Head of Business Development

Radical Numerics; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Radical Numerics in San Francisco is seeking an experienced business development leader to turn scientific interest into partnerships across pharma, diagnostics, and synthetic biology. You will own the commercial process from qualification through signature, collaborating with a product lead who owns technical scope and scientific execution.

This role requires structuring complex deals, navigating budgets, and building credibility with senior decision-makers across large life sciences companies.

Qualifications

• Led and closed complex life sciences partnerships from first conversation through signature.
• Maintained relationships with decision-makers in core markets and built credibility where not known.
• Understanding of how large life sciences companies fund and approve work across functions.
• Able to evaluate model capabilities and represent Radical credibly with scientific leaders.
• Able to structure and negotiate platform, licensing, or co-development agreements.

Responsibilities

• Originate and close partnerships across pharma, diagnostics, and synthetic biology.
• Own the commercial workstream from qualification through signature with a product lead on technical scope.
• Map decision processes: who funds, who approves, and potential blockers.
• Qualify opportunities to ensure budget, decision-maker, and funded path exist.
• Structure collaborations, licenses, and co-development agreements; negotiate economics and data rights.
• Build account strategy with product leads to align commitments and value.
• Collaborate with Head of Data Acquisition when data access is part of partnerships.
• Establish qualification, account-planning, and deal-review practices for scalable growth.

Skills

Partnership development

Deal structuring

Stakeholder management

Biotech industry knowledge

Contract negotiation

Education

Bachelor's degree in life sciences or related field

Tools

CRM software

Job description

About Us

Radical Numerics is an AI research lab building general biological intelligence. Our mission is to master the code of life, and our purpose is to reduce human suffering.

Our team created Evo, and started the field of generative genomics. Our work was featured on the cover of Science, and presented by our CEO on the main stage of TED2025. Evo was used to create the first AI gene therapy tool CRISPR-Cas9, and the first AI whole genome from scratch. Evo 2, featured in Nature, is the largest fully open source AI project across any domain.

Radical Numerics is bringing the rigor of distributed systems, model architecture, and numerics research to the challenges of biology. We’ve redesigned the foundation model training stack to turn the world’s raw scientific data (e.g. biological sequences, experiments, and physical processes), into intelligible, generative models that can expand and accelerate what humanity can understand, design, and cure.

The same generative breakthroughs that enable life-saving cures also lowers the barrier to creating engineered threats and AI-generated bioweapons. We believe these forces are inseparable. Radical Numerics was founded to develop both the power to design and the responsibility to defend.

About the Role

You will lead business development across pharma, diagnostics, and synthetic biology. Your job is to turn scientific interest into partnerships the company should sign: choosing the right accounts, establishing a credible path to funding, and closing the deal.

Our largest partnerships are led by a product and business development pair. The product lead owns the technical scope, evaluation design, and scientific relationship. You own the commercial process: qualification, stakeholder strategy, deal structure, negotiation, and close. Many of our partnerships combine model access, research, data, and downstream rights in ways that do not fit an established template. You will create the structures, close the first versions, and make the repeatable ones easier to execute again.

What You’ll Do

• Originate and close partnerships across pharma, diagnostics, and synthetic biology.

• Own the commercial workstream from qualification through signature, alongside a product lead who owns technical scope and scientific execution.

• Map how each account makes decisions: who wants the work, who can fund it, whose approval is required, and what could prevent it from moving.

• Qualify opportunities before they consume research time. Establish whether there is a real budget, a decision-maker, and a plausible path from technical evaluation to a funded program.

• Structure research collaborations, platform-access agreements, licenses, and co-development partnerships. Negotiate economics, intellectual property, data rights, field restrictions, governance, and downstream rights with company leadership and counsel.

• Build account strategy with product leads. They determine what we can commit to technically; you determine what the commitment should be worth and what we need in return..

• Work with our Head of Data Acquisition when data access forms part of a broader commercial partnership.

• Establish the qualification, account-planning, and deal-review practices the company will use as partnership volume grows, and build the business development team over time.

• Coordinate with our Head of Biodefense when a government partnership includes a commercial component.

What We’re Looking For

• You have personally led and closed complex life sciences partnerships, and can explain what you did from first substantive conversation through signature.

• You have relationships with decision-makers in at least one of our core markets and know how to build credibility in accounts where you do not.

• You understand how large life sciences companies fund and approve work across research, business development, legal, procurement, data governance, and executive leadership.

• You are technically fluent enough to understand what our models can do, identify where a proposed commitment outruns the evidence, and represent Radical credibly with scientific leaders.

• You can distinguish a serious commercial opportunity from an interesting research conversation, and you are willing to end the latter before it consumes the team.

• You are comfortable creating deal structures and internal processes before there is a standard playbook.

• You know how to structure and negotiate platform, discovery, licensing, or co-development agreements, including the tradeoffs among upfront economics, intellectual property, exclusivity, data rights, milestones, and downstream participation.

• You have worked alongside a scientific or technical lead and know how to divide ownership without confusing the customer or undermining your counterpart.

• Excitement about building a generational company and pioneering how AI is commercialized in life sciences.

Radical Numerics is committed to equal employment opportunity and does not discriminate in any employment opportunities or practices based on an individual's race, color, creed, gender (including gender identity and gender expression), religion (all aspects of religious beliefs, observance or practice, including religious dress or grooming practices), marital status, registered domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry (including language use restrictions and possession of a driver’s license issued under California Vehicle Code section 12801.9), natural hair, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, medical condition (including cancer or a record or history of cancer, and genetic characteristics), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical condition), genetic information, sexual orientation, military and veteran status or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws. It also prohibits unlawful discrimination based on the perception that anyone has any of those characteristics, or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of those characteristics.

Radical Numerics participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S.