Business Development Lead, Life Sciences
About The Position
OpenAI is hiring a Life Sciences Partnerships Lead to shape and execute its global life sciences partnership strategy. The role leads high-impact research, product, and platform partnerships across pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, AI-native discovery platforms, research institutions, and experimental labs. The position helps determine where OpenAI should invest deeply with strategic partners, where it should enable a broader ecosystem, and how research, product, safety, and commercial considerations should inform decisions. It brings the perspective of life sciences partners into OpenAI and helps internal teams turn ambiguous opportunities into clear decisions and executable plans. Success requires scientific and commercial fluency, sound judgment, and the ability to move complex partnerships from strategy through execution and measurable impact. The role works closely with Research, Product, Engineering, Safety, GTM, Legal, Finance, Health, GSI/MSSP enablement, and cloud service provider partnership teams. OpenAI describes itself as an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose AI benefits all of humanity, with safety and human needs at the core of its work.
Requirements
- 12+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, product partnerships, business development, or general management across the life sciences and technology industries.
- Deep understanding of the life sciences ecosystem, including its scientific workflows, business models, incentives, and key industry dynamics.
- Experience leading complex strategic partnerships spanning research or scientific collaboration, technical execution, commercial terms, go-to-market strategy, and long-term platform alignment.
- Ability to engage credibly with scientific, technical, product, and business leaders and translate between their priorities.
- Ability to drive progress as a cross-functional leader through influence rather than formal authority.
- Clear communication, structural thinking, and sound prioritization in fast-moving and ambiguous environments.
- Exceptional judgment and integrity.
Responsibilities
- Lead full-lifecycle strategic partnerships, from partner strategy and executive alignment through scoping, commercial negotiation, execution, and ongoing operating reviews.
- Identify and prioritize opportunities across pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, AI-native discovery platforms, research institutions, and experimental labs.
- Work with Research, Product, and Engineering to translate partner needs, scientific workflows, technical constraints, and market dynamics into product and program recommendations.
- Partner with Legal, Finance, Safety, Research, and other cross-functional teams to structure partnerships with appropriate data, deployment, governance, and commercial models.
- Coordinate with Health, GTM, GSI/MSSP enablement, and cloud service provider partnership teams to turn strategic relationships into broader ecosystem adoption and measurable impact.
- Build trusted relationships with senior executives, scientific leaders, and technical counterparts across the life sciences ecosystem.
- Bring structure to ambiguous opportunities, clear blockers across internal and external teams, and communicate decisions and tradeoffs clearly to senior leaders.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
