Associate Director, Commercial Strategy and Insights

Who We Are: MapLight Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotech company that focuses on drug discovery for central nervous system disorders. We combine cutting-edge technologies including optogenetics, in vivo physiology, and spatial transcriptomics to identify novel drug targets and develop effective therapies to address psychiatric symptoms.

What You’ll Do:

We are seeking a highly motivated Associate Director, Commercial Strategy and Insights to support the development and execution of commercial initiatives across our growing organization. This role will help build market research, forecasting, and competitive intelligence that inform launch planning, market opportunity assessments, and commercial strategy for our lead asset and broader pipeline. As the commercial function grows, the role is expected to evolve into a role on our Insights and Analytics team.

The Associate Director will work closely with Commercial Leadership, Marketing, Market Access, Medical Affairs, Sales, Finance, Business Development, and Clinical teams to inform data-driven strategies that maximize product value and support long-term company growth. The ideal candidate combines analytical rigor, strategic thinking, and strong cross-functional collaboration within a fast-paced pre-commercial biotech environment.

Responsibilities:

• Support market research, forecasting and analytics workstreams that inform integrated commercial strategies for our lead asset and pipeline products.
• Conduct market assessments, competitive analyses, and opportunity evaluations to inform strategic decision-making.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to define product positioning, target customer segments, and value propositions.

• Support commercial launch planning activities for new products and indications.
• Identify commercial risks, opportunities, and mitigation strategies throughout launch planning and execution.
• Assist in development of launch KPIs, performance metrics, and tracking dashboards.

• Monitor the market landscape, including lead and emerging competitors, payer trends, and congress data. Synthesize findings for senior leadership.
• Synthesize primary and secondary market research into actionable insights for commercial planning.
• Support development of executive presentations, strategic recommendations, and board materials.
• Analyze syndicated prescription, claims, and formulary data to identify trends that inform commercial planning

• Help drive alignment between corporate objectives and commercial execution plans.
• Build and maintain commercial forecasts, including patient-based and epidemiology-based models, and update assumptions as new data emerge.
• Develop and maintain reporting tools and dashboards to monitor key business metrics.
• Utilize data analytics to inform strategic recommendations and resource allocation decisions.
• Provide commercial input into Phase 3 design, target product profile, and label discussions in collaboration with Corporate Strategy, Regulatory, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs.
• Operate within pre-approval compliance requirements governing promotional activity, payer communications, and HCP interactions.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Life Sciences, Economics, Marketing, or related field required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years of experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare consulting, commercial strategy, or related function.
• Experience in commercial planning, market research, forecasting, or analytics within biotech or specialty pharmaceutical environments. Pre-launch or first commercial launch experience preferred. CNS, psychiatry, or specialty neuroscience therapeutic exposure preferred.

• Strong strategic thinking and analytical problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with ability to influence stakeholders at multiple levels.
• Experience conducting market analysis, forecasting, and competitive intelligence.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint; familiarity with commercial analytics and visualization tools preferred.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic, fast-paced pre-commercial environment.
• Strong collaboration and cross-functional leadership capabilities.
• Background in launch excellence, market access strategy, or commercial operations.
• Experience working with syndicated pharmaceutical datasets and conducting market research.
• Familiarity with CRM platforms, forecasting tools, and business intelligence systems.
• Working knowledge of pre-approval promotional and compliance regulations.

Location:

This is a hybrid role on-site 3 days per week in our offices in Redwood City, CA or Burlington, MA.

Travel:

Ability to travel as needed (up to 20%) for corporate and department-wide meetings.

EEOC Statement: MapLight Therapeutics is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.