Associate Director, Corporate Strategy & Business Development (Contract)

Kriya Therapeutics • Palo Alto, CA

32d • Onsite

About The Position

Kriya is a biopharmaceutical company developing gene therapies for diseases with high unmet need, with a focus on metabolic disorders, neurology, and ophthalmology. The Associate Director, Corporate Strategy & Business Development Contractor is a senior analytical and strategic partner to the CFO / Head of Corporate Strategy and to Business Development, Finance, and Communications. The role supports strategies for accessing capital through equity, business development, and IP or platform monetization, bringing scientific and financial analysis and hands-on execution to strategic workstreams.

The contractor will support financing and valuation analysis, evaluate partnership and monetization opportunities, conduct market and competitive research, and assist with due diligence and investor materials. The role works cross-functionally to turn scientific and clinical progress into an evidence-based corporate narrative while maintaining clear distinctions between sourced facts, internal characterization, and hypotheses. It requires autonomy in a fast-moving, resource-constrained clinical-stage biotech environment.

The position is fractional / part-time and requires the employee to be local to the San Francisco Bay Area, with presence in the Palo Alto office at least once a week. Standard office physical demands include extended periods of sitting and computer use.

Requirements

• Advanced science degree required (PhD, MS, MD, or equivalent); equivalent roles with directly relevant experience will be considered.
• Three to five years of management consulting experience (top-tier or boutique strategy/life-sciences consulting) or comparable experience in biotech corporate strategy, corporate development, investment banking, or equity research.
• Ability to structure ambiguous problems into clear analytical frameworks and build and defend financial or scientific analysis under scrutiny.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex clinical/scientific material into concise, decision-ready materials for executive and investor audiences.
• Comfort working with primary sources such as SEC filings, clinical trial data, scientific literature, and company disclosures, and citing them explicitly.
• Ability to ramp quickly in a new scientific area.
• Comfort operating autonomously in a lean, resource-constrained, fast-paced environment as a fractional / part-time contributor.
• Strong comfort leveraging and incorporating large-data-set analytics and intelligent LLM tools such as Claude into workflows and processes.
• Local to the San Francisco Bay Area and able to be present in the Palo Alto office at least once a week.

Nice To Haves

• Prior exposure to gene therapy, cell therapy, or a related complex biotech modality.

Responsibilities

• Support the design and execution of Kriya's multi-path capital access strategy, including comparable-company analysis, sell-side analyst mapping, and investor narrative infrastructure.
• Build and maintain financing scenario and valuation analyses, including rNPV analyses, go/no-go decision gates, and capital needs by program.
• Evaluate non-dilutive business development opportunities, including outlicensing, partnerships, and technical-services or IP-monetization structures; conduct deal-term benchmarking, structural risk assessment, and comparable-transaction research.
• Support market intelligence and landscape analysis across relevant indications, modalities, mechanisms, and comparable companies, with explicit sourcing and confidence-level tagging.
• Support due diligence, data-room preparation, and management presentations for prospective investors, banking partners, and institutional collaborators.
• Partner with Finance, Business Development, Communications, and clinical/program teams to translate scientific and clinical progress into a coherent, evidence-based corporate narrative.
• Distinguish sourced facts from internal characterization and hypotheses, and explicitly flag discrepancies or information gaps.
• Operate independently amid ambiguous and fast-moving priorities, escalating judgment calls when needed.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Senior