Nearly 37 million Americans are currently affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. 37 million.

At Akebia we take that number very seriously and every day we come to work, with the purpose of bettering the lives of each person impacted by kidney disease and the renal community that serves them. Our tenacious, passionate employees challenge the status quo and work to develop unique therapeutics that have the potential to set new standards of care for people living with kidney disease.

This is life-changing work, and we are all in, are you?

We are currently expanding our Alliance Management Team and seeking qualified candidates to support the management and optimization of Akebia’s strategic alliances with industry partners. This will require strategic relationship management, creative problem solving, and thorough diligence. The Alliance Manager will work closely with Program Management, SMEs from various functions, and senior management, to support Akebia’s existing global alliances, through multiple stages of development through commercialization. This position will also help kick-off new alliances, including launch and commercialization of vadadustat in Europe. This position will report to the Head of Alliance Management.

Key Responsibilities

• Ensure that key goals for alliances are achieved with partners
• Handle day-to-day communications and follow up on action items for alliance
• Coordinate and prepare key meeting agendas, presentations, meeting minutes/actions along with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure successful team meetings and governance committee meetings with partners
• Identify conflicts and issues as they arise internally, or as a result of partner interactions, and works diligently with relevant stakeholders to formulate a strategy and drive resolution process in a timely manner; escalating, where appropriate
• Build and maintain relationships with Akebia stakeholders from each functional area (i.e. CMC, regulatory, legal, medical affairs, commercial)
• Build expertise about partner company, including key contacts, company organization/ leadership, supply forecasts, financials and strategic priorities
• Become an internal expert on partner contracts and facilitate contract/partner related questions with appropriate internal stakeholders
• Facilitate ancillary agreements and contract amendments with internal stakeholders and partners
• Prepare contractual deliverables such as quarterly reports, development plans, commercial launch plans, etc.
• Assist in business development initiatives, as needed

Required Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum of five years in biopharma and/or industry consulting
• Understanding of the drug development to market approval process
• Strong leadership and self-direction, high-capacity for learning quickly
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with strong ability to build and communicate business rationale.

• Comfortable operating at all levels of the organization. Ability to lead via influence vs. line authority
• Experience working directly with partners or third parties and demonstrated interpersonal communication skills with the ability to develop and manage relationships/partnerships
• Ability to apply good judgment and lead problem solving within the team
• Ability and desire to work in biopharma: Small teams, fast-paced, fast-changing environment.

• Enjoy working in cross-functional teams
• Excellent PowerPoint and Excel skills
• Ability to work with global colleagues in different time zones across regions, as needed

Preferred Skills and Background

• MS or PHD in a life sciences-related field
• Previous experience in alliance management or business development
• Experience in renal a plus (but not a requirement)

• Experience reading and synthesizing complicated legal agreements.

Are you an Akebian?

An Akebian is curious, empathetic, and values making connections to people and ideas. Akebian’s aren’t afraid of diving in and owning a process or a problem, because we all want to deliver a great solution. Akebian’s believe that we are better together because we are all working toward a common purpose – to better the life of each person impacted by kidney disease. Want to learn more about what it means to be an Akebian? Visit our website: www.akebia.com

COVID 19 Vaccination: All Akebia new hires will be required to provide documentation that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or, if not, that they are legally entitled to an accommodation due to a medical condition or a sincerely held religious belief. Requests for accommodation will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and Akebia will consider, among other things whether a proposed accommodation would create an undue hardship. Please note that it is unlikely that accommodations can be granted for customer-facing positions.

Akebia is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all job applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.