Strategic Partnerships & External Ventures Lead

Pfizer Inc; Tadworth; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Pfizer is seeking a proactive deal-flow and partnerships professional within Information & Business Tech in the UK. Your role will generate external opportunities, engage innovation partners, and articulate Pfizer's value to founders and investors.

You will own end-to-end management of partnerships, coordinate with Legal, Procurement, Finance and business sponsors, and drive onboarding while maintaining governance and speed. The closing deadline is November 10.

Qualifications

• Significant relevant experience in venture capital, corporate development, business development, strategic partnerships, technology commercialisation or an innovation-facing commercial role; (further experience required for candidates without an advanced degree).
• Demonstrated ownership of complex external partnerships or transactions involving senior internal sponsors and multiple control functions.
• An established network across relevant innovation and investment ecosystems, or a demonstrated record of building trusted networks quickly.
• Technically literate enough to assess novelty and feasibility at a high level and to recognise when specialist diligence is required.
• Commercially disciplined. Keeps organisational need ahead of market enthusiasm and can stop an attractive but irrelevant opportunity.
• Comfortable representing Pfizer externally at senior level and influencing the same level internally without direct authority.
• Experienced in negotiating through ambiguity, conflicting interests and incomplete information, with clear documentation of decisions and obligations.

Responsibilities

• Generate deal flow across innovation hubs, universities, venture capital firms and other investors.
• Articulate Pfizer's value to founders and investors.
• Match external opportunity to internal need. Every proposal must connect to an identified organisational capability of the AI-native model.
• Provide the outside-in view on every investment memo, including internally generated proposals: available market alternatives, rent-or-partner economics, adoption evidence and relevant reference users.
• Negotiate and shape partner terms with Legal, Procurement, Finance and business sponsors, and maintain the view of whether each relationship delivers its intended value.
• Own and drive vendor onboarding from partner selection through operational readiness. Establish a clear path across Procurement, Legal, Compliance, Security, Privacy, Finance and the accountable business owner; initiate required reviews early; run activities in parallel where permitted; and remove avoidable delays without bypassing controls. Make the onboarding experience predictable, responsive and fully compliant, with speed becoming a competitive advantage of partnering with Pfizer.
• Assess at working level how novel and defensible an approach or technology is, distinguishing genuine differentiation from a wrapper.
• Secure a named internal sponsor and clear business owner before an external proposal becomes a memo.
• For Pfizer internal build programs, actively monitor external solutions, and feed the investment memo with a clear suggestion.
• Own end-to-end programme and project management for external opportunities and partnerships: define the path from discovery to decision and contracting, coordinate diligence and approvals, manage dependencies and risks, elevate issues, and close or transition each opportunity with a documented outcome.
• Declines external approaches at screen stage. Determines which external relationships are pursued and recommends terms within the Committee mandate; commercial and legal approvals remain with the appropriate governance bodies.

Job description

Pfizer is seeking a proactive deal-flow and partnerships professional within Information & Business Tech in the UK. Your role will generate external opportunities, engage innovation partners, and articulate Pfizer's value to founders and investors.

You will own end-to-end management of partnerships, coordinate with Legal, Procurement, Finance and business sponsors, and drive onboarding while maintaining governance and speed. The closing deadline is November 10.