Director / Senior Director, Origins

Lila Sciences

$168K — $272K *
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Strong network across deep-tech, life-sciences investors, and science-focused funds.
  • Scientific knowledge to engage with technical partners credibly.
  • Understanding of institutional investor priorities and partnership mechanics.
  • Proven interpersonal judgment and trust-building capability.
  • History of establishing and nurturing long-term relationships.

Responsibilities

  • Open and cultivate relationships with targeted investors and funds.
  • Own and manage a strategic partner pipeline, identifying key prospects.
  • Maintain up-to-date intelligence on partner investment strategies and needs.
  • Co-lead engagement processes, ensuring stakeholder involvement during partnerships.
  • Act as a senior representative of Origins, upholding Lila's credentials.
  • Grow and sustain ongoing relationships to enhance partner commitment.
  • Provide strategic insight into partnership structures and negotiations.

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
  • Employer-paid life and disability insurance.
  • Flexible time off and generous holidays.
  • Paid parental leave and educational assistance.
  • Commuter benefits, including bike share memberships.
  • Company-subsidized lunch program.
Full Job Description
Your Impact at LILA

You will open doors to the world's most ambitious science-focused investors, institutions, and asset managers, and turn those relationships into long-term partnerships that become the foundation of Origins' portfolio. You bring the network and the judgment to identify and cultivate relationships that matter. Working alongside the Head of Origins, you move these relationships from first conversation through signed partnership and beyond, building the trust and alignment that sustains them over time. This is a relationship-ownership role where you build a personal brand around Origins' mission, maintain sophisticated intelligence on key partners, and serve as the trusted, senior voice representing Lila to some of the world's most sophisticated and discerning investors.

Why This Role?
  • A founding role building the commercial engine of one of the most ambitious AI-for-science platforms ever built
  • Direct access to the world's most prominent deep-tech and life-sciences investors and institutions
  • Genuine partnership-building with scale and consequence
  • A platform to shape how the world thinks about AI-driven scientific discovery and autonomous science

What You'll Be Building
  • Open and build relationships with deep-tech and life-sciences investors, science-focused venture and growth funds, asset managers, and family offices aligned with Origins' thesis and Lila's mission
  • Build and own a sophisticated partner pipeline, identifying, qualifying, and prioritizing relationships most likely to become long-term strategic partners
  • Maintain active intelligence on each relationship, their investment thesis, portfolio interests, decision-making dynamics, and evolving strategic priorities in service of both Origins partnerships and Lila's broader capital relationships
  • Co-lead engagements alongside the Head of Origins, from initial outreach through signed partnership, managing relationship momentum and ensuring the right stakeholders are at the table
  • Represent Origins as a trusted, senior voice externally, protecting Lila's reputation, demonstrating scientific credibility, and positioning Origins as a sophisticated, mission-driven partner
  • Steward and grow relationships over time, maintaining engagement and expanding each partner's commitment to the Origins portfolio as it matures
  • Contribute strategic judgment to structuring and negotiation where your external perspective, relationships, and deal fluency add value
  • Shape Origins' partnership positioning by synthesizing feedback from partners into recommendations on how we should present our capabilities, thesis, and deal opportunities

What You'll Need to Succeed
  • Deep, active network across deep-tech investors, life-sciences investors, science-focused funds, or sophisticated family offices
  • Scientific fluency sufficient to engage credibly with technical partners and represent Lila's platform with authority
  • Understanding of how institutional investors think, what they care about, and how partnerships work
  • Exceptional interpersonal judgment. You read contexts well, build trust quickly, know when to push and when to listen
  • Track record of opening new relationships and the discipline to maintain and grow them over years
  • Comfort operating in fast-moving, ambiguous environments

Bonus Points For
  • Prior role at a science-focused company or fund
  • Experience negotiating large partnerships or transactions
  • Global institutional relationships; familiarity with foreign investment or export control dynamics


Compensation

We offer competitive base compensation with bonus potential and generous early-stage equity. Your final offer will reflect your background, expertise, and expected impact.

U.S. Benefits. Full-time U.S. employees receive a comprehensive benefits program including medical, dental, and vision coverage; employer-paid life and disability insurance; flexible time off with generous company wide holidays; paid parental leave; an educational assistance program; commuter benefits, including bike share memberships for office based employees; and a company subsidized lunch program.

International Benefits. Full-time employees outside the U.S. receive a comprehensive benefits program tailored to their region. USD salary ranges apply only to U.S.-based positions; international salaries are set to local market.

Expected Base Salary Range

$168,000-$272,000 USD

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