Senior Director, Commercial Finance

At Achieve Life Sciences, we’re preparing for the potential commercial launch of cytisinicline and building the financial capabilities needed to support our next phase of growth. This is an opportunity to help shape commercial strategy, guide investment decisions, and establish the financial discipline needed to launch and scale an innovative treatment for people battling nicotine dependence.

Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, the Senior Director, Commercial Finance will serve as the senior finance partner to Achieve’s commercial leadership team. This individual will lead commercial planning, forecasting, performance reporting, and investment analysis, providing a clear, data-driven view of business performance and the return on commercial investments. Combining strategic advisory with hands-on financial rigor, this leader will help the organization allocate resources effectively, evaluate new programs, and make informed decisions as Achieve transitions toward commercialization.

What You’ll Do

Commercial Planning and Forecasting

- Lead commercial financial planning: Own the annual operating plan, long-range plan, and rolling forecasts across commercial functions, including revenue, gross-to-net, and commercial operating expenses.

- Develop revenue forecasts: Build and maintain driver-based models covering demand, prescriptions, pricing, payer mix, channel dynamics, and inventory.

- Translate strategy into financial plans: Convert commercial priorities into financial targets, resource plans, and budgets that support accountability and business performance.

- Inform strategic decisions: Conduct scenario and sensitivity analyses on key business drivers to support launch planning, pricing decisions, and commercial investment priorities.

Sales and Commercial Finance Partnership

- Advise commercial leadership: Serve as a trusted finance partner to commercial leaders, providing insights that connect business strategy, operating performance, and financial outcomes.

- Support sales force planning: Partner with Sales leadership on field force sizing, territory deployment, incentive compensation design, and quota setting.

- Guide functional investment decisions: Work with Marketing and Market Access to evaluate brand budgets, payer contracting economics, and patient support program costs.

- Optimize commercial spend: Constructively challenge assumptions, identify financial trade-offs, and recommend actions that maximize the return on commercial investment.

Performance Reporting and Analytics

- Deliver performance insights: Lead monthly and quarterly business reviews, including clear variance analysis against plan and forecast, key performance drivers, and recommended actions.

- Own commercial KPI reporting: Develop and maintain dashboards tracking revenue, demand, productivity, and spend efficiency.

- Prepare executive-level materials: Develop commercial financial analyses and presentations for executive leadership, the Board of Directors, and investor communications.

- Partner on financial close: Work with Accounting on commercial accruals, gross-to-net reserves, and month-end close activities for commercial cost centers.

Systems, Processes, and Controls

- Scale planning and reporting capabilities: Strengthen financial planning tools, data infrastructure, and reporting processes as the commercial organization grows.

- Improve commercial data integration: Partner with Commercial Operations and IT to integrate data across CRM, specialty pharmacy, claims, and syndicated data sources.

- Maintain financial discipline: Establish and reinforce spend controls, purchase approval processes, and adherence to company policies.

Commercial Program ROI and Investment Evaluation

- Establish a consistent ROI framework: Design and own a standardized approach to evaluating promotional, field, digital, patient support, payer, and HCP engagement programs.

- Define success measures: Partner with Marketing, Sales, and Commercial Analytics to establish baselines, success metrics, and attribution methods before programs launch.

- Measure program impact: Evaluate incremental effects on demand, new patient starts, persistence, and revenue using appropriate methods, including test-and-control, pre/post analysis, and marketing-mix approaches where applicable.

- Track performance against business cases: Compare actual program spending and outcomes with original assumptions, providing leadership with regular performance updates.

- Recommend investment adjustments: Identify opportunities to reallocate resources from lower-return activities to higher-return programs, including clear recommendations to scale, modify, or discontinue investments.

- Build business cases for new programs: Develop financial models for proposed commercial programs, vendors, and channel investments, assessing expected costs, revenue impact, payback periods, risks, and key assumptions.

- Implement stage-gate evaluation: Establish a process for launching new initiatives as pilots with defined success criteria, milestones, and decision points.

- Evaluate portfolio trade-offs: Compare new proposals against existing commercial investments so leadership can assess relative value and make informed resource allocation decisions.

What You’ll Bring

- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or a related field.

- 12+ years of progressive FP&A or commercial finance experience, including 5+ years in a leadership role.

- Direct experience supporting sales and commercial organizations, ideally within biopharma or life sciences.

- Proven track record developing ROI frameworks and business cases to evaluate commercial or marketing investments.

- Advanced financial modeling skills, including revenue forecasting, driver-based planning, and scenario analysis.

- Strong working knowledge of gross-to-net, payer dynamics, and commercial operating models.

- Excellent communication and presentation skills, including experience presenting financial analyses and recommendations to executive leadership teams and Boards.

- Strategic thinking and sound business judgment, with the ability to translate complex financial analyses into clear, actionable recommendations.

- Ability to balance hands-on analytical work with strategic partnership in a growing, evolving organization.

Preferred Qualifications

- MBA, CPA, or CFA.

- Experience supporting a U.S. product launch or a commercial organization during its early stages of growth.

- Familiarity with promotional response analysis, marketing-mix modeling, or test-and-control measurement methodologies.

- Hands-on experience with financial planning and business intelligence tools such as Adaptive, Anaplan, Power BI, or Tableau.

- Experience working with prescription, claims, and specialty pharmacy data.

Who We Are

At Achieve, we are committed to bringing medicines forward that contribute to a healthier world. Achieve is a specialty pharmaceutical company committed to advancing cytisinicline as a widely available treatment option to help people battling nicotine dependence.

If you enjoy working in a dynamic team environment and are passionate about making a difference, we invite you to apply. We strive to attract, develop, and retain highly qualified individuals representing the diverse communities we serve.

Compensation

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $260,000–$280,000 USD annually . This range represents a good-faith estimate of what Achieve reasonably expects to pay for this position at the time of hire. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including relevant experience, skills, qualifications, and internal equity. This position is also eligible for an annual target bonus and equity compensation as determined by the Company’s compensation committee.

Benefits

Achieve offers a comprehensive benefits package, which currently includes medical, dental, and vision insurance; a 401(k)-retirement plan; participation in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan; company-paid life insurance and short- and long-term disability coverage; and paid time off and paid company holidays.

Location & Travel

This is a remote position, and candidates may reside anywhere in the continental United States. This role may require travel of up to 10% for conferences and company meetings.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Achieve Life Sciences is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, please contact  [email protected] .

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