Middle/Senior Alliance Manager

Deep Origin

10h•Hybrid

About The Position

Deep Origin is seeking an Alliance Manager to own the day-to-day management of its 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. The Alliance Manager will serve as the primary point of contact for active collaborations, ensuring that scientific milestones stay on track, governance structures work effectively, meetings lead to clear actions, and potential issues are identified before they become problems. The role requires someone who is willing to build relationships, run meetings, maintain milestone trackers, coordinate across teams, identify risks, follow through on commitments, and establish the operational structure that allows partnerships to succeed.

Requirements

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 rather than operating solely as an internal project manager.
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 areas such as safety toxicology, ADMET, and hit-to-lead drug discovery and understand their relevance to program progress, even without being the scientific domain expert.
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, including the ability to adapt communication appropriately for external partners and internal stakeholders.
Highly organized and proactive, with the ability to establish structure where processes are still evolving.
Comfortable operating in a fast-moving startup environment where priorities, milestones, and timelines may change.
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: managing a large pharmaceutical partner while working within a biotech company and managing smaller biotech, academic, or research partners from within a larger organization.
Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

Nice To Haves

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, including ARPA-H, DARPA, NIH, or similar mechanisms.
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.

Responsibilities

Own partner relationships: serve as the primary point of contact for scientific and drug discovery partnerships, managing communication, meetings, follow-ups, and ongoing engagement.
Manage partnership governance: establish and maintain milestone trackers, meeting cadences, deliverables, action items, and governance processes across multiple collaborations.
Lead Joint Scientific Committees (JSCs): own JSC structure, agendas, preparation, documentation, and follow-through while partnering closely with scientific leadership.
Coordinate scientific programs: work across R&D, toxicology, product, commercial, and BD teams to keep scientific objectives, partner expectations, timelines, and execution aligned.
Identify and escalate risks early: monitor partnership health and proactively surface scientific, operational, timeline, or relationship risks before they become critical.
Support growth within existing partnerships: identify signals for renewals, expansions, and new collaboration opportunities and share relevant commercial intelligence with BD and commercial leadership.
Drive cross-functional alignment: ensure effective handoffs from BD into execution and maintain clear communication between partner teams and internal scientific, product, and commercial stakeholders.
Support complex collaborations: help manage partnerships across biotech, pharma, academia, and government, including programs with formal milestones, reporting requirements, and multiple participating organizations.