Strategy Lead, Corporate Development Specialty Care GBU

Sanofi•Cambridge, MA

4d•$232,500 - $335,833•Hybrid

About The Position

The Strategy Lead, Corporate Development brings GBU-level coherence and rigor to how the Specialty Care GBU identifies, assesses, and prioritizes external growth opportunities across business development, licensing, and mergers & acquisitions (BD/M&A). Within the company, each franchise runs its own new product planning activity and partners with the central BD and M&A teams to scope opportunities for that franchise. Sitting within the Strategy & Operations team, this role connects and elevates that work at the level of the whole GBU. Reporting to the Global Head of Strategy & Operations, Specialty Care GBU, this is a senior individual leadership role. Rather than owning individual transactions, you will set the GBU-level standard for how external opportunities are assessed, coordinate closely across the franchise new product planning teams, the central BD and M&A teams, and Finance, and make the GBU’s overall approach to BD/M&A and licensing systematic, consistent, and efficient.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; scientific or business field is preferred.
Minimum 8 years of progressive experience across corporate development, business development & licensing (BD&L), and/or M&A in biopharma, ideally with exposure to specialty therapeutic areas.
Strong asset and target evaluation capability that combines genuine scientific literacy with commercial and financial assessment, with the ability to engage credibly on both the science and the deal economics.
Direct involvement in BD&L and/or M&A activity, such as opportunity assessment, due diligence, valuation, or deal teams, is a strong advantage.
A track record of coordinating across multiple teams or functions to bring consistency and rigor to a shared process.
Must be able to travel 20% domestic and international.
Financial and deal acumen: a strong grounding in valuation, business-case development, and the economics of BD/M&A and licensing, with the confidence to partner closely with Finance.
Scientific grounding: able to assess mechanism, clinical rationale, and competitive landscape across the GBU’s therapeutic areas, and to know when to pressure-test with subject-matter experts.
Process and coordination: brings structure, consistency, and discipline to complex, multi-team activity.
Influence: strong communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the credibility to align franchise and functional teams without direct authority.
Leadership skills: Strategic thinking: connects individual opportunities to the GBU’s broader portfolio strategy and priorities, and keeps the focus on what matters most.
Relationships and influence: politically astute, builds trust across franchises and functions, and role-models collaboration.
Result orientation: brings rigor and pace to opportunity assessment, anticipates issues, and takes ownership of outcomes.
Agility: comfortable with ambiguity and able to adapt quickly in a fast-paced, matrixed global environment.
Fluent in English.

Nice To Haves

An advanced degree in life sciences (MD, PhD, or PharmD) and/or an MBA is preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and steward a consistent, GBU-level approach to identifying and assessing external opportunities across BD/M&A and licensing, so the franchises work to a common standard.
Align the methods, criteria, and stage gates used to evaluate opportunities, raising the quality and comparability of assessments across the franchises.
Bring a single, portfolio-level view of external opportunities together for GBU leadership to support prioritization across the franchises.
Work closely with each franchise’s new product planning team and the central BD and M&A teams to build a systematic, joined-up approach to sourcing and scoping opportunities.
Connect activity across the franchises so the GBU pursues external growth in a coordinated rather than fragmented way, surfacing synergies and avoiding duplication.
Act as the GBU-level point of coordination between the franchises, central BD/M&A, and Finance through the opportunity-assessment process.
Provide scientifically grounded assessment of assets and targets, working with franchise and functional experts on mechanism, clinical rationale, and competitive landscape.
Support valuation and business-case development for priority opportunities, working closely with Finance to connect commercial assumptions to the underlying financial analysis.
Translate complex scientific, clinical, and commercial inputs into clear analysis that supports investment discussions.
Serve as a thought partner to the Global Head of Strategy & Operations on the GBU’s BD/M&A and licensing priorities and its pipeline of external opportunities.
Improve the efficiency of the GBU’s opportunity-assessment process so decisions are well-supported and timely.
Capture and share good practice across the franchises to raise the overall standard of corporate development work in the GBU.