Manager Strategic Partnerships

We are an early-stage Ai platform modernizing how biopharma outsources early drug discovery research. Our technology enables efficient, transparent collaboration between biopharma companies and leading university research cores, acting as a trusted operational layer between industry and academia.

We are seeking a Strategic Partnerships Manager to be one of our first key hires. This role owns external research operations, contract and spend management, and strategic partnerships
, ensuring academic research engagements meet enterprise biopharma standards while scaling long-term relationships across universities, biotechs, and pharma.

• Manage contracts, SOWs, amendments, and invoicing with academic research partners
• Track external R&D spend, burn, and forecasts in partnership with finance and procurement
• Ensure operational rigor, documentation, and delivery suitable for enterprise biopharma clients
• Proactively identify and resolve scope, cost, and timeline risks

• Build and manage long-term partnerships with university institutions, academic labs, biotechs, and pharma by offering platform context
• Serve as primary relationship owner for external collaborators
• Support onboarding and expansion of research partners
• Gather partner feedback to inform platform and process improvements

• Act as the coordination point between academic partners, biopharma clients, and internal teams
• This role is highly cross functional and will work with the product team, engineering, business development and leadership.
• Represent the company professionally with enterprise customers and institutions

• 5+ years in external research operations, strategic partnerships, CRO/academic research management, Procurement or biotech/pharma outsourcing
• Experience managing contracts, SOWs, and external spend
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills
• Comfort operating in an early-stage, fast-moving environment