Program Director (Head) – hunt & fund early-stage innovative medical research | Top Philanthropic Foundation | seeking PhD + pharma or VC business development exp. | RETAINED SEARCH

PROGRAM DIRECTOR (Head) - Retained Search – Hunt & fund early-stage high-risk/high-reward translational medical research – Top philanthropic medical research foundation founded by US multi-billionaire – Seeking PhD with pharma / biotech / VC business development background Cornerstone Search Group has been retained by one of the world’s leading medical research philanthropic foundations to identify a PhD scientist with pharmaceutical / biotech / VC experience in Business Development for their newly-created Program Director leadership position that will partner closely with the foundation’s CSO to proactively identify, select, disburse, and manage a large portfolio of “big bets” (multi-million dollar awards) on Principal Investigators conducting exceptionally innovative drug and diagnostic translational research that can fundamentally change a field of medicine or healthcare delivery. Founded by an American billionaire, this foundation’s mission is to proactively identify and fund “high-risk/high-return” and “first in field” projects, rather than relying on the typical “call for proposal” process depended upon by more conventional funders in the biomedical research ecosystem. This foundation (and this position) actively “hunts” for breakthrough therapeutics and diagnostics that might be "stuck" in a lab because it is too expensive to manufacture or too risky for traditional VC firms and provides the "catalytic capital" to prove it works in human patients. The foundation’s awards are “non-dilutive”, meaning that no intellectual property stake is ever requested back from the university or faculty recipients. The metrics of success are deaths averted, FDA approvals of diagnostics and therapeutics, number of changes in the standards of care/year, and paradigm-changing new mechanistic knowledge for treating human disease. Foundation’s Areas of Medical Focus: The foundation’s multiple Scientific Advisory Boards align with the following areas of focus:
Regenerative medicine / stem cell therapies
Life-threatening pediatric diseases
Cancer - focus on undruggable targets and early detection
Autism spectrum disorders
Sepsis
CV/Stroke 4 Highly Attractive Features:
High-Profile Impact: How often in your career will you have the opportunity to hunt and fund early-stage translational medical research with "game changing" potential that might otherwise go unfunded due to the pharma industry and VCs considering the bets too risky?
Wide Range of Modalities & TAs: Unlike working in BD at a small biotech, or in BD for one therapeutic area at a large pharma, here you’ll exercise your scientific curiosity across a wide range of cutting-edge modalities in 6 disease areas.
Best of Both Worlds: Enjoy the most attractive aspects of industry/VC business development and alliance management without industry downsides (i.e., making deals based on financial gain rather than on significant patient unmet need | layoffs | lack of funding | hardball negotiating | getting outbid by deeper pockets)
Career Stability: The foundation’s endowment is in the multiple billions, ensuring a career long runway. In this era of pharma industry instability and staff cutbacks by companies of all sizes, having the peace of mind to work for an organization whose finances do not depend on external funding and patent expirations is priceless. Position Scope in a Nutshell:
Report to the CSO, a highly respected physician-scientist with excellent communication skills, who is looking for this position to be a true partner.
Partner with the CSO, the foundation’s multiple Scientific Advisory Board Committees, and agentic AI to scout for mostly unpublished and newly published potential new projects.
Coordinate rapid external expert peer reviews using “best practices” funding methods developed at DARPA, NIH, and large disease research specific foundations.
Partner with the CSO to identify, select, and recruit additional new expert peer reviewers to join their various Scientific Advisory Board Committees.
Represent the foundation at national research meetings.
In conjunction with the SABs, provide strategic “portfolio progress” advice to the CSO on potential additional funding partners (e.g., NIH, DoD, NSF, CDC, biomedical research-intensive foundations, and biopharma companies) to leverage additional investigations where it appears meritorious. Side-by-side partnerships with biopharmas are encouraged.
Monitor research award performance goals against milestones, publications, and budget alignment to ensure investigators fulfill research award requirements.
Oversee the daily administration and data management of the foundation’s portfolio.
Manage a Data Manager who is responsible for ensuring that all documentation is organized and tracked. Title: Program Director (Head), Medical Research Award Program Travel: Up to 25% in order to attend national research meetings, pre- and post-award PI site visits, and special research meetings Location: Greater Atlanta Metro Area
housing costs literally half of the Greater Boston area and much lower real estate taxes
shorter winters with temperatures in the 50s and little if any snow Relocation: Relocation assistance is available. Desired Skills / Qualifications / Experiences / Behaviors:
Prior pharma/biotech/VC industry business development experience (e.g., JVs, M&A), particularly with early-stage R&D identification and acquisition. Additional alliance management experience is a plus.
PhD in life sciences with bench laboratory experience
A publication record with some original peer-reviewed research that employs molecular biology
Strong entrepreneurial spirit
Boundless intellectual curiosity
Proactive self-starter with an urgency to deliver new solutions to life threatening diseases.
A relationship builder who can forge strong bonds with academic researchers, funding partners in other foundations, and stakeholders in universities, government, and biopharmas.
Strong planning, project management, and process improvement skills with the bandwidth to juggle multiple programs and projects simultaneously. These are pluses, but not required:
Research background in immunology, neuroscience, cell biology, pharmacology, or microbiology
Experience with the design, conduct, and reporting of IRB-approved clinical trials in diagnostics or therapeutics or population sciences.
Experience within teams that were successful in grant writing with organizations such as the NCI, NIH, DoD, NSF, VA, CDC, biomedical research foundations, health care systems, or relevant federal and state agencies.
Demonstrated relationships with public agencies or private foundations that fund medical research.
Experience in biomedical research projects within, or in partnership with, the NIH, CDC, VA, or FDA. CONTACT: Corey S. Ackerman, JD | Senior Partner cackerman@cornerstonesg.com www.linkedin.com/in/coreyackerman 973.656.0220 x716 CORNERSTONE SEARCH GROUP - Life Sciences Executive Search 1200 Morris Turnpike, Suite 3005 | Short Hills, NJ (USA) Cornerstone Search Group, recognized by Forbes as one of the "Top 100 Executive Search Firms" and by Hunt Scanlon as one of the "Top 50 Healthcare & Life Sciences Executive Search Firms", is a Life Sciences Executive Search firm that helps companies and organizations based around the world, ranging from startup biotechs to Top 10 pharma and related entities, to find, attract, and hire talent for their US and globally based leadership positions (CxO and xVP levels) as well as their critical Director-level roles. Representative Retained Search Assignments:
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