Director, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships—Preclinical Services (Pharma & Biotech)

If you’re a relationship-driven commercial leader ready to accelerate growth with a disruptive technology, apply with your résumé and a brief note on three pharma/biotech contacts you can engage in the next 90 days.chiron is seeking 5 – 10 experienced commercial leaders to spearhead business development and strategic partnerships for our preclinical services portfolio. As Director, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, you’ll play a pivotal role in expanding our reach within the global pharma and biotech community—leveraging your existing relationships and proven track record to forge new collaborations and accelerate growth.These roles are for connectors—people who have spent years cultivating trust with R&D and procurement teams and who convert relationships into commercial results. You’ll own strategy, be the public face of a research-driven brand, and yes—make a whole lot of noise as advanced in vitro technologies disrupt the preclinical market.Role DescriptionOwn enterprise-level business development and strategic partnerships for our preclinical services portfolio across assigned territory (Europe / United States / Global—please specify in your application where your network is focused)Identify, target and win new pharma and biotech enterprise accounts, leveraging an existing network of R&D, translational, and procurement contactsBuild and manage a qualified pipeline of large, multi-year opportunities; personally drive the end-to-end sales cycle for high-value dealsTranslate customer needs into compelling value propositions for chiron's advanced in vitro and preclinical solutions; coordinate internal scientific and delivery teams to tailor proposalsNegotiate commercial terms for enterprise and strategic partnership agreements, ensuring repeatable, scalable deal structuresManage account transition and onboarding with internal operations to ensure rapid time-to-first-order and high client satisfactionMaintain accurate forecasting and CRM hygiene; provide market and customer insights to shape product roadmap and go-to-market strategiesRepresent chiron at industry conferences, advisory boards and customer-facing events to raise brand profile and generate leadsQualificationsDemonstrable, active network within pharma R&D and purchasing/procurement (named contacts and evidence of recent engagement)Proven track record of commercial excellence; winning and managing enterprise-level pharma and/or biotech accounts10+ years commercial experience in life sciences / medtech / CRO sales, ideally with direct experience selling preclinical and/or drug-development and discovery servicesStrong commercial negotiation skills and experience closing multi-service, multi-year agreementsComfortable selling complex scientific services; ability to collaborate with technical teams to build bespoke solutionsExcellent written and verbal communication in English; all other languages are a plusRemuneration This is a high-leverage, performance-centric role. Compensation will be predominantly variable and structured to reward revenue generation, enterprise value uplift, and successful conversion of strategic partnerships. We reward commercial excellence: candidates who demonstrably grow chiron’s enterprise value will receive generous monetary upside. For a limited number of exceptional hires—senior leaders with proven, high-value relationships and a track record of commercial leadership—we also maintain an equity allocation (stock options) to ensure long-term alignment. The final package will be calibrated to the candidate’s experience and the quality of transferable relationships they bring.Company Descriptionchiron is pioneering the next generation of non-animal, human-relevant preclinical platforms—combining advanced microfluidics and organ-on-chip approaches to deliver predictive, actionable biology long before traditional preclinical testing or clinical trials. Our flagship platforms, Re-plate™ and μMass™, use primary human cells to recreate human tissue physiology: Re-plate™ models synovial joint mechanics to transform arthritis research, while μMass™ enables high-throughput 3D solid-tumour assays for oncology applications. Beyond superior scientific fidelity and faster go/no-go decisions for drug developers, our technology advances an ethical mission—dramatically reducing reliance on animal models and accelerating safer, more human-relevant science. The non-animal-models movement is at an inflection point, and in the next three to five years disruptive in vitro approaches like ours are poised to reshape preclinical R&D. chiron is positioned to supercharge that transition: we’re rapidly expanding application areas behind the scenes and building enterprise-grade solutions that scale across therapeutic areas. For leaders who join now and help drive this commercial inflection, there is genuine opportunity to create substantial enterprise value and share in the upside as we scale.