Director, Business Development

About the role

The Director, Business Development is responsible for developing and executing comprehensive business development, partnering, and commercialization strategies that maximize the impact of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's technologies. This role leads the identification, evaluation, negotiation, and management of industry collaborations, licensing, strategic alliances, and other transactional opportunities that accelerate the translation of research into therapies, diagnostics, digital health solutions, and other products that improve outcomes for children worldwide.

Serving as a key liaison with external industry partners, the Director cultivates and maintains relationships across the life sciences ecosystem, including biotechnology, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, medical device, and healthcare technology organizations. The role provides strategic leadership in assessing commercial opportunities, developing partnership and licensing strategies, structuring and negotiating terms, and ensuring alignment between business objectives and St. Jude's mission to advance cures and means of prevention for pediatric catastrophic diseases.

The successful candidate brings deep expertise in life sciences business development, technology commercialization, and strategic partnering, along with a demonstrated ability to navigate complex scientific, business, and financial considerations. This leader collaborates across multidisciplinary teams and drives initiatives that expand the global reach and impact of St. Jude innovations while generating resources and partnerships that support the mission.

Through strategic industry engagement and innovative partnership models, the Director, Business Development plays a critical role in translating breakthrough science into real-world impact, ensuring that discoveries originating at St. Jude reach patients, healthcare providers, and researchers worldwide while advancing the institution's mission and long-term research objectives.

This position may be eligible for remote work. However, St. Jude requires all remote employees to:

• Travel to our Memphis campus for the interview process and/or orientation, if selected
• Travel to Memphis to work on-site for one week per quarter, or as requested based on business needs, if hired.

By applying, you acknowledge and agree to these travel requirements as a condition of employment.

This position is remote within approved U.S. locations. Due to state-specific employment regulations, we are unable to consider applicants currently residing in California for remote work; however, candidates based in California who are willing to relocate to an approved location may be considered.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead business development efforts for the translation of innovations to market pathways, including strategic industry partnerships and collaborations, licenses, and startup executive and investor recruitment.
• Execute the organization's business development strategy in alignment with the mission.
• Conduct of due diligence, including development, market, and regulatory assessments, and other required aspects to determine market feasibility of innovations.
• Once market feasibility is reasonably established for mission innovations, create a business development plan to market innovations to industry collaborators/partners, life sciences executives, investors, and investment bankers.
• Identify and evaluate new business development opportunities, including partnerships, collaborations, and licensing agreements.
• Lead negotiations with potential partners and collaborators to ensure engagements align with the organization's mission and when warranted secure favorable terms and agreements.
• Engage with internal stakeholders conducting research and making discoveries to drive the successful development of innovations for translation to market pathways.
• Oversight of external consultants and services engaged to perform work as required.
• Ensure early, close, and continuous collaboration with the organization's Clinical, Regulatory, Manufacturing, Legal, Compliance, and other teams for reporting, awareness, smooth handoffs, co-management, and full engagement to achieve consistency, compliance with organizational policies, industry regulations, and ethical standards.
• Build and maintain relationships with internal and external key stakeholders and collaborators, including researchers, scientists, doctors, investors, industry partners, and other institutions to optimize outcomes.
• Represent the organization at industry conferences, events, and with industry partners, investors and entrepreneurs.
• Monitor industry trends and competitive landscape to identify opportunities for growth and innovation.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams to assess market trends, competitive landscape, and potential growth opportunities
• Design new processes and supporting business structures and recommend solutions that drive process standardization and simplification across the department to more effectively translate innovations to market pathways.
• As the department strategy evolves, prepare alternative development and risk management scenarios, program updates and options and recommendations through proactive communication to the teams and senior leaders.
• Drive decision making, facilitate issue resolution, problem-solving, risk management, and contingency planning.
• Establish and maintain relationships with external institutions, industry collaborators/partners, life sciences executives, investors, and investment bankers.
• Collaborate with key opinion leaders in internal functions and external collaborative organizations to optimize organizational outcomes.
• Provide input into overall budget and variance management for programs.
• Establish approaches for engagement and governance with external collaborators/partners.
• Recruit, coach and develop individuals and ensure they have rich career experiences and rotational opportunities.

Minimum Education and/or Training

• Master's degree in life sciences (ex. Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics), or related field, required.
• PhD, MD, or MBA preferred.

Minimum Experience

• Ten (10) years' experience in the life sciences industry and experience in leaderships roles with substantial business development, and transaction experience.
• Prior experience in business development within the life sciences industry.
• Has built and maintained an extensive industry network in the life sciences industry.
• Experience bringing life science innovations to the market.
• Experience identifying and managing industry partners/collaborators, negotiating engagement and transaction terms, and successfully executing engagements and transactions.
• Strong business acumen and financial management skills.
• Excellent communication and negotiation abilities.
• Experience leveraging a patent portfolios.
• Demonstrated experience in establishing successful scientific and industry collaborations.
• Established Biopharmaceutical, early-stage life sciences start-up, or venture capital experience preferred, inclusive of partnership and transaction experience.

Special Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

• Demonstrable experience leading strategic programs from initiation to completion, including resource management, and collaboration with internal cross-functional teams and external partners preferred.
• Setting Strategy: The inclination to seek and analyze data from a variety of sources to support decisions and to align others with the organization's overall strategy.
• An entrepreneurial and creative approach to developing new, innovative ideas that will stretch the organization and expand the boundaries within the industry.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty; the ability to adapt nimbly and lead others through complex situations.
• A prudent risk-taker who seeks data and input from others to foresee possible threats or unintended circumstances from decisions; someone who takes smart risks.
• A leader who is viewed by others as having a high degree of integrity and forethought in their approach to making decisions; the ability to act in a transparent and consistent manner while always taking into account what is best for the organization.
• Proactively tracks industry trends and emerging regulatory/compliance practices.
• Proactively builds and maintains key relationships within and outside the organization.
• Demonstrates confidence in others, is team-focused, and celebrates success.
• Naturally connects and builds strong relationships with others, demonstrating strong emotional intelligence and an ability to communicate clearly and persuasively.
• An ability to inspire trust and followership in others through compelling influence, powerful charisma, passion in their beliefs, and active drive.
• Creates a sense of purpose/meaning for the team that generates followership beyond their own personality and engages others to the greater purpose for the organization as a whole.

Compensation

In recognition of certain U.S. state and municipal pay transparency laws, St. Jude is including a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role.

This is an estimate offered in good faith and a specific salary offer takes into account factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs.

It is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the salary range and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current salary range is $160,160 - $329,680 per year for the role of Director, Business Development.

Explore our exceptional benefits!

We are committed to a human-centered hiring experience. Technology may support portions of our process, but recruiting decisions involve human review and engagement. Learn more about our approach to AI.