Client Principal

Mantle AI•Boston, MA

2d•Remote

About The Position

Mantle takes a deliberate approach to developing its advisory leaders. Rather than placing someone immediately into independent ownership of a client relationship and expecting them to adopt our model on the fly, Client Principals work alongside Mantle’s Fractional CIOs, learning how we assess organizations, develop recommendations, navigate executive dynamics, and lead highly bespoke technology functions. The Client Principal within our Retained Advisory practice will initially augment and work alongside Mantle’s Fractional CIOs, contributing meaningfully to client strategy, executive discussions, roadmap ownership, budgeting, decision support, and coordination of Mantle’s broader delivery resources. The expectation, however, is not for the individual to remain in a supporting role. The role is designed as a progression toward independent ownership of Fractional CIO and Head of IT engagements. As judgment, experience, and client relationships develop, Client Principals will progressively move from supporting and co-leading engagements to independently serving as the senior technology leader for a portfolio of biotechnology companies, with Mantle leadership continuing to provide executive air cover, specialist support, and escalation when useful. This structure is intentional. Our advisory model depends as much on judgment, context, relationships, and business understanding as it does on technical expertise. We want future Mantle Fractional CIOs to develop within that model before taking independent ownership of client relationships. The specific leadership role Mantle fulfills varies by client. Depending on an organization’s stage, needs, and existing leadership structure, we may serve as its Fractional CIO, Fractional Head of IT, or senior technology advisor. These client-facing roles describe the capacity in which we serve the organization rather than internal seniority within Mantle. The right person will be comfortable operating without a rigid playbook. We are intentionally not looking for someone who believes every company of a certain size needs the same tools, controls, architecture, or IT operating model. We expect our principals to understand the business first, assess risks and tradeoffs, and then develop recommendations appropriate to that particular organization. A substantial part of the role is relationship-driven. You must be able to read an organization, understand stakeholder dynamics, recognize what is and is not being said, adjust your communication style, and build credibility with executives who may have very different perspectives on technology.

Requirements

Prior experience in an IT leadership role within biotechnology or life sciences, such as IT Manager, Senior IT Manager, Associate Director or comparable role, with meaningful responsibility for technology strategy, stakeholder management, vendors, budgets, security, or IT operations.
Meaningful experience within biotechnology, pharmaceutical, life sciences, or a closely related regulated industry.
Experience working in smaller, growing, or evolving organizations where technology strategy cannot simply be inherited from a large-enterprise playbook.
Broad understanding of enterprise IT, cybersecurity, cloud services, identity, endpoints, SaaS platforms, vendor management, technology operations, and budgeting.
Familiarity with the technology and compliance considerations relevant to biotechnology, which may include GxP, clinical development, data privacy, SOX/IPO readiness, cybersecurity, scientific systems, or regulated business processes.
Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with executives and nontechnical stakeholders.
Strong commercial and organizational judgment.
Ability to operate effectively in ambiguous situations and develop a point of view without being given a predetermined answer.
High emotional intelligence and the ability to adapt communication and recommendations to different personalities and organizational cultures.
Comfortable challenging both clients and colleagues respectfully when the evidence supports a different approach.

Nice To Haves

Technical expertise alone will not make someone successful here. We are particularly interested in candidates who can demonstrate situations where they:
Changed a technology recommendation after better understanding the organization or stakeholder dynamics.
Deliberately chose not to implement a technically desirable control or platform because the business case or risk did not justify it.
Influenced an executive team without relying primarily on technical authority.
Navigated disagreement among senior stakeholders.
Built enough trust with management to become involved in decisions beyond the narrow boundaries of IT.
Balanced cybersecurity, compliance, user experience, cost, scientific productivity, and business velocity rather than optimizing for only one of them.
Worked for or with a biotech company as it progressed from pre-clinical stage, to product launch and perhaps IPO.

Responsibilities

Serve as the senior technology advisor to support our Fractional CIOs.
Support the development of technology strategies, roadmaps, investment priorities, budgets, and operating models aligned with each company's business objectives and stage of development.
Support the assessment of technology and cybersecurity decisions through a pragmatic, risk-informed lens rather than relying on prescriptive technology stacks or maturity models.
Understand organizational dynamics, stakeholder priorities, competing interests, and change tolerance and incorporate them into recommendations.
Translate complex technical, security, regulatory, and operational issues into clear management decisions and tradeoffs.
Help clients determine not only what they should do, but what they should intentionally defer or avoid.
Guide decisions involving enterprise applications, identity, endpoint management, cybersecurity, cloud platforms, scientific and laboratory technology, vendors, managed services, data, AI, and related technology functions.
Partner with Mantle's cybersecurity, engineering, managed services, and specialist resources rather than personally executing every technical activity.
Maintain clear client priorities and a living technology roadmap.
Lead recurring client strategy and management discussions and participate in executive and board-level conversations when appropriate.
Identify emerging business needs and opportunities where Mantle can provide additional value without turning the advisory relationship into a sales exercise.
Escalate significant strategic, political, commercial, or technical issues to Mantle leadership when another perspective would strengthen the outcome.