Chief Pharmacy Buyer

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Job Band G2 

Position Summary

The Chief Pharmacy Buyer is responsible for overseeing and optimizing drug procurement practices across Duke Health System’s hospitals, infusion centers, ambulatory surgical centers, and retail pharmacies. This role ensures purchasing alignment, cost containment, waste reduction, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency across the entire health system. The position also serves as the primary super-user for Duke Health’s drug purchasing cost containment software to maximize financial savings and purchasing efficiency.

Duties and Responsibilities

PHARMACY BUYER SUPPORT, TRAINING, & SUPERVISION: (40%)

• Lead and support pharmacy buyers across DUHS, including hospitals, infusion centers, ambulatory surgical centers, retail pharmacies, and clinics, both on-site and virtually, with a primary focus on optimizing drug purchasing practices.  Support will include guidance related to

• • Drug order placement
  • Maintaining a high level of compliance with regard to purchasing of GPO preferred drugs
  • Strategic selection of alternative products when GPO preferred products are unavailable
  • Managing of backorders and drop ship orders
  • Generating purchase orders
  • Delivery tracking
  • Implementation of spend-reduction opportunities

• Lead onboarding and training for new pharmacy buyers.  Create standardized training for all pharmacy buyers to align drug purchasing operations across all Duke Health System entities, ensuring adherence to the formulary, purchasing policies, GPO compliance, and cost-saving strategies.

• Collaborate with existing on-site pharmacy buyer supervisors to provide input on buyer performance for midpoint and year-end evaluations, specific to drug purchasing responsibilities, while also ensuring that non-purchasing duties of the pharmacy buyers remain under the supervision of their existing supervisors.

COST CONTAINMENT SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT (40%)

• Serve as the DUHS super-user of cost containment software to ensure that the health system realizes the maximum saving in drug spend by:
  • Identifying drug purchasing cost-saving opportunities across the health system and providing monthly recommendations of identified savings opportunities to pharmacy leadership for evaluation.
  • Ensuring appropriate implementation by pharmacy buyers of savings opportunities approved by pharmacy leadership.
  • Assist with data reporting and performance monitoring with leadership.

GPO COMPLIANCE (5%)

• Monitor pharmacy buyer purchasing practices to ensure compliance with GPO contracts in order to realize the maximize rebate incentives.  

REVERSE DISTRIBUTION OPTIMIZATION (5%)

• Leverage the reverse distributor vendor's online reporting platform to minimize the volume of expired drugs by 
  • Monitoring drug expiration and waste trends
  • Identifying drugs that expire frequently
  • Working with pharmacy buyers to optimize par levels in pharmacy inventory systems based on data analytics and usage trends
  • Maximizing financial credits for expired drugs
  • Collaborating with pharmacy buyers to implement targeted waste reduction strategies

340B PROGRAM COMPLIANCE (5%)

• Collaborate with the Pharmacy 340B team as needed to ensure pharmacy buyer practices maintain 340B program compliance.

Required Qualifications

Education

A bachelor's degree in a business, Healthcare Administration, Pharmacy, or health-related field is required.

Active certification through the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board(PTCB) as a certified pharmacy technician(CPhT) is preferred. 

Experience

• Minimum of 5 years work experience, including 3 years of experience with significant responsibility for performance/ process improvement. Experience leading work teams is required.  6 months of experience working as a pharmacy buyer - preferred
• Proficiency with pharmacy procurement software and Microsoft Office tools. 
• Experience can be supplemented with Master's degree with a Masters being equivalent to two years of experience.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Extensive knowledge of pharmaceutical purchasing and supply chain operations, including the ability to evaluate pricing, demand, and supplier performance using cost containment software and other tools.
• Ability to make decisions independently by applying appropriate critical thinking and problem-solving to a variety of situations. 
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to accurately and simultaneously manage significant amounts of detail.
• Experience with maintaining GPO and 340B compliance.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills. 
• Ability to provide leadership, training, support, and strategic oversight to DUHS pharmacy buyers.

Duke is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy related conditions), sexual orientation or military status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends onthe robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions: Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essential job functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.