Associate Director/Director – Alliance Management

Pliant Therapeutics

Position Overview: As the Associate Director/Director of Alliance Management, you will report to the Chief Business Officer and be primarily responsible for strategic alliance management, but as part of a small team you will be asked to jump in to assist with strategy as well as more traditional business development activities as well.

This leader will be the primary point of contact for Pliant’s valuable alliances and in-licensing activities and responsible for managing and optimizing the value of Pliant’s strategic alliances at all stages of the product life cycle and in multiple therapeutic areas. Knowledge of the drug development process, excellent communication and analytical skills, and ability to manage multiple, diverse projects and priorities in a team-oriented environment, will be critical to the success of this position.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Executes in implementation of new scientific and strategic partnerships, licensing, joint ventures and alliances.
• Identifies, evaluates and pursues the strategic and financial prospects of new opportunities
• Follows-up on all partnership activity including the tracking, documentation and status reporting of all collaborations along the business development pipeline
• Manages the alliance related activities of research and development collaborations and pre-clinical and clinical programs between Pliant and external collaborators
• Ensures effective communication is occurring as needed between internal parties and external parties as it related to the collaboration
• Interacts with existing corporate contacts, facilitates communication, keeps tracks of milestones and identifies scope for enhancing these relationships
• Supports top management by providing analysis for evaluating new business opportunities such as in/out licensing, collaborative research and development agreements, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions
• Tracks and communicates key alliance deliverables, milestones, timelines, action items and payments.
• Provides other ad-hoc organizational and alliance support to Pliant where necessary and appropriate, including but not limited to interactions with key partners within Pliant and academic/industry collaborators.
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements:

• BA/BS in biology or related field required, Master’s or PhD in life sciences or MBA strongly preferred.
• At least 10+ years business development and/or alliance management experience in a biotech/pharmaceutical setting.
• Substantial prior experience in managing complex collaborations/alliances with corporate partners in settings from academia to multinational biopharma is required.
• A thorough understanding of the processes of due diligence, asset valuation, alliance integration and portfolio management combined with a scientific and business acumen is also desirable.
• Excellent people management skills and ability to align people and resources towards organizational success.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver solutions in a changing environment.
• Must demonstrate maturity and seasoned judgment in reaching critical decisions
• A wide degree of creativity and strategic thinking is expected.
• Comfortable in a fast-paced small company environment with minimal direction and able to adjust workload based upon changing priorities.
• Excellent project management skills and an ability to prioritize effectively to deliver results within aggressive timelines with the ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Strong interpersonal skills including verbal and written communication are essential in this collaborative work environment.
• Candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S.
• Ability to operate in alignment with Pliant’s values