Business Development Lead, Life Sciences

About the Team

OpenAI’s Partnerships team develops external relationships that advance our research and products and expand how organizations can benefit from AI. Within life sciences, we work across pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, AI-native discovery platforms, research institutions, and experimental labs. We partner closely with Research, Product, Engineering, Safety, GTM, Legal, and Finance to turn complex scientific, technical, and commercial opportunities into durable partnerships.

About the Role

We are hiring a Life Sciences Partnerships Lead to shape and execute OpenAI’s global life sciences partnership strategy. You will lead high-impact research, product, and platform partnerships across the life sciences ecosystem. You will help determine where OpenAI should invest deeply with strategic partners, where we should enable a broader ecosystem, and how research, product, safety, and commercial considerations should shape our decisions. You will bring the voice of life sciences partners into OpenAI while helping internal teams turn ambiguous opportunities into clear decisions and executable plans. This role requires scientific and commercial fluency, strong judgment, and the ability to move complex partnerships from strategy through execution and measurable impact.

In this role, you will:

• Lead full-lifecycle strategic partnerships, from partner strategy and executive alignment through scoping, commercial negotiation, execution, and ongoing operating reviews.
• Identify and prioritize opportunities across pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, AI-native discovery platforms, research institutions, and experimental labs.
• Work closely with Research, Product, and Engineering to translate partner needs, scientific workflows, technical constraints, and market dynamics into product and program recommendations.
• Partner with Legal, Finance, Safety, Research, and other cross-functional teams to structure partnerships with the appropriate data, deployment, governance, and commercial models.
• Coordinate with Health, GTM, GSI/MSSP enablement, and cloud service provider partnership teams to turn strategic relationships into broader ecosystem adoption and measurable impact.
• Build trusted relationships with senior executives, scientific leaders, and technical counterparts across the life sciences ecosystem.
• Bring structure to ambiguous opportunities, clear blockers across internal and external teams, and communicate decisions and tradeoffs clearly to senior leaders.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have 12+ years of experience in strategic partnerships, product partnerships, business development, or general management across the life sciences and technology industries.
• Bring a deep understanding of the life sciences ecosystem, including its scientific workflows, business models, incentives, and key industry dynamics.
• Have led complex strategic partnerships spanning research or scientific collaboration, technical execution, commercial terms, go-to-market strategy, and long-term platform alignment.
• Can engage credibly with scientific, technical, product, and business leaders and translate between their priorities.
• Are an effective cross-functional leader who can drive progress through influence rather than formal authority.
• Communicate clearly, think structurally, and make sound prioritization decisions in fast-moving and ambiguous environments.
• Exercise exceptional judgment and integrity.