Director, Strategic Program Management

About Pear Therapeutics

Pear Therapeutics is the leader in prescription digital therapeutics.

We aim to redefine medicine by discovering, developing, and delivering clinically validated software-based therapeutics to provide better outcomes for patients, smarter engagement and tracking tools for clinicians, and cost-effective solutions for payers.

Pear has a pipeline of products and product candidates across therapeutic areas, including severe psychiatric and neurological conditions.

Our first product, reSET®, treats Substance Use Disorder and was the first prescription digital therapeutic to receive marketing authorization from the FDA to treat disease.

Pear’s second product, reSET-O®, for the treatment of Opioid Use Disorder, received marketing clearance from the FDA in December 2018.

Pear’s third PDT, Somryst®, is the first FDA-authorized prescription digital therapeutic (PDT) for patients with chronic insomnia and the first product submitted through FDA’s traditional 510(k) pathway while simultaneously reviewed through FDA’s Software Precertification Pilot Program.

Pear’s cross-functional program teams work together to advance PDT and platform offerings from concepting through commercialization.

Program leads work with cross-functional leadership to oversee integrated product/clinical development and business strategy execution for each offering throughout its lifecycle; each program team is responsible for maximizing the value of its asset.

Program teams bring together leaders from Product Development, Commercial, Clinical/Medical/ Regulatory/Quality and G&A.

The Program and Portfolio Management team reports to the VP of Portfolio Management, in the product development organization: close alignment between each program and product development leadership is critical to continued innovation.

In addition to overseeing programs from Discovery through Commercialization, the team is also responsible for strategic planning and portfolio management, supporting effective decision making across Pear through quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Lastly, the team is responsible for the evolution of Pear’s Therapeutic Development Process (TDP), which blends the traditional R&D processes seen in biopharma, with best practices in medical device controls and agile software development processes that embrace continuous learning/iteration and user-centered design. 

What you’ll do

The Director, Strategic Program Management will serve as the cross-functional leader of a range of strategic initiatives ranging from new pipeline programs (straddling the intersection of product and clinical development) to launch excellence to the evolution of our technical assets.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead a range of cross functional program teams to drive business value for Pear.

  This involves five core responsibilities:

• Lead collaborative, cross functional program teams to realize business objectives across our pipeline assets, commercial product lines, customer (patient and provider) experience initiatives and Pear’s platform and technical assets
• Translate strategy and objectives into clear execution activities for the cross functional team and ensure aligned cross functional execution
• Lead each program in navigating business shifts, driving prioritization and investment decision making to maximize value creation, proactively identifying risks and defining effective mitigation strategies for team execution.
• Enable long term growth by defining and managing integrated product and clinical development plans for lifecycle management opportunities.
• Work with Pear shared services and customer success teams to ensure best-in-class PDT experiences for patients and providers
• Lead operating reviews and represent program progress to the Pear Management Team (C-level and VP-level) and external stakeholders.
• As part of the Portfolio Management team, drive portfolio/investment reviews and drive routine improvements to Pear operating mechanisms to ensure operational efficiency.
• Ensure a smooth flow of business context and stakeholder needs within the product development organization and across Pear.

What you have

• Masters degree or above in either business administration, software engineering or hard sciences, or bachelor’s degree with equivalent experience
• At least 5 years of senior level cross-functional team leadership (in industry or consulting), with an impeccable track record for building high performance teams, leading through influence rather than authority, ensuring team alignment, driving team communications and incorporating knowledge from multiple functional domains.

  Ideal candidates will have independently driven high-stakes development projects to completion in other organizations 

• At least 5 years of career strategic program management experience, with the demonstrated ability to manage complex delivery timelines, identify and mitigate risks, and resolve interdependencies.

  Ideally, experience in advancing a therapeutic or medical device through a development process that involves coordinating multiple functions

• Experience in forecasting, business case development and decision analysis
• A background in software development, life sciences or medical device
• Career history that illustrates your ability to come up quickly on new, diverse domains
• At least some familiarity with regulatory issues around therapeutics, and software as a medical device (including 21CFR part 820)
• You must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to your start date, and must remain fully vaccinated throughout employment, including receipt of booster doses as recommended by federal, state, and/or local health authorities, unless an accommodation is granted by Pear for medical or religious reasons in accordance with applicable law.

Skills & Approach

• A low ego, entrepreneurial mindset, and healthy sense of humor 
• Strategic mindset coupled with a drive for execution — you thrive on being the bridge between business needs and technology plans, and with moving the team forward
• A knack for quickly distilling complex information into potential solutions and effectively communicating to diverse stakeholders
• A bias toward value based decision making vs.

  advocating for any one activity or department

• An ability to see ambiguity as a fun challenge, not a rate limiter
• Results-oriented and fast-paced
• A keen nose for risk, ability to flag early, and open mind for creative solutions to ensure program success
• Strong intuition for how to communicate to diverse audiences, whether it’s a team, the wider company, end users, partners, the press, etc.
• Exceptional influencing and stakeholder management experience under pressure
  – ideal candidates would have experience managing high-stakes external partnerships or major internal initiatives with successful outcomes
• Exemplary written and verbal communication skills
  – able to produce board-level communication with minimal guidance
• Proven capability to balance multiple projects, deadlines, and requests with ease

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Pear Therapeutics is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion or religious creed, ancestry, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, genetic information, qualified physical or mental disability or handicap, medical condition, qualified military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

Pear Therapeutics also follows all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfers, leave of absences, compensation and training.