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Head, NewCo/Growthco Business Development (SVP level)

Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering

Sales & Business Development
Cambridge, MA, USA
Posted on May 16, 2025

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies that change the world. We bring together the greatest scientific minds with entrepreneurial company builders and assemble the capital to allow them to take courageous leaps. Those big leaps in human health and sustainability exponentially accelerate scientific progress in areas ranging from cancer detection and treatment to nature-positive agriculture.

What sets Flagship apart is our ability to advance biotechnology by uniting life science innovation, company creation, and capital investment under one roof in a way that is largely without precedent. Our scientific founders, entrepreneurial leaders, and professional capital managers are each aligned around an institutionalized process that enables us to innovate and transform for the benefit of people and planet.

Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture.

Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies.

Why Flagship?
At Flagship Pioneering, YOU get: inspiring leadership, great company culture, competitive compensation packages, best in class benefits, generous PTO, beautiful office space stocked with unlimited snacks and free lunch delivered daily, and impactful work with endless career growth.

Role Overview:

The Head of Growthco/NewCo Business Development (SVP level) is a senior leader that will report to the Chief Business Development Officer for Flagship Pioneering. The primary objective of the business development team at Flagship is to drive the closing of valuable business development deals between our platform companies and Pharma. In this newly created role, you will manage a team of BD Leads to articulate and execute the business development function and strategy for a subset of companies with the Flagship Pioneering ecosystem. In this role you will be a key member of the of the company teams with a high degree of visibility within the company and within Flagship Pioneering and team leadership responsibility. The successful executive will bring a proven track record in the following and managing teams to do so: establishing the business development strategy for organizations that aligns to their long-term growth plans, identifying and triaging potential partners, negotiating and closing of impactful deals, and understanding of what it takes to execute on partnership commitments.

Responsibilities

  • Lead ambitious set of BD leaders to ensure agile BD strategy development and execution for portfolio companies
  • Develop industry leading sell-side BD practice, establishing and systematizing standards and best practices for business case development and negotiation, balanced with a passion for creativity in deal making and value creation
  • Establish company and board relationships to drive stakeholder management
  • Capture industry insights to inform company growth and partnership

Qualifications

  • Minimum 20 years’ industry experience with a demonstrated track record of business development and corporate strategy leadership, at both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies
  • An advanced degree (PhD, MD) is strongly preferred. MBA is a plus.
  • Growth mindset, paranoid optimist, willing to look at a deal from all vantage points
  • Consultant training/mindset in terms of clarity of communication, analytics, teamwork
  • Sell-side and buy-side experience at large and small companies with a strong deal sheet
  • Previous Senior or Executive Leadership experience required with an enterprise leadership mindset across disciplines, lines, and organizational boundaries a must.
  • Ability to understand complex scientific ideas and effectively communicate their value proposition to key internal and external stakeholders.
  • Prior experience developing or partnering various types of biotechnology platforms or therapeutic modalities (g., small molecule, RNA, protein biologic), especially with discovery and preclinical-stage (Series A and B) companies.
  • Excellent presentation and communications skills—the ability to compellingly articulate, influence, and work successfully with varied audiences.

Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

At Flagship, we recognize there is no perfect candidate. If you have some of the experience listed above but not all, please apply anyway. Experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way. We are dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams and look forward to learning more about your unique background.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.

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