Life Sciences Recruiters

Pharmaceutical commercial leadership, not clinical or device roles

Pharmaceutical companies approaching or managing a commercial launch need leadership with real payer-access, medical affairs, and sales experience — not a biotech clinical/regulatory hire or a medical-device product leader stretched into a commercial role they’ve never actually run.

I recruit pharmaceutical and life sciences commercial and go-to-market leadership: VP of Commercial, VP of Market Access, Director of Medical Affairs, and Director of Sales — direct-hire, sourced against real commercial-launch experience.

Roles I staff and place

VP of Commercial — leaders with real experience running a pharmaceutical commercial function through a specific product launch.

VP of Market Access — leaders evaluated against real payer-negotiation and access-strategy experience tied to a specific commercial launch.

Director of Medical Affairs — leaders with real experience bridging clinical and commercial functions at a pharmaceutical company.

Director of Sales — leaders with real pharmaceutical sales-team leadership experience at a national or regional footprint.

Featured roles

• VP of Commercial — for VC-funded pharmaceutical companies approaching a first commercial launch.
• VP of Market Access — for growth-stage pharmaceutical companies navigating payer strategy.
• Director of Medical Affairs — for pharmaceutical companies bridging clinical and commercial functions.
• Director of Sales — for pharmaceutical companies scaling a national sales footprint.

Pain patterns I see every quarter

Biotech clinical/regulatory hires get stretched into commercial roles they’ve never run. A VP of Clinical Development doesn’t automatically translate into a VP of Commercial who can run a product launch.

Market Access searches underweight real payer-negotiation experience. A candidate with general market-access exposure but no track record on a specific commercial launch faces a real credibility gap with payers.

Medical Affairs roles get filled by candidates who lean too clinical or too commercial. The role genuinely bridges both functions, and sourcing needs to reflect that specific bridge.

Pharmaceutical sales leadership searches ignore launch-stage context. What a Director of Sales needs to deliver at a pre-launch company looks very different from a company managing an established product line.

How I run the search

I start by mapping the company’s commercial launch stage, because that context defines what “qualified” actually means for the role. From there, sourcing runs against real pharmaceutical commercial-launch and payer-access experience specific to the company’s stage.

Competitive positioning (respectful)

Heidrick & Struggles / Korn Ferry / Spencer Stuart — built for retained C-suite search at large pharmaceutical company scale, not the commercial and go-to-market leadership searches most growth-stage pharmaceutical companies actually need filled at speed. Not a competing lane for this hub.

Cross-hub and next steps

For biotech executive, clinical, and regulatory leadership, see Biotech Recruiters. For medical device leadership, R&D, regulatory, and quality, see Medical Device Recruiters.

• Executive Search Agency
• C-Suite Recruiters

Schedule a 30-Minute Call with Dan — Calendly, dpoore@bluesignal.com, or 669-900-4504. That is the only conversion path.