Senior Manager, Scientific Engagement
Biopharma Careers
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Job summary
Johnson & Johnson in South San Francisco, CA, seeks a Senior Manager, Scientific Engagement to lead regional scientific sourcing, triage, and engagement programs. You will translate priorities into scalable regional strategies, assess opportunities, and drive high-potential partnerships across therapeutic areas, DPDS, and partnering teams.
You will influence senior stakeholders without direct authority, manage budgets, and create data-driven reports.
Qualifications
- PhD in a relevant scientific discipline with ≥8 years of total experience (including leadership).
- Master's degree with ≥10 years of total professional experience (including leadership).
- Demonstrated ability to conduct scientific triage and early technical assessment of external opportunities.
Responsibilities
- Owning the regional scientific engagement strategy and annual activation plan aligned to priorities.
- Performing first-pass scientific and strategic triage of companies, platforms, technologies, and academic innovations, with concise recommendations.
- Designing and running targeted engagements that produce actionable opportunity flow.
- Building and maintaining strategic external relationships with startups, academia, incubators, and investors.
- Leading end-to-end delivery of priority engagements, including vendor/contractor oversight.
- Maintaining opportunity and engagement data in Salesforce and producing regular stakeholder reports.
- Managing program budgets and escalating trade-offs while ensuring compliance.
Skills
Education
Job description
At Johnson & Johnson,we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build aworld where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured,where treatments are smarter and less invasive, andsolutions are personal.Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity.Learn more at jnj.com
As guided by Our Credo, Johnson & Johnson is responsible to our employees who work with us throughout the world. We provide an inclusive work environment where each person is considered as an individual. At Johnson & Johnson, we respect the diversity and dignity of our employees and recognize their merit.
Strategy & Corporate Development
Strategic Partnerships & Alliances
People Leader
South San Francisco, California, United States of America
Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science‑based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow.
Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.
Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/innovative-medicine
The Senior Manager, Scientific Engagement will lead regional scientific sourcing and engagement in South San Francisco, performing first‑pass scientific triage and designing targeted outreach programs that generate high‑quality external opportunities for therapeutic‑area, DPDS, and partnering teams. This senior individual contributor translates priorities into scalable regional strategies that improve identification, triage, and progression of high‑potential external opportunities.
Unlike an event- or marketing‑led engagement role, this position serves as a scientifically credible front door to the external ecosystem. The Senior Manager independently assesses inbound and proactively sourced opportunities, distinguishes strategically relevant science from lower‑priority opportunities, identifies critical data gaps and diligence questions, and directs the strongest opportunities to the appropriate therapeutic‑area, DPDS, Search & Evaluation, incubation, or partnering stakeholders. The role also designs and leads high‑impact scientific programs and engagements that generate actionable opportunity flow, market intelligence, and strategic relationships.
The Senior Manager operates across multiple therapeutic areas and functions, manages complex and ambiguous work with limited oversight, influences senior internal and external stakeholders without direct authority, and establishes scalable regional practices and metrics. The position is accountable for recommendations, quality of scientific triage, engagement outcomes, budget stewardship, compliance, and continuous improvement of the regional scientific engagement model.
Owning the regional scientific engagement strategy and annual activation plan aligned to therapeutic‑area and DPDS priorities.
Performing first-pass scientific and strategic triage of companies, platforms, technologies, and academic innovations, and providing concise recommendations.
Designing and running targeted engagements (forums, roundtables, partnerships, targeted sourcing) that produce actionable opportunity flow.
Building and maintaining strategic external relationships with startups, academia, incubators, and investors.
Leading end‑to‑end delivery of priority engagements, including vendor/contractor oversight.
Maintaining opportunity, campaign, relationship, and outcome data in Salesforce and producing regular stakeholder reports.
Managing program budgets, prioritizing resources, and escalating trade‑offs.
Ensuring compliance with legal, privacy, financial, and records‑management requirements and influencing cross‑functional stakeholders without direct authority.
PhD in a relevant scientific discipline plus a minimum of 8 years of total professional experience (including leadership/people‑management); OR Master's degree plus a minimum of 10 years of total professional experience (including leadership/people‑management) is required. Relevant experience includes drug discovery/development, scientific evaluation, translational research, venture/technology scouting, partnering, or related roles.
Demonstrated ability to conduct scientific triage and early technical assessment of external opportunities is required.
Proven ownership of complex scientific programs from planning through execution is required.
Strong scientific writing, verbal communication, and scientific storytelling or PR/communications experience is required.
Proven ability to influence senior leaders and cross‑functional teams without direct authority is required.
Experience managing multiple high‑priority workstreams, budgets, vendors, and stakeholders is required.
Maintaining accurate opportunity and engagement data in CRM systems (Salesforce) and producing engagement reports is required.
Familiarity with applicable legal, compliance, privacy, and financial governance processes is required.
Prior experience supporting technical due diligence and routing opportunities into Search & Evaluation, incubation, or partnering pathways is preferred.
Experience developing innovation landscapes, target/technology assessments, or scientific briefs is preferred.
Experience engaging with startups, investors, incubators, or academic technology transfer offices is preferred.
Experience overseeing vendors/contractors and establishing scalable processes, templates, or measurement frameworks is preferred.
Experience using Salesforce analytics or similar CRM reporting to measure engagement outcomes is preferred.
Willingness to travel up to 25% is required.
Johnson & Johnson is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Johnson & Johnson is committed to providing an interview process that is inclusive of our applicants’ needs. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request an accommodation, external applicants please contact us via https://www.jnj.com/contact-us/careers , internal employees contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.
If you are under 18 years of age you (the candidate) may need to obtain the necessary working papers or other documentation required by state law to start the assignment, as well as get a parent’s consent for the background check.
#LI-Onsite
Alliance Formation, Business Planning, Compliance Management, Developing Others, Developing Partnerships, Inclusive Leadership, Leadership, Market Expansion, Performance Measurement, Relationship Building, Resource Planning, Sales Enablement, Service Operations, Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic Change, Strategic Thinking, SWOT Analysis, Team Management
Alliance Formation, Business Planning, Compliance Management, Developing Others, Developing Partnerships, Inclusive Leadership, Leadership, Market Expansion, Performance Measurement, Relationship Building, Resource Planning, Sales Enablement, Service Operations, Stakeholder Engagement, Strategic Change, Strategic Thinking, SWOT Analysis, Team Management
$142,000.00 - $244,950.00
Subject to the terms of their respective plans, employees are eligible to participate in the Company’s consolidated retirement plan (pension) and savings plan (401(k)).
Subject to the terms of their respective policies and date of hire, employees are eligible for the following time off benefits:
Vacation –120 hours per calendar year
Sick time - 40 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Colorado –48 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Washington –56 hours per calendar year
Holiday pay, including Floating Holidays –13 days per calendar year
Work, Personal and Family Time - up to 40 hours per calendar year
Parental Leave – 480 hours within one year of the birth/adoption/foster care of a child
Bereavement Leave – 240 hours for an immediate family member: 40 hours for an extended family member per calendar year
Caregiver Leave – 80 hours in a 52-week rolling period10 days
Volunteer Leave – 32 hours per calendar year
Military Spouse Time-Off – 80 hours per calendar year
For additional general information on Company benefits, please go to: - https://www.careers.jnj.com/employee-benefits
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