Job Description
The Senior Director, Commercial Training is a strategic enterprise leader responsible for designing, executing, and continuously evolving commercial training capabilities that enable Vertex’s customer‑facing teams to deliver meaningful impact for patients living with serious diseases. This role ensures sales, account management, and other field‑based teams are equipped with deep scientific understanding, compliant messaging, and the skills required to engage customers in highly specialized, rapidly evolving therapeutic areas.
Consistent with Vertex’s uncompromising commitment to patients, scientific excellence, and integrity, this leader partners closely with Commercial Leadership, Marketing, Medical Affairs, Market Access, Compliance, and HR to align training strategy with Vertex’s mission to create transformative medicines and support successful launches across a growing and increasingly complex portfolio. This role also ensures commercial training strategy is grounded in clearly defined selling competencies and is continuously enhanced through the thoughtful application of existing, emerging, and innovative learning technologies that accelerate skill development and field performance.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy & Leadership
Develop and own an enterprise commercial training strategy that supports Vertex’s specialty‑focused portfolio, launch cadence, and long‑term commercial ambitions.
Serve as a thought leader in adult learning, capability building, and performance enablement within a science‑driven, highly regulated pharmaceutical environment.
Build, lead, and mentor a high‑performing commercial training organization, including internal talent and external partners, in alignment with Vertex’s culture of excellence and collaboration.
Embed Vertex values—patient focus, innovation, integrity, and “we win” mindset—into all training philosophies, content, and delivery models.
Define, evolve, and maintain a commercial selling competency framework in partnership with Sales Leadership, HR, and Commercial Excellence, clearly articulating the skills, behaviors, and capabilities required for success across selling roles and career stages.
Ensure all commercial training strategies, curricula, and learning journeys are explicitly aligned to and mapped against core selling competencies, enabling consistent skill development, assessment, and progression.
Serve as an enterprise leader in identifying, evaluating, and adopting existing, new, and emerging learning technologies that enhance skill acquisition, practice, reinforcement, and measurement.
Training Design & Delivery
Oversee the design and delivery of onboarding, disease state, product, selling skills, leadership, and advanced capability training across U.S. and, as appropriate, global commercial teams.
Ensure training content reflects deep scientific rigor, accurate clinical data, and approved messaging, in close partnership with Medical, Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance.
Lead national and regional training meetings, immersive workshops, and virtual learning experiences that prepare teams for launch readiness and sustained excellence.
Translate complex science—across modalities such as small molecules, gene editing, and novel pain therapies—into practical, customer‑relevant learning experiences.
Design role‑based curricula and learning journeys that intentionally build, reinforce, and sustain core selling competencies from onboarding through advanced and leadership levels.
Incorporate technology‑enabled learning approaches (e.g., digital platforms, simulations, virtual learning, AI‑enabled tools) to enable practice, feedback, and real‑world skill application at scale.
Ensure learning experiences move beyond knowledge transfer to drive observable behavior change and skill mastery aligned with defined competency expectations.
Commercial Enablement & Launch Excellence
Partner with Sales, Marketing, Market Access, and Medical Affairs to ensure training is tightly aligned to brand strategy, customer needs, and field realities in specialty markets.
Play a critical leadership role in new product and indication launches, supporting pre‑launch readiness, post‑launch optimization, and ongoing capability evolution.
Drive consistent execution of Vertex’s engagement models, messaging standards, and customer experience expectations across all field teams.
Support field effectiveness in environments that may include orphan diseases, site‑of‑care complexity, and high‑touch stakeholder engagement.
Measurement & Continuous Improvement
Establish and monitor robust metrics that assess competency development and skill progression, including knowledge retention, skill application, behavior change, and business impact.
Use insights from data, field feedback, and performance outcomes to continuously refine training content, formats, and delivery approaches.
Leverage learning technologies, analytics, and performance data to diagnose capability gaps, personalize development, and continuously optimize training effectiveness and impact.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree (MBA, MS, PharmD, or equivalent) strongly preferred.
12+ years of experience in pharmaceutical or life sciences commercial roles, with significant leadership experience in commercial training, sales enablement, or commercial excellence.
5+ years of people leadership experience, with a proven ability to develop high‑performing, mission‑driven teams.
Demonstrated success leading commercial training in specialty or highly scientific therapeutic areas within a regulated environment.
Strong working knowledge of FDA regulations, promotional compliance, and industry standards.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience supporting specialty, rare disease, or complex portfolios.
Proven launch experience, including training for first‑in‑class or highly differentiated products.
Exposure to omnichannel, digital, or hybrid engagement models.
Experience working within global or matrixed organizations.
Pay Range:
$226,400 - $339,600Disclosure Statement:
The range provided is based on what we believe is a reasonable estimate for the base salary pay range for this job at the time of posting. This role is eligible for an annual bonus and annual equity awards. Some roles may also be eligible for overtime pay, in accordance with federal and state requirements. Actual base salary pay will be based on a number of factors, including skills, competencies, experience, and other job-related factors permitted by law.
At Vertex, our Total Rewards offerings also include inclusive market-leading benefits to meet our employees wherever they are in their career, financial, family and wellbeing journey while providing flexibility and resources to support their growth and aspirations. From medical, dental and vision benefits to generous paid time off (including a week-long company shutdown in the Summer and the Winter), educational assistance programs including student loan repayment, a generous commuting subsidy, matching charitable donations, 401(k) and so much more.
Flex Designation:
Hybrid-Eligible Or On-Site EligibleFlex Eligibility Status:
In this Hybrid-Eligible role, you can choose to be designated as:
1. Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week; or select
2. On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility.
Note: The Flex status for this position is subject to Vertex’s Policy on Flex @ Vertex Program and may be changed at any time.
#LI-Hybrid
Company Information
Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation.
Vertex is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a person's race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, or any characteristic protected under applicable law. Vertex is an E-Verify Employer in the United States. Vertex will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law.
Any applicant requiring an accommodation in connection with the hiring process and/or to perform the essential functions of the position for which the applicant has applied should make a request to the recruiter or hiring manager, or contact Talent Acquisition at [email protected]
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree
- Advanced degree (MBA, MS, PharmD, or equivalent)
- 12+ years in pharmaceutical or life sciences commercial roles with leadership in commercial training, sales enablement, or commercial excellence
- 5+ years of people leadership experience
- Demonstrated success leading commercial training in specialty or highly scientific therapeutic areas within a regulated environment
- Strong working knowledge of FDA regulations, promotional compliance, and industry standards
- Experience supporting specialty, rare disease, or complex portfolios
- Proven launch experience, including training for first-in-class or highly differentiated products
- Exposure to omnichannel, digital, or hybrid engagement models
- Experience working within global or matrixed organizations
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Vertex Pharmaceuticals and has not been reviewed or approved by Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
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Parental & Family Support — Policies provide 12 weeks of 100% paid bonding leave for all U.S. parents with additional fully paid time for birth parents. Family-forming supports include adoption and surrogacy assistance, fertility options like IVF and egg cryopreservation, breast‑milk shipping, subsidized childcare, backup care, and a DCFSA match.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off includes roughly four weeks of vacation, 13 holidays, sick time, and two companywide shutdowns (summer and year‑end). Some roles also include flexible or unlimited time off and paid volunteer time.
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Retirement Support — Programs include a 401(k) plan with employer contributions and an employee stock purchase plan. Filings describe employer contributions occurring in company stock, supporting long‑term ownership.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Insights
What We Do
Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for people with serious and life-threatening diseases. We discovered and developed the first medicines to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (CF), a rare, life-threatening genetic disease. In addition to clinical development programs in CF, Vertex has more than a dozen ongoing research programs focused on the underlying mechanisms of other serious diseases. Founded in 1989 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, our corporate headquarters is now located in Boston’s Innovation District, and our international headquarters is in London, United Kingdom. We currently employ approximately 3,500 people in the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and Latin America with nearly two-thirds of our staff dedicated to research and development. Vertex is consistently recognized as one of the industry’s top places to work by Science Magazine, The Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal and the San Diego Business Journal. Our research and medicines have also received esteemed recognitions, including the Robert J. Beall Therapeutics Development Award, the French Prix Galien and the British Pharmacological Society awards.
