Science Strategy Leader

Tempus AI•Chicago, IL

3d•$178,000 - $264,000

About The Position

Tempus is seeking a visionary Science Strategy Leader to spearhead scientific strategy and executive engagement with key Pharma and Biotech partners. This senior role bridges cutting-edge science, portfolio strategy, and cross-functional execution, ensuring that collaborations deliver differentiated value, drive innovation in clinical development, and scale across the portfolio. The role involves partnering closely with Pharma and Biotech companies and internal stakeholders to align strategic objectives, scientific insights, and operational execution. This is a Sr. Director role for an accomplished industry leader with deep expertise across the research, clinical development, and commercial spectrum, coupled with experience in leveraging multimodal data to transform drug development.

Requirements

10+ years in pharma/biotech with demonstrated experience in research, clinical development, and commercial strategy.
Proven cross-functional leadership in a matrix environment, ideally with global and multi-asset portfolio oversight.
Demonstrated expertise in data-driven clinical innovation, including familiarity with core scientific modalities (e.g., genomics, proteomics, digital pathology, imaging) and their integration into multimodal strategies.
Track record of success in executive partner engagement, including governance structures (e.g., JSCs) and joint portfolio planning.
Ability to translate complex scientific and data insights into actionable strategies for diverse stakeholders, including C-suite and external partners.
Exceptional communication, negotiation, and influencing skills, with experience managing high-value, high-impact relationships.
Advanced degree (PhD, MD, PharmD, or equivalent) required; MBA or business leadership training a plus.

Responsibilities

Serve as the executive scientific lead for strategic Pharma/Biotech partnerships, shaping account-level and portfolio-wide strategies in alignment with corporate priorities.
Lead Joint Steering Committees (JSCs), ensuring data-driven decision-making and alignment between partner needs and our capabilities.
Champion the integration of novel scientific insights—including real-world, clinical, genomic, and multimodal data—into ongoing collaborations to accelerate innovation.
Lead development and positioning of emerging offerings (e.g., LOOP).
Create structured pathways for knowledge sharing between Account VPs, KADs, Translational Research, Pharma R&D, RWD, and SOS teams to ensure strategic continuity from pre- to post-contract.
Guide teams in identifying strategic opportunities, anticipating partner needs, and translating scientific advances into new collaborations with our partner biotechs/pharma companies.
Strengthen and scale programs like ‘Sparks’, enabling KADs/SSLs to communicate high-impact scientific narratives tailored to partner priorities.
Partner with R&D leaders to ensure that insights from translational science inform ongoing and future clinical programs.
Promote best practices in leveraging real-world and multimodal evidence to enhance development timelines and success rates.
Develop and champion new data-driven use cases for multimodal data integration into trial design, patient stratification, and regulatory engagement.
Identify expansion opportunities within accounts by linking emerging science to unmet partner needs.
Ensure strategic alignment across multiple accounts to leverage cross-account insights for scalable growth.
Drive measurable improvement in partner satisfaction, time to value realization, and account renewal/expansion rates.