Director, Incentive Compensation (Neuroscience & Rare Disease)

Please note that this position is based in Princeton, NJ. Acadia's hybrid model requires this role to work in our office three days per week on average. 

Director, Incentive Compensation (Neuroscience & Rare Disease)

The Vision:  Lead and transform Acadia’s incentive compensation strategy and execution across Neuroscience and Rare Disease for multiple field facing roles, ensuring flawless execution today while building a strategy-aligned, scalable model for tomorrow!

Position Summary

The Director of Incentive Compensation will serve as a subject matter expert in all areas of field incentive compensation plans, contests/SPIFFs, and award programs, with accountability across Neuroscience and Rare Disease multiple field teams. The person will lead strategic direction and continuous improvement of incentive compensation programs across therapeutic areas, applying advanced methodologies to complex business challenges with decisions that materially impact field performance, financial outcomes, and overall company success.

This role is responsible for leading the design, administration, and continuous improvement of incentive compensation programs that attract, retain, and motivate top field talent, while ensuring all programs are fiscally responsible, aligned with company and product goals/objectives, and administered in a consistent, accurate, timely, and compliant fashion.

As a player/coach leader, this role balances day-to-day execution (“run”) with advancing IC into a strategic, enterprise-aligned capability (“build”), strengthening alignment to brand strategic and tactical objectives and evolving IC into a true driver of field behavior and performance.

This role also provides proactive analyses of IC programs and practices, delivering insights and recommendations to senior leadership and governance committees.

Lead and develop IC team members (e.g., managers/analysts) as well as serve as a hands-on leader, stepping into design, modeling, and issue resolution as needed.

Primary Responsibilities

Lead and Administer Incentive Compensation

• Lead and administer the field incentive compensation, contests, and award functional area across Neuroscience and Rare Disease field teams


• Ensure IC programs are motivating, rewarding, and aligned with business objectives through collaboration with stakeholders and vendors


• Implement strategies and administrative processes to ensure:
  
  
  
  • Accurate goal setting, crediting, performance measurement, and payout calculations
  
  
  • Reliable and auditable execution of IC cycles
  
  
  
  


• Lead IC inquiry and investigation processes, ensuring timely resolution and clear communication back to field teams


• Ensure timely communication and documentation of IC plans, quotas, performance reporting, and processes to the field


• Reduce manual processes, improve data confidence, and create a low-friction IC experience for the field.


• Partner with IT, Data Governance, and vendors to ensure accurate, integrated “IC-grade” data for calculations and reporting

Design and Evolve IC Strategy

• Lead the evaluation, development, and design of IC plans, contests, and annual awards across brands and field teams


• Strengthen alignment of IC metrics, weightings, and goals to brand strategic and tactical priorities


• Perform routine “health-checks” and analyses to assess plan effectiveness and reinforce desired behaviors


• Develop and implement standardized plan principles and governance frameworks to make them scalable and repeatable IC processes across brands


• Advance use of analytics to move from qualitative feedback to measurable behavior impact assessment

Govern IC Processes and Ensure Compliance

• Provide leadership around governance and approval processes for IC plans, contests, and awards


• Establish and maintain robust quality control processes and documentation standards


• Ensure all IC programs operate within regulatory, legal, and compliance requirements


• Partner with Legal, Compliance, HR, and Finance to drive consistent and controlled execution

Reporting, Analytics, and Performance Transparency

• Develop, deploy, and administer reports, dashboards, and scorecards that enable field teams and leadership to track performance vs. IC


• Partner with Commercial Analytics to:
  
  
  
  • Align field sales quotas with topline forecasts and estimates
  
  
  • Enhance visibility into IC performance and outcomes
  
  
  
  


• Translate complex IC concepts into clear, actionable insights for leadership and the field


• Partner closely with: Sales, Marketing, National Accounts, and Patient Services leadership, Commercial Analytics, People & Performance, Legal/Compliance, IT, and external vendors

Education / Experience / Skills

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred


• Minimum 10 years of experience in pharmaceutical/biotech commercial roles


• Minimum 5 years in Sales Operations / Commercial Operations with deep strategic and tactical knowledge


• Proven expertise in IC plan design, goaling methodologies, and administration as well as contests/SPIFFs and award program design


• Experience with commercial pharma data (RX, claims, HUB/SP/SD data) 


• Minimum 5 years of experience leading, developing, and scaling a team, establishing clear roles, strengthening capabilities, and fostering a high-performance culture as the function expands

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