Senior Corporate Development and External Innovation Manager

The Opportunity

insitro is changing the way that drugs are discovered and developed for patients. We are building a platform that generates novel insights from applying machine learning to a combination of high-quality cellular data, generated in-house, and externally sourced human cohort data.

Working together on this exciting mission is a cross-functional team. We include: life scientists, statistical geneticists, computer vision experts, genomics scientists, medical scientists, and software and machine learning engineers. All of these teams may require, or benefit from, partnerships with external entities.

The Senior Corporate Development and External Innovation Manager will firstly be responsible for deeply understanding key insitro science teams and leaders, and their objectives, challenges and opportunities. Based on this analysis, you will then consider how partnerships or external technology solutions could help remove impediments and improve the cost, quality, or speed of core workflows.

This work will span the entire drug discovery process: from the earliest stages of biology discovery to uncover novel target insights, which is a key focus for insitro, through to the optimum way to use these insights to deliver therapies to patients in need. This could be via our own drug discovery programs or other options, such as in-licensing existing therapeutic assets.

You will be responsible for prioritizing the resulting range of partner engagements and working on a cross-functional basis to drive them efficiently from conceptualization through partner selection, structuring, negotiation and legal documentation and closing.

You will also have the opportunity to work on a wide range of high impact corporate strategy projects for insitro’s senior leadership team.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone passionate about using their skills at the intersection of science and business strategy to advance therapeutic discovery and help make a difference to patients!

Key responsibilities will include the following:

• Deeply understand key insitro science teams and leaders, their objectives, challenges and opportunities and how partnerships or external technology solutions could help remove impediments and improve the cost, quality, or speed of core workflows
• Actively track the external technology landscape in AI/ML enabled drug discovery with a specific lens on technology most relevant for insitro's tech stack, which includes cellular data (e.g. high content microscopy, live cell imaging, iPSCs) and clinical data (e.g. federated learning, multi-modal discovery, clinical data ecosystems) as well as enabling technologies (e.g. biological assays, robotics, screening)
• Scope, negotiate and implement innovative collaborations and identify mutually beneficial opportunities with potential partners
• Partner with insitro scientific and drug discovery teams to explore and evaluate opportunities for asset in-licensing. Take the lead in establishing any resulting transactions, optimizing outcomes for insitro
• Communicate effectively and collaborate cross-functionally to coordinate input into partnering strategy and execution
• Support additional corporate development activities, including overall corporate strategy and assisting senior leadership with high-impact special projects within insitro, as well as investor and key partner relationships
• You will be joining an exciting biotech startup that has long-term stability due to significant funding, while maintaining a culture of innovation. You will work as part of a close-knit team, learn a broad range of skills, and help shape insitro’s culture, strategic direction, and overall impact!

About You:

Academics and Work Experience

• Advanced degree (PhD or MD) in biology, genetics/genomics, biomedical / clinical informatics, machine learning (with focus on biological applications), or equivalent experience in the biopharma or tech industry
• Experience working across (or strong exposure to) the varying research techniques typical of the earliest development stages of the pharmaceutical value chain (target discovery, target validation, pre-clinical)
• 4+ years of professional experience in a role at the intersection of science and business strategy such as:
  • Corporate strategy or partnerships role - integrating your science and business/strategic interests to help define, and then achieve, company priorities to drive value creation
  • Strategy consulting - with project experience oriented towards early stage pharmaceutical/biotech research
  • Experience operating under ambiguous, constantly evolving circumstances typical of a growing tech, biotech or biotech-adjacent startup

Your Ways of Working and Alignment with insitro Values

• “Get Things Done”: a self-starter, with a strong bias to action, who can intuitively prioritize and advance multiple projects for different internal teams under the resource, information and time constraints of an early stage startup
• “Engage with Respect”: combine your natural curiosity, scientific background knowledge and ability to quickly get up to speed in new areas and drive down to the details in order to deeply understand the needs of insitro teams & leaders and evaluate potential solutions
• “Own the Outcome”: highly motivated to act as a “force-multiplier” for internal teams, understand their technology roadmaps in detail, and proactively take ownership of solving problems for them
• Passion for making a difference in the world!

Additional Nice to Have

• Exposure to machine learning approaches, as applied to biology discovery or in related fields
• Experience in a “Business Operations & Strategy” or other high-powered generalist problem solver role in a tech, biotech or biotech-adjacent startup environment structuring ambiguity, i.e. operating effectively in uncertain and changing circumstances by applying structure and principles, distilling to the essence to create decision recommendations and concise presentations for senior leadership
• Deep and wide ranging experience across the ‘full-stack’ of commercial partnership negotiations from conceptualization through partner selection, negotiation and legal documentation, closing and the effective execution of the resulting project

Compensation & Benefits at insitro

Our target starting salary for successful US-based applicants for this role is $190,000 - $215,000. To determine starting pay, we consider multiple job-related factors including a candidate’s skills, education and experience, market demand, business needs, and internal parity. We may also adjust this range in the future based on market data. This role is eligible for participation in our Annual Performance Bonus Plan (based on company targets by role level and annual company performance) and our Equity Incentive Plan, subject to the terms of those plans and associated policies.

In addition, insitro also provides our employees:

• 401(k) plan with employer matching for contributions
• Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage (insitro pays 100% of premiums for employees), as well as mental health and well-being support
• Open, flexible vacation policy
• Paid parental leave
• Quarterly budget for books and online courses for self-development
• Support to occasionally attend professional conferences that are meaningful to your career growth and development
• New hire stipend for home office setup
• Monthly cell phone & internet stipend
• Access to free onsite baristas and cafe with daily lunch and breakfast
• Access to free onsite fitness center
• Commuter benefits