The posting
The Problem
Severe mental illness affects over 15 million adults in the United States. Schizophrenia. Schizoaffective disorder. Bipolar I. Treatment-resistant depression. These are the conditions the rest of healthcare has systematically failed to build for.
What makes this problem different from most of healthcare is that the tools to solve it do not exist. The clinical protocols, the measurement science, the precision medicine, the technology to deliver coordinated longitudinal outpatient care for this population. None of it has been built. This is a frontier problem, and it requires frontier science and care delivery to solve.
We are developing all of it. The care, the science, the technology.
The Problem
Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, bipolar I disorder, and treatment-resistant depression are where psychiatry needs new therapies most, and where drug development has struggled most. Trials fight high placebo response and endpoints built on infrequent rating scales. After launch, there is little real-world evidence on what happens to patients once a prescription is written.
The missing piece is the care setting itself: a place where these patients are seen several times a week, measured continuously, and treated by psychiatrists who can tell the industry what works. We are building that place.
Who We Are
Amae Health is a Series B, venture-backed Public Benefit Corporation delivering psychiatry-led specialty outpatient care for people with complex mental illness through high-acuity, in-person clinics in California, New York, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.
Our integrated model brings psychiatry, therapy, primary care, dietitians, and community support together under one roof. Leading health systems, including NewYork-Presbyterian, Cedars-Sinai, Mass General Brigham, Novant Health, and CommonSpirit, collaborate with us to expand this level of care.
Alongside care delivery, we are building the science and technology the field has long lacked: proprietary clinical protocols, novel measurement, and an AI-driven data platform. Patients typically come to us after a hospitalization and stay with us from partial hospitalization through intensive outpatient and maintenance care. That produces a longitudinal, multimodal clinical record: standardized assessments, clinical documentation, speech and language data, labs, and wearables, organized in one data model.
That record already supports research. We have run an IRB-approved interventional study in our clinics, built a machine learning model that flags signs of psychosis from session transcripts alone, and announced a collaboration with Google Health to bring continuous wearable measurement into psychiatric care.
The Team
We are clinicians, operators, technologists, and scientists who chose Amae because the problem is hard and the stakes are real. Every function exists to serve one goal: better outcomes for the people we care for.
You will report to and partner directly with Amae's founder and CEO to develop our first life sciences partnerships. You will own the day-to-day commercial process, while our Chief Medical Officer, CTO, and clinical and research teams help assess feasibility, develop scientific scope, and deliver the work.
The Role
Amae is hiring its first Head of Life Sciences Partnerships. This is a senior, hands-on individual contributor role focused on originating and closing our first pharma and biotech partnerships. You will work directly with the CEO to identify where Amae's clinical, research, measurement, and data capabilities solve meaningful problems for life sciences companies. The right buyers and initial offerings are still taking shape; your job is to turn that ambiguity into commercially viable opportunities.
Some conversations you will lead alongside the CEO, and others you will lead independently. In both cases, you will own preparation, follow-up, stakeholder navigation, and deal progression from initial meeting to signed agreement. You will explore medical affairs, HEOR, R&D, commercial, and other teams without assuming which buyers will emerge first. Our clinical and research experts will lead scientific scoping and delivery. The immediate priority is closing deals, not hiring a team. The position is based in San Francisco, with travel of up to 30%.
What You Will Own
- Open doors. Build a focused target list with the CEO and secure meetings with relevant pharma and biotech decision-makers. Draw on existing relationships where useful, but be equally effective opening new accounts.
- Discover the buyer and need. Lead conversations across medical affairs, HEOR, R&D, commercial, and other groups to uncover priority problems, identify decision-makers and budget owners, and qualify where Amae has a credible commercial opportunity.
- Own the deal process. Prepare substantive meetings with the CEO, lead follow-up, map stakeholders, coordinate internal input, and drive clear next steps. Turn early interest into qualified opportunities with identifiable champions, budgets, and a path forward.
- Structure and close deals. Translate buyer needs into a clear opportunity brief for our clinical, research, and data teams. Partner with them on feasibility and scientific scope; own the commercial proposal, pricing discussions, negotiation, and contracting alongside Legal and Compliance, with clinical independence and patient trust at the center.
- Learn and focus. Maintain a disciplined, lightweight pipeline and use market feedback to refine which use cases and buyer groups deserve focus. As the business matures, the role may expand into partner growth and building the function.
In your first year, success means access to relevant decision-makers, a qualified pipeline with identifiable buyer needs, budget owners, and actionable next steps, and Amae's first signed, revenue-generating pharma or biotech collaborations. The emphasis is on opportunity quality, deal progression, and commercial outcomes, not headcount or process for its own sake.
What You'll Bring
- Typically 7+ years in life sciences business development, partnerships, or related commercial roles, with substantial hands-on experience selling to pharma or biotech.
- A demonstrated individual contributor track record of personally sourcing, developing, and closing pharma or biotech business. Be prepared to discuss specific deals, how you gained access, identified budget, navigated decisions, and brought the opportunity to signature.
- Experience creating opportunities while the offering, buyer, or use case was still being defined, rather than relying on a mature product and established sales motion.
- Demonstrated ability to gain access to relevant decision-makers, build relationships from scratch, identify budget owners, and navigate complex pharma buying processes.
- Commercial judgment to explore medical affairs, HEOR, R&D, commercial, and other functions without assuming in advance where the strongest demand will be.
- Scientific and clinical fluency sufficient to ask good questions, triage opportunities, and collaborate credibly with psychiatrists, researchers, data scientists, and pharma leaders. You do not need to scope studies independently.
- Strong commercial execution, including meeting preparation, persistent follow-through, proposals, negotiation, and the ability to sustain momentum through long, multi-stakeholder sales cycles.
- The independence and judgment to operate as a senior partner to a founder CEO: comfortable challenging ideas constructively, working through ambiguity, and taking ownership without a large team or established playbook.
An advanced scientific degree is not required.
Nice to Have
- An existing network in CNS and psychiatry at pharma or biotech
- Familiarity with real-world evidence, HEOR, digital biomarkers, novel endpoints, or the current psychiatry pipeline
Compensation and Benefits
Amae Health is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The base salary range for this role is $160,000 to $190,000 per year, plus variable compensation tied to contracted partnership revenue and meaningful equity. Final pay depends on experience. Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage. Parental leave and programs built around well-being. We'll share specifics during the interview process.
What We Value
- We center care in all we do. Empathy is not a brand value. It's how we make clinical decisions, build products, and treat each other.
- We challenge convention. The existing system is the problem. We question it, we test alternatives, and we move with urgency when something works.
- We take the work seriously, not ourselves. High standards and humanity are not in tension. We hold a hard bar for quality while leaving room for humor and levity.
- Your job isn't done until the job is done. We close gaps, we follow through, and we don't hide behind titles or org charts.
- We win together and fail together. We own outcomes as a team. We learn fast. We don't do blame.
- We hustle with humility. Speed matters. So does integrity. We assume best intent and stay grounded in the mission.
Amae Health is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applicants from every background and life experience to apply.
What We Value
- We center care in all we do. Empathy is not a brand value. It’s how we make clinical decisions, build products, and treat each other.
- We challenge convention. The existing system is the problem. We question it, we test alternatives, and we move with urgency when something works.
- We take the work seriously, not ourselves. High standards and humanity are not in tension. We hold a hard bar for quality while leaving room for humor and levity.
- Your job isn’t done until the job is done. We close gaps, we follow through, and we don’t hide behind titles or org charts.
- We win together and fail together. We own outcomes as a team. We learn fast. We don’t do blame.
- We hustle with humility. Speed matters. So does integrity. We assume best intent and stay grounded in the mission.
