Commercial Operations Manager in Tucson, Arizona at SYNCARDIA SYSTEMS LLC

We are seeking an experienced Commercial Operations Manager to lead and coordinate the commercial activities required to successfully support our customers, hospital partners, and patients.

This position will have broad responsibility across sales, reimbursement and patient access, hospital contracting, clinical support, commercial logistics, forecasting, and customer development. The Commercial Operations Manager will work closely with Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and Operations to ensure product availability and commercial readiness.

The role serves as the operational link between the commercial organization and the functions required to successfully execute patient cases. The Commercial Operations Manager is responsible for helping move opportunities from initial physician and hospital engagement through reimbursement authorization, contracting, product availability, clinical support, delivery, and post-case follow-up.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can both manage people and personally drive execution in a complex medical-device environment.

Commercial & Sales Leadership

• Manage and support the day-to-day activities of the commercial and sales organization.
• Establish clear priorities, expectations, and accountability across commercial activities.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with physicians, hospitals, transplant programs, advanced heart-failure programs, and other key customers.
• Maintain visibility into the commercial pipeline, prospective patient cases, customer activity, and barriers to utilization.
• Drive disciplined follow-up on commercial opportunities and ensure appropriate internal resources are engaged.
• Coordinate activity across Sales, Clinical, Reimbursement, Contracting, Logistics, Manufacturing, and Operations.
• Support achievement of revenue, utilization, and broader commercial objectives.
• Assist senior leadership with commercial planning, forecasting, and execution.

Customer & Center Development

• Develop structured plans for engaging existing and prospective hospital programs.
• Support development and expansion of strategic Centers of Excellence and other high-potential accounts.
• Identify barriers preventing centers from initiating or increasing utilization and coordinate internal resources to address them.
• Maintain consistent engagement with active, inactive, and prospective centers.
• Work with physicians and hospital stakeholders to understand clinical, operational, financial, reimbursement, training, and contracting requirements.
• Support reactivation of centers that are trained or previously active but are not currently utilizing products.
• Ensure new centers progress from initial interest through contracting, training, operational readiness, and patient support.

Reimbursement & Patient Access

• Lead reimbursement activities associated with prospective patient cases.
• Work directly with commercial insurance providers, government payers as applicable, hospital reimbursement teams, case managers, and other stakeholders.
• Coordinate coverage verification, prior authorization, medical-necessity documentation, and supporting reimbursement activities.
• Identify reimbursement barriers that may delay or prevent patient treatment and coordinate escalation when necessary.
• Maintain visibility into reimbursement status for active patient opportunities.
• Serve as a knowledgeable commercial resource to hospitals navigating patient-access and reimbursement requirements.
• Hospital Contracting & Market Access
• Coordinate with hospital contracting, purchasing, supply-chain, value-analysis, finance, and administrative teams as required.
• Support new hospital agreements and updates to existing commercial arrangements.
• Track contracting activity and identify issues that could delay product adoption or patient cases.
• Ensure contracting, reimbursement, training, product availability, and clinical readiness are appropriately coordinated before anticipated cases.
• Work cross-functionally to resolve administrative barriers to utilization.

Clinical Support & Case Coordination

• Coordinate clinical resources required to support hospitals and patient cases.
• Ensure appropriate communication between Sales, Clinical, Operations, and hospital teams before scheduled cases.
• Maintain visibility into anticipated cases and resource requirements.
• Support appropriate clinical training and ongoing customer education in coordination with qualified clinical personnel.
• Ensure post-case follow-up occurs and outstanding customer needs are addressed.
• Product Availability, Manufacturing & Supply Planning
• Work closely with Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations to ensure product availability aligns with forecasted demand and anticipated patient cases.
• Translate commercial forecasts and anticipated utilization into useful information for production and inventory planning.
• Maintain visibility into finished goods, critical accessories, service parts, equipment, and other items necessary to support commercial activity.
• Identify potential product shortages, manufacturing constraints, or supply risks that could affect customers or patient cases.
• Coordinate mitigation and escalation when product availability could affect commercial commitments.
• Ensure customer commitments are aligned with actual product availability and operational capacity.
• Provide commercial input into product planning and communicate field needs and customer feedback to Engineering and Operations.

Commercial Logistics & Service Continuity

• Coordinate logistics associated with product placement, patient cases, customer support, and commercial equipment.
• Ensure necessary products, accessories, equipment, and service items are available when required.
• Maintain visibility into customer-installed equipment and associated commercial support requirements.
• Coordinate with Operations and Supply Chain to resolve urgent logistical issues.
• Support continuity of customer operations by anticipating service, equipment, and product needs.
• Recurring Revenue & Installed-Base Development
• Help maximize the commercial value of the existing customer and installed base.
• Develop plans to increase appropriate utilization of existing products and supporting systems.
• Work with customers and internal teams to identify opportunities associated with Freedom Driver, Companion 2, service, accessories, replacement components, and other recurring commercial requirements.
• Maintain visibility into equipment utilization, customer needs, and opportunities for incremental commercial activity.
• Balance new-account development with growth and retention of existing customers.

Forecasting, KPIs & Commercial Discipline

• Maintain a reliable commercial forecast incorporating active opportunities, anticipated cases, reimbursement status, contracting status, product availability, and other material barriers.
• Develop and maintain appropriate commercial dashboards and operating metrics.
• Monitor indicators such as pipeline activity, center engagement, case progression, account activation, product utilization, revenue, and forecast accuracy.
• Establish regular commercial operating reviews with clear actions, owners, and follow-up.
• Provide senior leadership with concise visibility into commercial opportunities, risks, constraints, and priorities.
• Use data and customer activity to focus resources on opportunities with the greatest potential clinical and commercial impact.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as a key connection between the commercial organization and Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Regulatory, Supply Chain, Finance, and Operations.
• Communicate customer demand and field requirements clearly throughout the organization.
• Escalate obstacles that could affect patient access, product availability, customer satisfaction, or revenue.
• Drive cross-functional resolution rather than allowing opportunities to stall between departments.
• Represent the customer's operational needs internally while ensuring commercial commitments remain realistic and executable.
  

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Demonstrated experience in the medical-device, cardiovascular, transplant, mechanical circulatory support, hospital, or other complex healthcare environment.
• Experience working with healthcare reimbursement, insurance authorization, patient access, or related payer processes.
• Experience working with hospital contracting, purchasing, supply-chain, or administrative organizations.
• Experience managing or coordinating multidisciplinary commercial teams or activities.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple high-priority customer or patient-related activities simultaneously.
• Strong communication, organizational, problem-solving, and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to work effectively across Sales, Clinical, Operations, Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality, Regulatory, and Finance.
• Ability to operate effectively in a hands-on environment where priorities can change quickly and successful execution requires active cross-functional coordination.
• Ability to travel as required to support customers and commercial activities.

Preferred

• Experience in cardiovascular medical devices, mechanical circulatory support, heart failure, transplant, or other life-sustaining medical technologies.
• Experience working directly with major hospitals, transplant centers, or advanced heart-failure programs.
• Experience managing commercial teams that include a combination of sales, clinical, reimbursement, and operational responsibilities.
• Experience with capital equipment combined with disposable, service, accessory, or other recurring-revenue streams.
• Experience forecasting demand and coordinating requirements with manufacturing or supply-chain organizations.
• Familiarity with products requiring significant clinical training and ongoing hospital support.
• Leadership Profile

The successful candidate will be:

• Execution-oriented: Converts commercial opportunities into concrete actions and results.
• Patient-focused: Understands that commercial execution directly affects hospitals' ability to treat patients.
• Accountable: Takes ownership of problems that cross organizational boundaries rather than simply handing them to another department.
• Commercially disciplined: Uses forecasting, pipeline management, metrics, and systematic follow-up to drive results.
• Cross-functional: Can effectively work with physicians, sales representatives, engineers, manufacturing personnel, reimbursement professionals, hospital administrators, and executives.
• Hands-on: Comfortable personally working through reimbursement, contracting, logistics, or customer problems when necessary.
• Calm under pressure: Can handle urgent patient and customer requirements without losing structure or accountability.
• Growth-oriented: Looks beyond individual cases to build sustainable center utilization, customer relationships, recurring revenue, and long-term commercial growth.