The posting
About Apheris
Apheris is an AI drug discovery company. We build federated data networks and customizable AI models across co-folding, binding affinity, ADMET, in vivo PK, and antibody developability. Our position is one no one else holds: models trained on proprietary pharma data that no public model can reach, and a platform that puts them to work inside real drug programmes. We already work with 15+ pharmaceutical companies, including 9 of the top 20.
We are now looking for a Director of Marketing to own how the market understands that.
About the role
We are looking for a Director of Scientific & Product Marketing to own how the drug discovery community understands what Apheris does.
Our audience is a few hundred people across roughly 100 priority accounts, nearly all of them scientists: heads of AI, heads of drug discovery and, increasingly, CSOs. They read the preprints, check the benchmarks and spot fluff instantly, and today our reputation is still too closely tied to the specific networks we run.
We need one clear positioning story, backed by scientific proof, that lands with senior R&D leaders and puts Apheris alongside the leading AI drug discovery companies. You will turn model results, benchmarks and publications into claims that hold up to technical scrutiny, and into campaigns that reach people through the channels they trust: scientific media, newsletters, podcasts, conferences and invite-only roundtables.
The role is hands-on from day one. You will define positioning and messaging, write and brief the content, build and run campaigns end to end, own the competitive picture and set the plan and budget, working with our scientist and our product team. You will also lead our existing team of two senior marketers, setting their priorities and helping them develop. You will export to the Senior Director, Commercial & Operations, and work closely with our CEO.
What you will do
Scientific and product marketing
- Turn our science into proof. Work with our scientists and academic partners to translate model results, benchmarks and publications into claims that hold up under technical scrutiny, and correct the misconceptions that persist about what our models do and what the public alternatives can and cannot deliver. Draft the first version of the argument yourself and take it to technical depth with the scientists.
- Follow the preprints and publications that matter in our field, including those flagged by our Scientific Advisory Board. Judge which are relevant to our work, and draft the first post or piece of collateral that adds to the scientific conversation.
- Lead product marketing for our platform and the workflows that run on it: the narrative, the pages and the pitch, translating complex product capabilities into messaging each audience can use. Bring what you learn from the market back into product decisions.
- Own the competitive picture, and equip the commercial team with proof points, references and benchmark write-ups that survive a technical buyer.
Campaigns and narrative
- Own positioning and narrative: the category we lead, the arguments behind it, and the discipline that makes every announcement land as proof of that story rather than as isolated news.
- Build end-to-end campaigns. Take one launch or one argument and carry it across every channel that reaches our buyers, from press and scientific media to newsletters, podcasts, events, partner channels, social and sales material, so the market hears one message repeatedly instead of a series of unconnected posts.
- Shape the creative direction. It belongs everywhere: in how a campaign is built, how a result is visualised and how an event is designed. Bring ideas we would not have come up with ourselves, push them further than this industry is used to, and brief our designers and freelancers to bring them to life.
- Run launches with our brand and communications team: platform releases, network milestones and partner announcements, with partner amplification agreed in advance rather than hoped for.
Reaching our buyers
- Own marketing to R&D leadership. Build the formats that reach heads of AI and drug discovery and, increasingly, CSO, SVP and VP level around Foundry: peer proof, third-party voices, invite-only roundtables and reference stories.
- Own the event strategy, weighted to scientific conferences, symposia and closed executive formats rather than commercial booths. Decide where we appear, win the speaking slots, and run our own invite-only roundtables and dinners, including doing the inviting yourself.
- Own our channels and the relationships behind them: scientific outlets, newsletters, podcasts, the journalists who cover this field, and our scientific voice on social, with paid execution handled by our GTM team.
Team, budget and standards
- Shape the demand strategy for this named-account market with our GTM team and business development, guide growth marketing across paid and search, and hold marketing accountable for its contribution to pipeline. Revenue operations, including our CRM and reporting infrastructure, reports into you, but it is not work you need to run hands-on.
- Lead our existing team of two senior marketers: set their priorities, coach them and help them develop. Own the plan, the priorities and the budget, and bring in freelancers, design studios or specialists where they add leverage while the core capability stays in house. You are savvy in leveraging AI to complete work tasks where this is more cost-effective and efficient.
What we expect from you
- 5+ years of marketing experience, including marketing a technical product to scientific audiences in drug discovery or a close field such as life sciences, biotech tooling or AI for science
- Experience marketing to R&D leaders in pharma or biotech, and a clear sense of which conferences, invite-only formats, newsletters, podcasts and journalists matter to them and which are noise
- Has owned positioning and run campaigns end to end for a technical product
- Can read a preprint or benchmark table and judge what it does and does not prove, and write clearly from it (we will ask for a writing sample)
- Works AI-first: uses tools such as Claude in your own daily work, and can show us how
- A track record of results you can point to, and the judgement to know which claims to make and which to hold back
- Remote-first working style and excellent written and spoken English
We index on evidence of outlier performance rather than on titles, and we are willing to bet on someone earlier in their career who clearly has it.
Nice to have
- A degree or working background in chemistry, structural biology, bioinformatics or another life-science or computational discipline, including scientists who have moved into marketing
- Experience marketing AI/ML products to pharma R&D
- Early-stage or scale-up experience, ideally building a marketing function from scratch
- Familiarity with federated learning, privacy-enhancing technologies or multi-party data collaboration
- Co-marketing experience with large technology or pharma partners
- An understanding of how Head-of-level and CSO-level buyers differ, and what each is measured on
- Experience leading or mentoring a small team
What we offer you
- Industry-competitive compensation, including early-stage virtual share options.
- Remote-first working, so you work where you work best, whether from home or a co-working space near you.
- Great suite of benefits, including a wellbeing budget, mental health benefits, a work-from-home budget, a co-working stipend, and a learning and development budget.
- Generous holiday allowance.
- Office Days at our Berlin HQ or a different European location (3x a year).
- A fun, diverse team of mission-driven individuals with a drive to see AI and ML used for good.
- Plenty of room to grow personally and professionally.
