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Lila Sciences · 3 weeks ago

Senior Manager / Associate Director, Life Science Partnerships

Cambridge, MA USA

Full-time

Onsite

Senior Level, Lead/Staff, Director/Executive

$140K/yr - $197K/yr

5+ years exp

Lila Sciences is the world’s first scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous lab for life, chemistry, and materials science. They are seeking a Senior Manager / Associate Director for Life Science Partnerships to build and scale their partnerships function, focusing on revenue generation and complex deal cycles with life science organizations.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)Foundational AILife ScienceSoftware

Responsibilities

Own and grow a significant portion of Lila’s Life Sciences pipeline and revenue by running disciplined, end-to-end deal cycles with pharma, biotech, and life science organizations

Lead both repeatable offerings and more complex, multi-stakeholder engagements; turning qualified interest into well-scoped, strategically-aligned partnerships

Bring structured market, commercial, and financial insight back into Product, Science, and Corporate Development to refine our offerings, pricing, and go-to-market over time

Build, manage, and grow a high-quality pipeline, from lead generation and qualification through proposal, negotiation, and close, with clear accountability for revenue targets

Lead complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles across R&D, platform/technology, data/AI, and business leadership, ensuring tight coordination and timely progress

Maintain accurate forecasts and CRM hygiene, and use these to inform planning, capacity, and leadership decisions

Drive outreach and closing for repeatable Life Sciences offerings; applying and refining standard scopes, deliverables, and success metrics with Product and Science

Analyze win/loss patterns, use cases, and objections; synthesize this market intelligence into concise recommendations for offering design, positioning, and prioritization

Help define and own deal and offering economics (e.g., pricing logic, unit economics, effort vs. value), flagging commercially or operationally risky structures early

Partner with Product Management and Science to ensure proposed engagements are technically feasible, aligned with capabilities, and executed smoothly by clearly capturing and communicating needs, constraints, and timelines on both sides

Serve as a strong bridge between customers and internal teams; monitor the competitive landscape, keeping track of trends in AI/ML partnerships, and assessing their impact on Lilly’s strategy

Define and continuously improve core BD processes and playbooks (qualification criteria, proposal templates, handoffs to delivery, governance rhythms) to raise the operational bar of the Partnerships function

Qualification

Life Sciences PartnershipsBusiness DevelopmentClient-facing ExperienceScientific LiteracyAI/ML KnowledgeCommunication SkillsOrganizational SkillsCollaborative Working Style

Required

BS, MS, PhD or equivalent experience in biology, bioengineering, chemistry, computational biology, or a related field, with strong fluency in scientific concepts and experimental or computational workflows

5+ years in client-facing roles serving biopharma or life science customers, such as business development, enterprise sales, customer success, or strategic account management with demonstrated experience:

Owning and growing a book of business or revenue target in scientific, technical, or data-driven industries

Running or supporting multi-stakeholder sales cycles (discovery, proposal, negotiation)

Strong communication and presentation skills; able to translate complex concepts into clear, actionable value for customers

Highly organized and execution-oriented; comfortable managing multiple opportunities in parallel and moving work forward with limited oversight

Collaborative, low-ego working style; able to build trust quickly with Product Managers, scientists, engineers, and operations

Preferred

Experience at an AI-native biotech, platform biotech, autonomous lab, or data platform selling into pharma or life sciences

Exposure to partnerships or offerings that combine AI/ML, data, and wet-lab or experimental platforms

Prior experience in a founding GTM / early-stage BD or sales role (e.g., helping define early processes, playbooks, and collateral)

Hands-on use of AI tools in your day-to-day workflows (prospecting, research, pipeline management, proposal drafting) and curiosity about how AI and autonomous science will reshape healthcare and life sciences

Benefits

Bonus potential

Generous early equity

Company

Lila Sciences

Lila Sciences creates a scientific superintelligence platform and autonomous labs for life sciences, chemistry, and materials science. It is a sub-organization of Flagship Pioneering.

Founded in 2023

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

201-500 employees