Connecticut Innovations I CBIF Senior Associate/Associate

Connecticut Innovations; New Haven (CT); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plan options

Generous paid time off

Flexible work schedules

Job summary

Connecticut Innovations is seeking a CBIF Senior Associate/Associate to join its venture team in New Haven. The role focuses on sourcing and evaluating healthcare and life sciences investments, conducting market and financial analyses, and supporting portfolio growth through strategic initiatives.

The ideal candidate has a PhD or MD/PhD with strong experience in venture-backed environments, due diligence, and deal execution.

Qualifications

• PhD strongly preferred; MD/PhD highly desirable.
• Knowledge of the healthcare and life sciences landscape including therapeutics, biotechnology, medtech, diagnostics, and digital health.
• Experience in market, product, competitive and valuation analysis.
• Startup/growth experience in a venture-backed company is highly valued, especially as a founder.
• Experience in investment origination, due diligence, deal execution, and portfolio company management is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Shape CBIF's point of view on innovation in healthcare, life sciences, and related sectors.
• Source and evaluate new investment opportunities across healthcare, life sciences, and enabling technologies.
• Assess startups and growth-stage companies through market, product, competitive and technology analysis.
• Lead financial modeling, support deal structuring, and participate in closing investment terms.

Skills

Healthcare landscape

Life sciences landscape

Market analysis

Investment evaluation

Portfolio management

Education

PhD strongly preferred; MD/PhD desirable

Master's degree in business or science considered

Tools

Financial modeling

Job description

Connecticut Innovations (CI)

CI is Connecticut's strategic venture capital arm and one of the most active early-stage investors on the eastern seaboard. CI has a portfolio of 250+ companies across 5 equity funds and a 1 venture debt fund. We have $550 million in assets under management, and our venture portfolio employs 4,000 jobs. In a typical year, we deploy $50 million and write between 60-80 checks. We review 750 companies per year and invite over 100 founders in to pitch us each year. We add 30 new companies to our portfolio annually, and we also invest as an LP in Connecticut-based venture capital funds.

We measure success through both financial returns and economic impact, including job creation. Over the past decade, CI has generated more than $400 million in returns and cumulatively, our portfolio companies have raised over $8 billion.

• Fiscal 2026 was our best year on record. We generated $76.1 million in cash proceeds from all investment activities. Most of those proceeds came from our strong New Haven bioscience sector. In FY26 actuals, we invested $59.3 million into 75 early-stage companies and venture funds, and those deals pulled an additional $1.2 billion of outside capital into the state.
• As of July 2026, CI earned the #1 spot in New England for portfolio exit value and ranked among top 5 East Coast venture firms investing at the Series B stage or earlier. Over the past 365 days, CI generated more than $125 million in cash returns.

Our culture is vibrant, diverse, collaborative, and inclusive. We embrace perspective and have mission alignment on our impact to Connecticut's innovation ecosystem.

Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund (CBIF)

CBIF is a $200 million fund that deploys equity and loans to move bioscience breakthroughs to market faster. The portfolio spans more than 100 companies across therapeutics, biotech, diagnostics, medical devices, life science tools and digital health. Since 2013 our bioscience investment activity has more than doubled, and the portfolio has leveraged $3.5+ billion in outside capital.

In November 2025, Johnson & Johnson announced its acquisition of Halda Therapeutics for approximately $3.05 billion in cash. Just three months later, in February 2026, New Haven's Veradermics raised $256.3 million in its IPO, with market cap today exceeding $4 billion. In April, its lead candidate, VDPHL01, posted positive Phase 2/3 topline results, meeting all primary and key secondary endpoints.

• Recent bioscience IPOs : Arvinas, Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, RallyBio, Sema4, Veradermics.
• Recent bioscience acquisitions : Avitus, Biorez, Dia Imaging Analysis, Diameter Health, Halda Therapeutics, Medically Home, Modifi Bio, Populi.

CBIF Senior Associate/Associate

The CBIF Venture Team is a small team. Each team member plays a pivotal role as part of the investment due diligence process and post-investment, as part of scaling the portfolio company. It is a team that embraces diversity of thought, listens with an open mind, thinks big and concretely, and invests with the mission in mind.

This is a unique hands-on venture capital experience in an innovative and collaborative work environment. This opportunity to contribute, add value, and make an economic impact in the State of Connecticut is extraordinary. We seek an absolutely elite team member to hit the ground sprinting.

Team members play a key role in executing our investment strategy by researching and cultivating promising investment opportunities and participating in all phases of the investment process including sourcing, due diligence, meetings with management, focused company and industry research, financial modeling, writing investment recommendations. Post-investment, team members monitor the portfolio company and support the business' strategic growth initiatives and potentially serve as a board member or observer.

Responsibilities

• Help shape CBIF's point of view on innovation in healthcare, life sciences, and related sectors, developing insight into where the market is heading and how investment strategy should evolve.
• Source and evaluate new investment opportunities across healthcare, life sciences, and enabling technologies.
• Assess startups and growth-stage companies through market, product, competitive, and technology analysis.
• Lead financial modeling and valuation, support deal structuring, and participate in negotiating and closing investment terms in collaboration with the CBIF team.
• Prepare investment memos, reports, and presentations for CI advisory committees and the CI Board of Directors.
• Work closely with portfolio companies to identify strategic, commercial, and partnership opportunities that drive growth and impact.
• Represent CI at industry events and within the innovation ecosystem to strengthen visibility and sourcing.

Qualifications

• PhD strongly preferred; MD/PhD highly desirable. Candidates with a Master's degree in business or science will be considered, doctoral-level training is a significant advantage.
• Knowledge of the healthcare and life sciences landscape, including therapeutics, biotechnology, medtech, diagnostics, and digital health.
• You have a network or interest in building a network within the lifesciences venture capital ecosystem, including relationships with relevant academics institutions, VCs, incubators, and accelerators.
• Experience in conducting market, product, competitive and valuation analysis.
• Startup/growth experience in a venture-backed company is highly valued, especially serving as a founder.
• Experience in investment origination, due diligence, deal execution, and portfolio company management preferred.
• Experience within biotechnology, lifesciences or medtech companies as an operator is preferred.

Personal Characteristics

• Entrepreneurial, ambitious, curious, self-starting. High energy, high effort, positive attitude - and fun to be around on a long day.
• Demonstrated excellence in multiple pursuits and love for hard work essential.
• Comfortable with autonomy and ambiguity, and good at solving problems without waiting to be handed a process.
• Willing to move between routine detail work and high-judgment thinking without losing quality in either - seniority here does not mean delegation of everything.
• The right mix of self-confidence and humility - a consummate teammate with a history of making teams perform at a higher level.
• Motivated by the double bottom line: this is public capital, and the returns fund the next generation of Connecticut companies.

How We Work – The CI Way

• We think as individuals and invest as a team. Our goal is never consensus - it is the best decision. Titles do not determine whose ideas matter. The best argument wins.
• We distinguish bad decisions from bad outcomes. Good decisions sometimes produce disappointing results, and poor decisions sometimes get lucky. We grade the quality of the thinking.
• Courage is a job requirement. When we believe an investment is wrong, we say so - in the room, on the record.
• Founders come first. Within the bounds of good judgment, we go out of our way to help entrepreneurs. We are allies, not obstacles.
• Humility and institutional memory. Every investment starts with a blank page. We are often wrong, so we stay open. We capture what each deal taught us so the next decision is better than the last.

Location

This role is based at Connecticut Innovations' headquarters in New Haven, CT at District | Coworking Space. Our team is in the office most days, unless we are out visiting companies. Connecticut residency is required; candidates from out of state are welcome to apply if you will relocate to Connecticut before your start date.

Compensation and Benefits

Connecticut Innovations offers a competitive venture capital starting salary, with additional bonus opportunities based on team and individual investment performance, excellent benefits including health/dental insurance, generous paid time off, retirement plan options, flexible work schedules, and a culture that encourages work-life balance.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Connecticut Innovations is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. We welcome all candidates to apply regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or status as a protected veteran.