Country Managing Director — Precision-Oncology Portfolio

The mandate

An international biotechnology group has licensed United States rights to an antibody-drug conjugate discovered by an Asian partner. Early clinical data support expansion into a tumour type that was not central to the original agreement. That opportunity could materially increase US value, but the contract leaves several practical questions open: who funds additional cohorts, which party controls biomarker development, how global safety data are reconciled, and whether future combinations fall inside the licensed field.

The US operation in San Diego has strong development talent but is not yet a complete country business. Decisions move between headquarters, the originating partner and functional leaders; each acts reasonably within its remit, yet no executive owns the combined US outcome. The next protocol amendment, diagnostic strategy and manufacturing reservation will create obligations before a commercial organisation formally exists. The board wants accountable leadership in place before those choices harden.

The Country Managing Director will carry the US enterprise plan from shared development through launch preparation. The role combines country P&L, partnership governance, development priorities, regulatory coordination, market access preparation, organisation build and board representation. It is not a licence-management post. The MD must create an operating relationship in which both companies can contribute evidence without relitigating the contract at every scientific development.

Approximately 450 employees and material partners sit within the US perimeter across research, development, technical operations and enabling functions. The role is based on site in San Diego, reports to the group board and Group Chief Executive, and will involve regular travel within the United States and to partner governance meetings in Asia. The MD must respect global asset ownership while being unequivocal about US regulatory, patient and commercial needs.

Why this seat is open

This is a newly established country leadership role. The US organisation grew around projects and specialist functions, with the Group Chief Executive informally arbitrating cross-company decisions. The licensing inflection makes that arrangement too slow and exposes the board to commitments without one accountable owner. The appointment is planned as part of the next operating phase rather than a response to an individual departure.

What you will own

• Hold the US enterprise plan and an annual development and build investment above USD 250 million, reconciling clinical, diagnostic, regulatory, manufacturing and market-access priorities.
• Lead joint governance with the originating partner, ensuring decisions, reserved rights, cost shares, data exchange and escalation routes are recorded and executable.
• Resolve the proposed tumour-expansion and combination strategy, including whether work falls within the licensed field and how incremental evidence, rights and economics should be treated.
• Define US biomarker and diagnostic requirements, integrating tissue practice, assay strategy, regulatory pathway and the evidence payers and clinicians will need.
• Represent the US company in regulator interactions and ensure global safety, chemistry and clinical inputs arrive in a form and timetable suitable for US submissions.
• Build the country leadership model across development, medical, access, commercial readiness, finance, people and operations while preserving independent quality and safety authority.
• Establish a launch-readiness sequence proportionate to evidence, using explicit gates for hiring, vendor contracts, distribution, patient services and customer work.
• Create a constructive connection between roughly 450 US employees and international headquarters, preventing both local exceptionalism and remote functional control from weakening accountability.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Map every US obligation and disputed interpretation in the licence, test the assumptions behind the expansion plan and establish a weekly cross-functional country review. Build direct relationships with the partner’s decision-makers and agree which questions require formal joint-governance resolution before additional patients or capacity are committed.
• Months 4–9: Secure a documented decision on expansion funding, biomarker ownership, data use and combination boundaries. Submit or prepare the required regulatory package, align manufacturing reservations to the agreed cohorts and appoint the core country team. Introduce a gated US build plan linked to evidence rather than calendar dates.
• Months 10–12: Demonstrate enrolment and data-flow performance against the amended plan, close any residual licence amendments and present a coherent US value and access case to the board. Complete succession coverage for critical country roles and confirm which commercial capabilities must be owned, shared or externally supplied.

What the board will measure

• Joint-governance decisions reached within contractual timeframes, with no material US programme activity proceeding under an unresolved rights or cost interpretation.
• Enrolment, biomarker testing and safety-data reconciliation for the US expansion delivered against the approved evidence plan.
• Development and readiness investment maintained inside the USD 250 million-plus perimeter, with staged commitments and visible downside actions.
• Regulatory submissions and interactions supported by complete, consistent global data and no avoidable delay caused by partner hand-offs.
• A country organisation with clear accountable owners, functioning executive forums and reduced escalation of routine choices to group leadership.
• Preservation of important US combination, diagnostic and data rights in any amendment, assessed against boundaries agreed before negotiation.

The person

You are a country president, managing director, oncology business-unit head or regional development-and-commercial leader with at least 28 years in innovative biopharma or biotechnology. You have carried a partnered asset through a substantial development or launch transition and understand the difference between contractual rights and the daily behaviours required to exercise them. You have owned a P&L or investment plan of at least USD 250 million and led at least 300 employees.

Your experience includes precision oncology, antibody-drug conjugates, targeted biologics or another modality in which biomarkers, combinations and cross-company data matter. You have sat in joint steering or development committees with actual authority, resolved a contested scope or funding issue, and maintained the scientific relationship after the negotiation. Direct US regulatory and market-development experience is essential.

The board will examine how you build a country enterprise inside a global group. You can challenge headquarters with evidence, but do not create an independent local strategy by stealth. You respect safety, quality and medical independence while insisting that functional leaders commit to one US plan. Experience working with Asian-originated science or partners is valuable; cultural slogans are not a substitute for precise governance.

The successful candidate will work on site in San Diego and travel regularly to partner and US stakeholder meetings. International candidates require current US operating experience and a credible relocation plan. This appointment suits a leader who can move between protocol decisions, licence language, organisation choices and board economics without treating any one as someone else’s domain.

Compensation and terms

Base salary is expected to fall between USD 500,000 and USD 750,000, accompanied by annual incentive and long-term participation. Performance will be assessed through US development execution, partnership decision quality, preservation of strategic rights, organisational readiness and capital discipline. This is a permanent, on-site appointment reporting to the group board and Group Chief Executive. Relocation and substantiated forfeited awards may be addressed.

Confidentiality

The company, molecule, partner and licence terms are confidential. They will be disclosed progressively after the search team verifies relevance and the necessary agreement is signed. Candidates must not contact possible licensors, investigators or employees to determine the client’s identity.

Each response must contain no more than 49 words.