practices differ by pathology network. Where testing occurs, results may return after a patient has started another line of therapy. The commercial problem begins well before a prescription.

Early market work has generated a large epidemiological model and an equally large list of activities, but no agreed patient pathway. Medical affairs, diagnostics, access and commercial teams use different assumptions about testing volume, positivity, referral and treatment capacity. A proposed companion-diagnostic arrangement provides regulatory support but may not solve laboratory coverage or turnaround. The board has asked management to replace forecast-led enthusiasm with an operating plan that shows how a patient moves from suspicion to result, specialist decision and funded treatment.

The SVP – Commercial Growth will build that plan and the organisation required to execute it. This role owns commercial strategy, market development, launch sequencing, diagnostics partnerships, access integration and customer model across the United States, with selected international option work. It will influence approximately 350 employees and partners across commercial, medical, diagnostic and operational interfaces. Revenue responsibility will begin before approval through disciplined commitments and become a full commercial perimeter if the product launches.

The executive will be based in San Diego under a hybrid arrangement and report to the Chief Executive or designated executive sponsor. The role requires frequent time with community oncology networks, academic centres, pathology laboratories, payers and internal development teams. It is not a brief to promote an unapproved medicine; all external work must respect scientific exchange, privacy and promotional rules.

Why this seat is open

This is a new appointment created as the lead programme moves from development planning into operational launch readiness. Commercial responsibilities are currently divided among business development, market access consultants and a small marketing group. The board wants one accountable leader before irreversible diagnostic, distribution and field-model commitments are made.

What you will own

• Define the end-to-end patient pathway for the priority tumour type, quantifying losses at tissue collection, test ordering, laboratory processing, result return, specialist review, access approval and treatment initiation.
• Select and govern companion and complementary diagnostic relationships, balancing regulatory requirements with laboratory reach, turnaround, interoperability and economics.
• Build the US launch architecture across marketing, account leadership, market access, patient services, analytics and commercial operations, using staged hiring linked to evidence and regulatory gates.
• Set the account model for academic and community oncology, including referral pathways and education needs that may appropriately be addressed before approval through medical or disease-awareness channels.
• Integrate pricing, reimbursement evidence and contracting scenarios into demand planning; identify where diagnostic cost or coverage creates a barrier independent of medicine reimbursement.
• Own a pre-launch investment envelope exceeding USD 120 million and ensure external commitments retain cancellation or scaling flexibility where outcome and timing remain uncertain.
• Establish one forecast with transparent inputs for incidence, testing, positivity, eligibility, share and persistence, and prevent targets from being reverse-engineered to a desired valuation narrative.
• Prepare expansion choices for selected international markets only where testing infrastructure, regulatory timing and treatment economics support a credible route.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Reconcile epidemiology and patient-flow assumptions using laboratory, chart and centre evidence. Decide the diagnostic-network strategy, identify the highest-leakage steps and freeze commercial hiring not tied to an approved capability plan. Establish compliant decision rights among commercial, medical and diagnostics leaders.
• Months 4–9: Contract the required laboratory coverage and operational service levels, design patient services around verified access barriers, and appoint the core leadership team. Pilot account planning in representative community and academic networks without crossing pre-approval boundaries. Build supply, distribution and demand scenarios that reflect test-result timing.
• Months 10–12: Complete launch certification against regulatory, diagnostic, supply, access, data and people criteria. Demonstrate that priority accounts can identify, test and route appropriate patients within the target interval. Present the board with a gated international sequence and a post-launch learning plan capable of changing deployment quickly.

What the board will measure

• A single evidenced patient-flow model accepted by clinical, diagnostics, access and finance leaders, with uncertainty ranges preserved in the forecast.
• Contracted diagnostic capacity and turnaround standards covering the priority patient population without dependence on one laboratory route.
• Readiness of community and academic accounts measured through pathway capability, not the number of promotional interactions or names in a customer database.
• Pre-launch spend and hiring within the approved gates, with avoidable commitments not accelerated ahead of regulatory or evidence milestones.
• Payer and patient-service design that addresses both testing and treatment access, supported by completed evidence plans and compliant operating procedures.
• A launch organisation that passes medical, legal, regulatory, privacy, supply and pharmacovigilance readiness reviews before external activation.

The person

You are currently an SVP or VP of commercial, oncology business-unit leader, launch lead or general manager in an innovative oncology or precision-medicine company. Your 22–28 years include at least one biomarker-defined launch for which diagnostic execution materially influenced uptake. You have owned or strongly influenced a P&L or launch-investment perimeter of at least USD 100 million and led a commercial or cross-functional organisation of at least 150 people.

You understand why a prevalence slide is not a demand forecast. You have worked with pathology laboratories, companion-diagnostic partners and market-access teams to resolve practical barriers in specimen availability, ordering, turnaround and result interpretation. You can show where patient-flow evidence changed territory design, hiring, channel investment or an international sequence.

The board will consider leaders from oncology therapeutics, molecular diagnostics or rare disease where testing determines treatment. Candidates coming principally from high-volume primary-care commercial models are unlikely to have the required pathway depth. You must have operated within pre-approval rules and be able to define a constructive boundary between medical scientific exchange and commercial preparation.

The role is based in San Diego with a hybrid rhythm, but significant external travel is expected. The best candidate combines urgency with restraint: able to build ahead of approval without treating approval as certain, and prepared to reduce the plan when real-world diagnostic capacity contradicts the model.

Compensation and terms

The indicative base salary is USD 360,000–480,000, accompanied by annual incentive and long-term participation. Measures will reflect diagnostic-pathway readiness, compliant organisational build, capital discipline and, following approval, eligible-patient access and commercial performance. This is a permanent appointment. Final terms may address substantiated equity forfeiture and reasonable relocation requirements.

Confidentiality

The client, molecule, biomarker and diagnostic counterparties will be disclosed progressively after the search team confirms a relevant background and confidentiality arrangements are complete. Applicants must not interrogate laboratories, trial sites or public datasets to identify the company.

Each response must contain no more than 49 words.