Director, Grant Revenue and Supporter Relations [Remote]

Visionary Medical Education is an accredited independent medical education provider, delivering ACCME and COPE-compliant continuing education to optometrists and ophthalmologists across the United States. Through our relationship with publishers like Eyes On Eyecare, our programs reach tens of thousands of doctors each year and influence the care delivered to millions of patients. We are building the grant funding infrastructure that will sustain the next generation of high-quality ophthalmic education.

About the Role

The Director, Grant Revenue and Supporter Relations, leads the grant funding function for our independent medical education programs. You are accountable for the volume and quality of our grant pipeline, the strength of our relationships with commercial supporters, and the strategic positioning of our programs within the ophthalmic education landscape.

This is a relationship-driven role grounded in clinical and educational substance. You will work closely with our clinical and content teams to develop educational concepts that address documented practice gaps in eyecare, and you will represent those concepts to Medical Affairs and IME teams at pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

This role sits within an accredited education function and operates under strict compliance. Educational content, faculty selection, and learning objectives are determined independently of commercial supporters. You will maintain the firewall between promotional activity and accredited education in every interaction you have with industry, and you will build trust with Medical Affairs teams precisely because you understand and respect that boundary.

Key Responsibilities

Supporter Relationships and Pipeline Development

• Develop and maintain a portfolio of relationships with IME grant contacts and Medical Affairs teams at pharmaceutical and medical device companies active in eyecare
• Proactively identify and pursue new supporter relationships in underserved therapeutic categories across anterior segment, retina, glaucoma, dry eye, refractive, and emerging areas.
• Track RFP cycles, therapeutic area priorities, and grant calendars across the ophthalmic supporter landscape so VME can submit timely, well-aligned proposals.
• Represent VME at industry conferences, IME grant summits, and Medical Affairs meetings.
• Serve as the primary safeguard of educational independence, ensuring every funder interaction complies with ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence and applicable COPE requirements.

Grant Strategy, Development, and Submission

• Lead the development of high-quality, compliant, and strategically differentiated grant proposals and letters of request.
• Translate therapeutic area intelligence and audience insights into needs assessments that document urgent clinical practice gaps in eyecare.
• Align proposal narrative, educational design, and outcomes strategy for each submission in partnership with the Director, Clinical Education.
• Build and manage a scalable submission pipeline 
• Manage timelines and deadlines across major grant portals
• Refine templates, messaging frameworks, and win-rate measurement on a continuous basis.

Cross-Functional and Strategic Leadership

• Partner with the Director, Clinical Education to develop educational concepts grounded in clinical credibility and educational rigor.
• Collaborate with partner organizations, content, events, and clinical teams to ensure VME programming addresses identified practice gaps in therapeutic areas of clinical importance to the field.
• Provide quarterly pipeline forecasts and retrospective win and loss analysis to executive leadership.
• Build and maintain grant tracking systems with full pipeline visibility across therapeutic categories.
• Establish internal rhythms across the full grant cycle, from concept ideation through proposal development, submission, award, reporting, and renewal.

Who This Role Is For

This role is the right fit if you:

• Take ownership of a funding goal and treat the pipeline as your responsibility, not something that happens to you.
• Proactively seek out new supporter relationships and new funding opportunities rather than waiting for inbound RFPs to surface.
• Build trust with Medical Affairs and IME teams over time through credibility, follow-through, and clinical substance.
• Hold a strong working understanding of ACCME and COPE compliance and view educational independence as a feature of the work, not a constraint.
• Move comfortably between strategic thinking, written proposal development, and in-person relationship building.
• Travel regularly to industry conferences, IME summits, and Medical Affairs meetings.

Who This Role Is Not For

This role is not the right fit if you:

• Prefer administrative grant writing without strategic ownership or accountability for funding outcomes.
• Are uncomfortable being measured against a pipeline target or funding goal.
• Avoid travel, in-person relationship building, or industry conference attendance.
• Find it difficult to hold commercial awareness and strict educational compliance in the same role.
• Need a highly structured environment with established playbooks and detailed instructions.
• Want predictable, repetitive work rather than evolving strategy tied to a shifting therapeutic landscape.

Required Qualifications

• Must be a resident of one of the following states: CA, CO, CT, FL, IL, KS, KY, MA, MN, MO, NC, NJ, NV, OH, PA, RI, SC, TX, UT, and WA.
• 7 or more years of experience in IME or CME grant development, pharmaceutical Medical Affairs, MedComm agency account management, or a related role within the healthcare education ecosystem.
• Demonstrated track record of securing educational grant funding from pharmaceutical or medical device supporters.
• Strong working knowledge of ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence and familiarity with COPE compliance frameworks.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent RFP cycles, grant submissions, and renewal timelines.
• Established relationships with Medical Affairs or IME grant teams at pharmaceutical or device companies.
• Strong executive-level written and verbal communication.
• Comfortable operating in fast-paced, entrepreneurial environments with modern technology and project management tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Existing relationships with ophthalmology or optometry-focused pharmaceutical or device grant teams.
• Experience at a MedComm or MedEd agencies with similar or overlapping relationships
• Familiarity with grant portals including Granvia, ProEd Connect, and company-specific IME submission systems.
• Track record of improving proposal win rates through messaging or positioning refinement.
• Direct experience working in ophthalmology, optometry, or adjacent visual health therapeutic areas.

Why Visionary Medical Education

• You will work alongside a team that takes clinical education, technology, and industry partnership seriously.
• Compensation includes a competitive base salary and a performance-based incentive structure that rewards strong pipeline development and overall program outcomes, structured in a manner consistent with ACCME requirements for educational independence.
• Remote-flexible role with a collaborative, entrepreneurial culture.
• Meaningful impact: the programs you help fund improve clinical care for patients seen by the eyecare professionals we educate.