SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Relation is a TechBio company developing transformational medicines using single-cell multi-omics, functional assays, and machine learning to drive disease understanding and discovery. The company operates state-of-the-art wet and dry labs in London and is scaling rapidly with interdisciplinary teams combining biology, computation, and engineering.
You will serve as Associate Director of Alliance Management, responsible for ensuring strategic pharma partnerships (including GSK and Novartis) thrive and deliver measurable impact. You will be the connective tissue between Relation and its partners, building trusted relationships, creating clarity across complex collaborations, and ensuring both organizations work together effectively toward shared strategic goals.
Key responsibilities include:
- Managing the health and effectiveness of strategic pharma partnerships, building trusted relationships and influencing cross-functional stakeholders at all levels
- Shaping and stewarding partnership governance to ensure meetings focus on decisions, risks, and opportunities with clear ownership and effective escalation
- Maintaining forward visibility across alliances, anticipating relational, contractual, and governance risks and surfacing them early
- Safeguarding contractual alignment by maintaining oversight of scope, milestones, reporting requirements, financial triggers, data-sharing commitments, and other obligations
- Influencing across organizational boundaries to resolve ambiguity, navigate competing perspectives, and enable timely decisions
- Leading alliance-level escalation on complex or sensitive issues
- Shaping new partnerships from diligence through launch, collaborating with Growth, Corporate, and Business Development teams
- Raising the standard of partnering at Relation by applying learning across collaborations to strengthen governance and organizational capability
You will work in a matrixed, interdisciplinary environment, partnering with Programme Leaders, senior leadership, and partner stakeholders. The role requires maintaining strategic perspective and forward visibility while managing multiple complex partnerships in a fast-moving environment.
REQUIREMENTS:
- University degree in a relevant scientific or technical field, or equivalent experience
- Significant experience in alliance management or strategic partnerships within biotech or pharmaceutical R&D, including substantial experience with large pharmaceutical partners
- Deep expertise working with complex collaboration agreements, with judgment to interpret contractual commitments, identify implications and risks, and translate them into clear actions or governance decisions
- Experience working in data-rich, technology-enabled, or AI/ML-enabled R&D environments, particularly in partnerships involving contractual alignment at the intersection of data, technology, and intellectual property
- Strong scientific and drug discovery fluency to operate credibly with senior scientific leaders and interdisciplinary teams
- Track record of influencing senior stakeholders without formal authority, navigating organizational complexity and building alignment across companies, disciplines, and competing priorities
- Strong governance judgment with experience bringing complex scientific, commercial, contractual, and relational issues to senior decision-making forums
- Exceptional communication skills with ability to distill complexity into clear, decision-ready recommendations for senior leaders and external partners
- Confidence navigating disagreement, ambiguity, and sensitive partner issues with diplomacy, sound judgment, and integrity
- Ability to maintain strategic perspective and forward visibility while overseeing multiple complex partnerships
- Bonus: Professional alliance management accreditation such as ASAP CA-AM or CSAP
