Director, Alliance Management

Summit Therapeutics, Inc.; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 203,000 - 253,000; Full time

Job summary

Summit Therapeutics Inc. in Palo Alto seeks a Director, Alliance Management to lead external partnerships and drive strategic evolution across collaborations, ensuring scientific, clinical, and commercial potential through trust and operational excellence.

You will coordinate with program teams, R&D, Regulatory, Legal, and Commercial, manage joint committees, track milestones, report to leadership, and shape alliance strategy to maximize value.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA preferred.
• Minimum 10+ years of oncology biopharma alliance management experience.
• Experience with end-to-end program planning and external collaborations.
• Strong contracting, joint committee, and relationship-management skills.
• Proven cross-functional leadership and strategic alliance execution.
• Excellent communication and public-speaking abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead alliance governance, startup, joint committees, and oversight across partnered programs.
• Serve as primary contact for alliance partners, facilitating communication and issue resolution.
• Monitor milestones, deliverables, and KPIs with timely reporting.
• Collaborate with Program Team, R&D, Clinical, Regulatory, Legal, Market Planning and Commercial teams.
• Develop and implement alliance management frameworks to improve efficiency and value realization.
• Prepare updates and strategic insights for leadership on alliance health, risks, and opportunities.

Skills

Alliance Management

Contracting

Joint Committees

Cross-Functional Leadership

Public Speaking

MS Office

Smartsheets

Project Management

Education

Bachelor’s degree

MBA preferred

Tools

MS Office

Smartsheets

MS Project

Job description

About Summit

Summit Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical oncology company with a mission focused on improving quality of life, increasing potential duration of life, and resolving serious unmet medical needs. At Summit, we believe in building a team of world class professionals who are passionate about this mission, and it is our people who drive this mission to reality. Summit’s core values include integrity, passion for excellence, purposeful urgency, collaboration, and our commitment to people. Our employees are truly the heart and soul of our culture, and they are invaluable in shaping our journey toward excellence.

About Summit

Summit Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical oncology company with a mission focused on improving quality of life, increasing potential duration of life, and resolving serious unmet medical needs. At Summit, we believe in building a team of world class professionals who are passionate about this mission, and it is our people who drive this mission to reality. Summit’s core values include integrity, passion for excellence, purposeful urgency, collaboration, and our commitment to people. Our employees are truly the heart and soul of our culture, and they are invaluable in shaping our journey toward excellence.

Summit’s Team Is Inspired To Touch And Help Change Lives Through Summit’s Clinical Studies In The Field Of Oncology. Summit Has Multiple Global Phase 3 Clinical Studies, Including

Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

• HARMONi: Phase 3 clinical study which was intended to evaluate ivonescimab combined with chemotherapy compared to placebo plus chemotherapy in patients with EGFR-mutated, locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC who were previously treated with a 3rd generation EGFR TKI.
• HARMONi-3: Phase 3 clinical study which is intended to evaluate ivonescimab combined with chemotherapy compared to pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy in patients with first-line metastatic NSCLC.
• HARMONi-7: Phase 3 clinical study which is intended to evaluate ivonescimab monotherapy compared to pembrolizumab monotherapy in patients with first-line metastatic NSCLC.

Colorectal Cancer (CRC)

• HARMONi-GI3: Phase 3 clinical study intended to evaluate ivonescimab in combination with chemotherapy compared with bevacizumab plus chemotherapy.

Ivonescimab is an investigational therapy not presently approved by any regulatory authority other than China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). Summit is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and has additional offices in California, New Jersey, the UK, and Ireland.

Overview Of Role

The Director, Alliance Management leads the performance and strategic evolution of assigned external partnerships. This role ensures that alliances deliver on their scientific, clinical, and commercial potential by fostering trust, transparency, and operational excellence across collaborations. Role reports to the Senior Director Alliance Strategy & Management, works closely with the VP BD & Strategic Alliances, plus Business & Strategy colleagues. This leader is a key contributor to alliance strategy, Akeso alliance management and combinations partnership planning. This includes execution of day-to-day communications, or activities, operational coordination and integration with partners and program team, plus maintaining Summit oversight. Routine collaboration, maintenance, tracking and executive reporting to be established and maintained as the company grows.

This role interfaces with internal & external partners, driving alignment, accelerating joint OKR achievement, resolving issues, and unlocking long-term value. The capabilities to contribute to strategy building, delivering operational plans and executing the details is essential. The ideal candidate brings proven experience in alliance management, contracting, Joint Committees, strong cross-functional leadership, and a proactive mindset to maximize the impact of external innovation.

Role And Responsibilities

• Alliance Governance & Oversight Lead collaboration planning, activation and execution; to include start-up, joint committees, governance forums, and operational reviews to ensure strategic alignment and execution across partnered programs.
• Relationship Management Serve as point of contact for alliance partners, building trust, facilitating communication, and resolving issues with speed and diplomacy; a face and voice of the company externally.
• Milestone & Performance Tracking Monitor progress against contractual milestones, deliverables, and KPIs; ensure timely reporting and actively solving issues.
• Strategic Integration & Value Realization Collaborate with internal teams to integrate alliance activities into broader portfolio and pipeline strategies, ensuring long-term value creation across tumors, indications and regions.
• Cross-Functional Coordination Partner with Program Team, R&D, Clinical, Regulatory, Legal, Market Planning and Commercial teams to align joint program execution, decision-making, and resource planning.
• Continuous Improvement & Best Practices Develop and implement alliance management frameworks, dynamic tools, and processes to enhance efficiency, speed to execution, transparency, and partner satisfaction.
• Executive Reporting & Communication Prepare updates and strategic insights for the Department Head and Executive leadership on alliance progress, health, risks, and opportunities.

Experience, Education And Specialized Knowledge And Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field required; Advanced degree preferred (MBA, Masters, etc.), dual scientific and business background is a strong plus.
• Minimum of 10+ years of experience in oncology biopharma with a primary focus on alliance management; end-to-end to end program planning is a plus.
• Prior oncology drug experience in late-stage development and/or commercial stage required; strong understanding of oncology drug development, scientific platforms, and global commercial dynamics.
• Hands-on experience leading pharma or biotech drug development clinical trial collaboration start-up & management with external partners required.
• Understanding or experience in collaboration preparation, kick-off meetings, joint clinical trial or project management to ensure successful contract implementation & relationship management.
• Proficient user of MS Office suite (e.g., PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Project), experience using electronic document management systems, document review tools and can quickly build presentations for leaders/teams.
• Prior experience with technology tools (e.g. Smartsheets, MS Project) in planning, maintenance and communication of information is highly desirable.
• Excellent communicator in public-speaking, meeting facilitation and email communication.
• Ability to excel in a fast-paced, demanding and diverse environment that includes global virtual meetings outside standard business hours.
• Ability to travel to collaboration or business meetings, to include semi-frequent travel to hub office locations in Summit territories or collaboration partner sites.
• Role is primarily office-based.
• All other duties as assigned

This is the pay for this position

Pay Transparency

$203,000 - $253,000 USD

Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience, certifications, and specific work location. This may be different in other locations due to differences in the cost of labor. The total compensation package for this position may also include bonus, stock, benefits and/or other applicable variable compensation.

Summit does not accept referrals from employment businesses and/or employment agencies in respect of the vacancies posted on this site. All employment businesses/agencies are required to contact Summit’s Talent Acquisition team at [e-mail] to obtain prior written authorization before referring any candidates to Summit.

Summit Therapeutics Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer and takes pride in creating and maintaining diverse environment. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training or promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.