Vice President, IT - GPS&O

Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Dublin, Ireland, Ionis has been at work for more than three decades discovering medical breakthroughs that have redefined life for people with serious diseases. We’re pioneers in RNA-targeted medicines, and our platform continues to revolutionize drug discovery and transform lives for patients with unmet needs.  With multiple marketed medicines and a leading pipeline in neurology, cardiology and select areas of high patient needs, we continue to drive innovation in RNA therapies in addition to advancing new approaches in gene editing to provide greater value to patients and are well positioned financially to deliver on our strategic goals.

At Ionis, we pride ourselves on cultivating a challenging, motivating and rewarding environment that fosters innovation and scientific excellence. We know that our success is a direct result of the exceptional talents and dedication of our employees. 

With an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of human health, we look to add diverse individuals, skill sets and perspectives to our exceptional team. We continue to invest time, money and energy into making our onsite, hybrid and remote work environments a place where solid and lasting relationships are built and where our culture and employees can thrive. 

We’re building on our rich history, and we believe our greatest achievements are ahead of us. If you’re passionate about the opportunity to have meaningful impact on patients in need, we invite you to apply and join us. Experience and contribute to our unique culture while you develop and expand your career!

VICE PRESIDENT, IT - GLOBAL PRODUCT STRATEGY & OPERATIONS (GPS&O)

SUMMARY

The Vice President, Information Technology – GPS&O will serve as the senior technology partner to GPS&O, translating business priorities into an integrated, multi-year technology roadmap spanning customer engagement, field operations, patient services, market access, medical affairs, digital capabilities, insights and analytics, and launch readiness. 

The successful candidate will be an enterprise-minded, commercially oriented technology leader who is equally comfortable shaping strategy and driving execution. This individual will combine strategic agility, operational rigor, product and platform leadership, data and analytics fluency, and people leadership with intellectual curiosity and an innovative problem-solving mindset. The leader will anticipate future capability needs, challenge conventional thinking, and apply AI and other advanced technologies where they can create measurable value in a regulated environment. This person will build trusted relationships and strong teams, exercise sound judgment about when to standardize and when to move quickly, and translate technology investments into practical, scalable, and sustainable business outcomes.

WHY THIS OPPORTUNITY 

• Opportunity to launch new medicines, scale marketed products and shape the technology capabilities supporting Ionis’ next stage of commercialization.
• Direct accountability for meaningful innovation across data and AI, moving high-value ideas beyond pilots into scalable business use and measurable results.
• Visible enterprise impact across Commercial, Medical Affairs, Insights and Analytics, Product Planning, Patient Services, and other launch-critical functions.
• A dynamic, lean, and faster-moving environment where a strong leader can implement change, demonstrate value, and materially influence the team, operating model, and how the organization grows.
• Strong company fundamentals, including significant financial resources, a first-to-market product with substantial commercial potential, and a productive RNA-targeted platform generating wholly owned and partnered assets.
• Important neurology milestones and additional potential launches ahead, creating sustained opportunities to support patients and contribute to Ionis’ long-term growth.

RESPONSIBILITIES 

Business and Technology Strategy  

• Serve as the accountable technology executive for the commercial and medical organization, translating business priorities into a clear technology vision, roadmap, and investment plan.
• Advise senior leaders on opportunities, tradeoffs, risks, and emerging capability needs while balancing speed, scalability, compliance, security, cost, and resilience.
• Own portfolio governance and prioritization, including investment decisions, resource allocation, sequencing, dependencies, and escalation of material risks.
• Anticipate future launch demands, organizational changes, and capability gaps, taking action before they become execution or business risks.

Technology Portfolio and Operating Model  

• Lead strategy, delivery, support, reliability, and continuous improvement of technology supporting CRM and field operations, omnichannel engagement, digital experiences, patient services, market access, medical affairs, data products, analytics, and other business-critical capabilities.
• Ensure technology readiness for new product launches, field expansion, lifecycle growth, and evolving customer and patient engagement models.
• Establish a product-oriented operating model with clear ownership, decision rights, performance measures, and scalable ways of working across internal teams, platforms, and external partners.
• Set architecture and integration principles that reduce one-off solutions, increase reuse, accelerate delivery, and strengthen long-term scalability and resilience.

Data and AI  

• Define the vision and priorities for commercial data and AI, aligning investments with business strategy and enterprise standards for architecture, security, privacy, compliance, and responsible use.
• Partner with business leaders to identify complex problems that can be addressed differently through AI, advanced analytics, automation, and other emerging technologies.
• Challenge traditional approaches and introduce innovative, scalable solutions that improve customer insights, field productivity, patient support, market access, forecasting, omnichannel engagement, and decision-making.
• Build the data foundations, governance, platforms, partnerships, and organizational capabilities required to support trusted and responsible AI adoption.
• Evaluate emerging technologies pragmatically, distinguishing meaningful business opportunities from experimentation without clear value.
• Establish measurable outcomes for AI and data investments and ensure successful solutions move beyond pilots into sustained business use.

Operational Excellence and Launch Readiness  

• Establish disciplined portfolio governance, delivery standards, production readiness, service reliability, and executive visibility into portfolio health, launch risk, and critical decisions.
• Hold internal teams and strategic partners accountable for ownership, milestones, dependency management, issue resolution, risk mitigation, and measurable outcomes.
• Provide executive oversight of critical implementation partners, platform providers, service levels, commercial commitments, and remediation of significant performance issues.
• Lead integrated technology readiness for launches and major programs, including planning, testing, data and system readiness, user readiness, cutover, stabilization, and business continuity.

Organization and Talent Leadership  

• Design and lead a high-performing Commercial IT organization through senior leaders and functional owners with clear accountability for business outcomes.
• Build capabilities across business engagement, product management, delivery, architecture, data and analytics, operations, and vendor management.
• Develop leadership depth through active coaching, succession planning, talent development, and thoughtful workforce planning.
• Foster a culture of urgency, ownership, collaboration, innovation, and disciplined execution appropriate to a regulated environment.

REQUIREMENTS  

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• 15+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, including senior accountability for a major business, functional, or enterprise technology portfolio in life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, or another comparably regulated industry.
• Demonstrated success setting and executing technology strategy, multi-year roadmaps, investment priorities, budgets, architecture, risk management, and measurable business outcomes.
• Significant experience leading complex applications, platforms, data, analytics, digital, automation, and AI portfolios supporting customer-facing or business-critical functions.
• Relevant experience across several commercial life sciences domains, such as commercial operations, patient services, market access, medical affairs, field operations, omnichannel engagement, or launch readiness. Experience across every domain is not required.
• Proven success supporting product launches, business transformation, rapid growth, and post-launch scaling in a commercial life sciences environment.
• Experience leading through senior leaders and cross-functional teams, building organizational capability, and creating clear accountability for results.
• Executive-level fluency in governance, information security, privacy, data integrity, business continuity, regulated processes, third-party risk, and technology risk.
• Strong executive presence and the ability to influence senior stakeholders, resolve competing priorities, and communicate complex technology choices in clear business terms.
• Demonstrated success applying AI, advanced analytics, automation, or other emerging technologies to solve complex business problems and deliver measurable outcomes.
• Experience moving innovative solutions from concept or pilot into scalable, governed, and sustained business use. 

Please visit our website, http://www.ionis.com for more information about Ionis and to apply for this position; reference requisition #IONIS004118

Ionis offers an excellent benefits package! Follow this link for more details: Ionis Benefits

Full Benefits Link: https://ionis.com/careers#:~:text=Highly%20competitive%20benefits

The pay scale for this position is $310,000 to $345,000

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. PRINCIPALS ONLY.

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and all its subsidiaries are proud to be EEO employers.