Job Description: Associate Office: Boston, MA; must currently reside in the Boston area or be willing to relocate there before starting. Must have U.S. Citizenship or Green card.
Overview: The launch of Banyan Bio means that joining Locust Walk today puts you at the center of both a leading life sciences investment bank and a differentiated investment firm building the next generation of biotech companies - a combination unlike anything else in the industry.
Why is this role right for you? If you are looking to build your career with a fast-growing investment bank and newco creation shop with significant upside potential in position, responsibility, and compensation, we're looking for you. Our Associates have a strong passion for life sciences and all know this is the career they want long term; in fact, this role is "Partner Track" as we look to find the future leaders of the firm from within.
You will have the opportunity to work with multiple clients simultaneously on sell-side transactions to global biopharma and on Banyan Bio's NewCo opportunities - co-founding asset-centric companies around clinically validated programs sourced globally and advancing them through defined value inflection points. This dual mandate creates optionality for clients and unparalleled breadth of experience for you, diversifying your skill set across advisory, company creation, and clinical-stage investing.
The hours are more manageable than a typical Wall Street investment bank, the work more execution oriented than a consulting firm, and the atmosphere and work environment more fast paced than working inside a company with a collaborative approach.
A week in the life for this role? The focus for the Associate is to play a key role in executing the Firm's engagements and newcos. Our projects range from executing strategic partnership deals, M&A transactions, and creating clinical stage Asset-based newcos through Banyan Bio, our newly launched investment firm that forms clinical-stage NewCos around high-potential drug candidates sourced from the U.S., China, and Japan.
For our banking deals, Associate is responsible for leading execution and overseeing deliverables and analysis generated by Analysts, identifying, and managing discussions with target partners, reviewing and driving financial analysis, and supporting deal negotiations and closing. They conduct outreach to potential partners, coordinate partner conversations, and play an active role in generating interest in and concluding a deal. The Associate is often tasked with managing all aspects of the day-to-day execution of the deal, including leading update calls with the client, and overseeing all aspects of the Analyst's work. When times get particularly busy, sometimes the Associate must level up or down depending on team capacity so a true team player who is flexible and growth oriented is key. Associates will receive significant responsibility and ownership over their work, including multiple opportunities to present to both the firm and clients.
On the Banyan Bio side, Associates contribute to the full lifecycle of NewCo creation: screening and diligencing globally sourced clinical-stage assets, building management presentations and development plans, creating term sheets and valuation analysis for asset originators, drafting investment memos, and supporting the capital formation and syndication process to launch each company. Because Banyan Bio's centralized development infrastructure handles clinical, regulatory, and CMC execution across every NewCo, Associates gain direct exposure to how clinical-stage companies are built, financed, and advanced to meaningful milestones.
Business development activities are essential to furthering our firm's growth. An Associate will be a member of our due diligence committee with primary responsibility for conducting thorough due diligence on all potential sell-side and NewCo opportunities. They will have exposure directly to the C-suite of potential clients and asset originators for NewCos, play a role in decisionmaking around which clients and NewCos to take on, and then join those deals and NewCos for the execution phase. This part of the job is truly the intersection of a business development role at a biopharma company and venture capital firm. Associates will participate in networking events and building relationships with industry peers and prospective clients. Additionally the Associates will oversee the creation of our quarterly market conditions as well as preparing thought leadership.
Our senior deal team is dedicated to the professional growth and development of our Associates so they can rise through the ranks. Each engagement provides a new learning opportunity, and we aim to vary the team members assigned to new clients so that everyone has the chance to work with different colleagues while still gaining exposure to different transactions.
Prior positions of responsibility and skills that would be good for this role? Experience in life science consulting, investment banking, venture capital industry or internal biotech business/corporate development is a requirement. We are looking for someone who is currently working in a life science strategy consulting firm (new opportunity prioritization; partnering and M&A strategy; commercial due diligence) or healthcare group of an investment bank and is frustrated by either not seeing their consulting projects through to execution or find banking or equity research too high level and transactional without the ability to impact a company in more material ways. Handing a deliverable to the client and wishing them good luck is not satisfying nor is simply making decks / memos and handing execution to the capital markets or M&A teams. Additionally, if you are in a business development or corporate development role and miss or long for the intellectual stimulation of working in a fast-paced environment on multiple projects but also want to "do deals," this job is for you.
Professional and Academic Prowess.?All our team members have different strengths that contribute to the success of our firm. The background for an Analyst position would ideally illustrate the following attributes:
- Passion for life sciences: relevant industry experience is strongly preferred. We want to know this is where your passion lies and what to make your career
- Track record working on transactions in the life science space:?working directly or in a supportive role on strategic transactions, M&A, and/or financings is helpful including if at a consulting firm
- Strong scientific academic track record: While we don't care what school you attended, you must have at least an undergraduate science major if not more since our work is scientifically rigorous. We don't just work on financial analysis.
- Interest in working in an entrepreneurial environment and working with early-stage companies: We don't typically work for pharma. Small publicly traded and venture backed companies are our typical clients as well as the newcos we create. We are action oriented and nimble.
- The right amount of experience: 3-6 years of relevant full-time experience is required; 2+ years of relevant experience in a role managing team members plus a terminal science degree or MBA also works
Note: If you do not have prior biopharma consulting, investment banking, equity research, venture capital, corporate development, or business development experience, then unfortunately this job is not the right fit. An MBA from a top institution is not a requirement for this role.
Required Skills to be Successful. While many people can succeed behind the scenes grinding away on work. We are looking for someone with those plus people skills.
- Solid understanding of financial modelling, including at least revenue modeling. Full P&L and discounted cash flow modeling a plus but can be learned on the job
- Strong communication skills and comfort presenting in front of clients' senior management, Board of Directors, and speaking directly with physicians and other key opinion leaders
- A proven track record of managing one or more team members supporting you on a project, managing up, and prioritizing complex tasks across various workstreams
- Excellent written and presentation development skills, with ability to offer training in PowerPoint a plus
- Strong competitive spirit balanced by a proven ability to work as part of a team
- Comfortable working in a small entrepreneurial environment with significant interactions with the US team
- Must be willing overlap with part of US Eastern Time Zone hours
- Existing AI fluency (including Claude CoWork) and curiosity to continue to learn as the technology evolves
Passion for life science transactions. At our core, we strive to help each of our clients achieve success through finding or creating a strategic partner via a pharma deal or newco. While we do not expect everyone applying to have a deal sheet, a strong interest and desire to "do deals" is important for this role where everything we do revolves around transactions.
How much could someone earn in this role? Our firm has a multi-part compensation structure:
- We pay a competitive base with other transaction focused professional services firms
- Every person at Locust Walk will be eligible to earn a bonus based on exceptional individual and firm performance that encourages both accountability as well as teamwork and helping to grow the overall business
- Associates and above are eligible to earn carry in Banyan BioInnovations
- We offer a competitive Total Benefits package which includes health, dental, and vision, as well as other great competitive benefits
- We have a flexible vacation policy on top of 12 official company holidays
- Hybrid work schedule (Tuesday through Thursday in office)
For More Information:Visit our website at www.locustwalk.com. Please email
[email protected] with your resume.
