[Hiring] Middle/Senior Alliance Manager @Deep Origin

Role Description

Deep Origin is seeking an Alliance Manager to own the day-to-day management of our growing portfolio of scientific and drug discovery partnerships. This is a highly hands-on, client-facing role at the intersection of science, relationship management, program execution, and business development.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for active collaborations.
• Ensure that scientific milestones stay on track.
• Ensure governance structures work effectively.
• Lead meetings that result in clear actions.
• Identify potential issues before they become problems.
• Build relationships, run meetings, maintain milestone trackers, and coordinate across teams.
• Identify risks, follow through on commitments, and establish operational structures for partnership success.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience in alliance management, partnership management, biotech/pharma business development, or a closely related role.
• Experience managing external partnerships involving multiple organizations and internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to own day-to-day external partner relationships.
• Experience managing multiple simultaneous partnerships, milestones, meetings, deliverables, and changing timelines.
• Bachelor's or higher degree in biology, chemistry, biotechnology, life sciences, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant scientific experience.
• Strong scientific fluency and understanding of the drug development process.
• Ability to follow discussions involving safety toxicology, ADMET, and hit-to-lead drug discovery.
• Strong relationship-building instincts and a highly client-facing mindset.
• Ability to build trust quickly and communicate credibly with both scientists and business stakeholders.
• Strong judgment around when to escalate a partner issue versus resolving it independently.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Highly organized and proactive, with the ability to establish structure where processes are still evolving.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving startup environment.
• Ability to operate independently while collaborating closely with scientific, product, program, and commercial teams.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly to partner sites, company meetings, and relevant industry conferences.
• Experience managing partnerships from both sides of an alliance.

Requirements

• Experience working in biotechnology, pharmaceutical R&D, drug discovery, computational biology, or a related life sciences environment.
• Familiarity with government-funded scientific programs or collaborations.
• Experience establishing or operating Joint Scientific Committees or comparable partnership governance structures.
• Experience working with multi-year research collaborations involving scientific milestones and formal governance.
• Management consulting experience involving life sciences, biotech, or pharmaceutical clients.
• Experience supporting partnership renewals, expansions, or commercial development opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Own partner relationships: serve as the primary point of contact for scientific and drug discovery partnerships.
• Manage partnership governance: establish and maintain milestone trackers, meeting cadences, deliverables, action items, and governance processes.
• Lead Joint Scientific Committees (JSCs): own JSC structure, agendas, preparation, documentation, and follow-through.
• Coordinate scientific programs: work across R&D, toxicology, product, commercial, and BD teams.
• Identify and escalate risks early: monitor partnership health and proactively surface risks.
• Support growth within existing partnerships: identify signals for renewals, expansions, and new collaboration opportunities.
• Drive cross-functional alignment: ensure effective handoffs from BD into execution.
• Support complex collaborations: manage partnerships across biotech, pharma, academia, and government.

Values & Working Style

• Ownership mindset — take responsibility for the health of partnerships.
• Hands-on execution — comfortable doing the detailed work required to keep partnerships moving.
• Relationship-driven — understand that successful alliances depend on trust, credibility, responsiveness, and clear communication.
• Scientifically curious — want to understand the science well enough to recognize what matters.
• Proactive — identify gaps, risks, and missing structure before being asked.
• Highly organized — manage a complex portfolio without allowing milestones to fall through the cracks.
• Strong communicator — ensure the right people have the right context at the right time.
• Comfortable with ambiguity — establish structure while working in a rapidly evolving biotech startup.
• Commercially aware — recognize when a strong scientific partnership may create opportunities for deeper collaboration.

Benefits

• Opportunity to play a central role in Deep Origin's most important scientific and commercial partnerships.
• Direct exposure to cutting-edge drug discovery, computational science, AI-driven research, and government-funded biomedical programs.
• Significant ownership over building Deep Origin's alliance management practices and governance frameworks.
• Opportunity to work closely with senior leadership team.
• Career growth as the partnership portfolio and alliance management function expand.
• Competitive compensation package with meaningful equity.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
• Remote-friendly culture with optional onsite work.
• Annual team gatherings and company events.
• Free lunch, snacks, beverages, and onsite gym access (for in-office employees).