The posting
About the company
Deep Origin is a biotech startup building an operating system for science that transforms how life science research is conducted. Led by Michael Antonov, co-founder of Oculus, and backed by Formic Ventures, we are redefining the infrastructure behind modern drug discovery.
Our AI-driven platform enables scientists to accelerate discovery, reduce cost, and bring breakthrough innovations to life faster. As we scale our scientific platform and expand our portfolio of research, biotech, pharmaceutical, and government partnerships, building strong and enduring relationships with our collaborators is critical to advancing our mission to dramatically reduce disease and extend human healthspan.
About the role
Deep Origin is seeking an Alliance Manager to own the day-to-day management of our growing portfolio of scientific and drug discovery partnerships.
This is a highly hands-on, client-facing role at the intersection of science, relationship management, program execution, and business development. You will serve as the primary point of contact for active collaborations, ensuring that scientific milestones stay on track, governance structures work effectively, meetings lead to clear actions, and potential issues are identified before they become problems.
We are looking for someone who wants to do the work: build relationships, run meetings, maintain milestone trackers, coordinate across teams, identify risks, follow through on commitments, and establish the operational structure that allows partnerships to succeed.
Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.
Requirements
- 3-5 years of experience in alliance management, partnership management, biotech/pharma business development or a closely related role.
- Experience managing external partnerships involving multiple organizations and internal stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to own day-to-day external partner relationships rather than operating solely as an internal project manager.
- Experience managing multiple simultaneous partnerships, milestones, meetings, deliverables, and changing timelines.
- Bachelor's or higher degree in biology, chemistry, biotechnology, life sciences, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant scientific experience.
- Strong scientific fluency and understanding of the drug development process (small molecules).
- Ability to follow discussions involving areas such as safety toxicology, ADMET, and hit-to-lead drug discovery and understand their relevance to program progress, even without being the scientific domain expert.
- Strong relationship-building instincts and a highly client-facing mindset.
- Ability to build trust quickly and communicate credibly with both scientists and business stakeholders.
- Strong judgment around when to escalate a partner issue versus resolving it independently.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to adapt communication appropriately for external partners and internal stakeholders.
- Highly organized and proactive, with the ability to establish structure where processes are still evolving.
- Comfortable operating in a fast-moving startup environment where priorities, milestones, and timelines may change.
- Ability to operate independently while collaborating closely with scientific, product, program, and commercial teams.
- Willingness and ability to travel regularly to partner sites, company meetings, and relevant industry conferences.
- Experience managing partnerships from both sides of an alliance: managing a large pharmaceutical partner while working within a biotech company andmanaging smaller biotech, academic, or research partners from within a larger organization.
Nice-to-have:
- Experience working in biotechnology, pharmaceutical R&D, drug discovery, computational biology, or a related life sciences environment.
- Familiarity with government-funded scientific programs or collaborations, including ARPA-H, DARPA, NIH, or similar mechanisms.
- Experience establishing or operating Joint Scientific Committees or comparable partnership governance structures.
- Experience working with multi-year research collaborations involving scientific milestones and formal governance.
- Management consulting experience involving life sciences, biotech, or pharmaceutical clients.
- Experience supporting partnership renewals, expansions, or commercial development opportunities.
Key responsibilities
- Own partner relationships: serve as the primary point of contact for scientific and drug discovery partnerships, managing communication, meetings, follow-ups, and ongoing engagement.
- Manage partnership governance: establish and maintain milestone trackers, meeting cadences, deliverables, action items, and governance processes across multiple collaborations.
- Lead Joint Scientific Committees (JSCs): own JSC structure, agendas, preparation, documentation, and follow-through while partnering closely with scientific leadership.
- Coordinate scientific programs: work across R&D, toxicology, product, commercial, and BD teams to keep scientific objectives, partner expectations, timelines, and execution aligned.
- Identify and escalate risks early: monitor partnership health and proactively surface scientific, operational, timeline, or relationship risks before they become critical.
- Support growth within existing partnerships: identify signals for renewals, expansions, and new collaboration opportunities and share relevant commercial intelligence with BD and commercial leadership.
- Drive cross-functional alignment: ensure effective handoffs from BD into execution and maintain clear communication between partner teams and internal scientific, product, and commercial stakeholders.
- Support complex collaborations: help manage partnerships across biotech, pharma, academia, and government, including programs with formal milestones, reporting requirements, and multiple participating organizations.
Values & Working Style
- Ownership mindset — you take responsibility for the health of your partnerships and follow issues through to resolution.
- Hands-on execution — you are comfortable doing the detailed work required to keep partnerships moving, not just developing strategy.
- Relationship-driven — you understand that successful alliances depend on trust, credibility, responsiveness, and clear communication.
- Scientifically curious — you don't need to be the domain expert in every program, but you want to understand the science well enough to recognize what matters.
- Proactive — you identify gaps, risks, and missing structure before someone asks you to address them.
- Highly organized — you can manage a complex portfolio without allowing milestones, commitments, or follow-ups to fall through the cracks.
- Strong communicator — particularly internally, where you ensure the right people have the right context at the right time.
- Comfortable with ambiguity — you can establish structure while working in a rapidly evolving biotech startup.
- Commercially aware — you recognize when a strong scientific partnership may create opportunities for deeper collaboration.
What we offer:
- Opportunity to play a central role in Deep Origin's most important scientific and commercial partnerships.
- Direct exposure to cutting-edge drug discovery, computational science, AI-driven research, and government-funded biomedical programs.
- Significant ownership over building Deep Origin's alliance management practices and governance frameworks.
- Opportunity to work closely with senior leadership team.
- Career growth as the partnership portfolio and alliance management function expand.
Why This Role Matters Now
Deep Origin's partnership portfolio is expanding across biotech, pharmaceutical, and government-funded scientific collaborations. As these programs grow in number and complexity, successful execution requires dedicated ownership after a partnership is signed.
Creating a dedicated Alliance Management function will allow Deep Origin to establish consistent governance, improve partner experience, identify risks earlier, and create stronger pathways toward renewal and expansion.
The person joining this role will have the opportunity not only to manage existing partnerships, but also to help build the operating model for how Deep Origin manages scientific alliances as the company scales.
Benefits
- Competitive compensation package with meaningful equity.
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage.
- Remote-friendly culture with optional onsite work.
- Annual team gatherings and company events.
- Free lunch, snacks, beverages, and onsite gym access (for in-office employees).
