SVP, Innovation Partnerships, EMEA - Remote, EU Based
Evotec
Summary
Evotec seeks a senior leader to shape and execute its next generation of strategic Innovation partnerships. The SVP Innovation Partnerships will design and secure long-term, innovation-driven alliances with global pharmaceutical companies, emerging biotechs, and ecosystem partners. The mandate is portfolio-focused and forward-looking. This role anticipates where science, technology, and capital will converge over the next 5 to 10 years and translates that view into differentiated, high-impact collaborations. The objective is to unlock the full potential of Evotec’s precision medicine and multimodal discovery platforms through structured, scalable partnerships that generate durable value.
Job description
The role requires deep scientific credibility, advanced deal architecture capability, and the ability to influence executive and board-level stakeholders across the life sciences industry.
Key Accountabilities
- Develop and execute a forward-looking partnership thesis aligned with market evolution and platform priorities
- Design complex, multi-asset and platform-based alliances including risk-share and co-development models
- Structure IP, governance, economics, and milestone frameworks to optimize long-term portfolio value
- Exit or restructure partnerships when strategic value no longer aligns
- Conduct systematic market scanning to identify emerging science, technology inflection points, and capital flows
- Anticipate future innovation clusters and shape participation in these ecosystems
- Build regional and global partnership strategies aligned with Evotec’s long-term growth agenda
- Lead negotiations with C-suite and Board-level stakeholders
- Translate scientific and translational strategy into commercially viable deal structures
- Balance risk, capital exposure, and resource allocation across a diversified partnership portfolio
- Align scientific, legal, finance, and operational functions from concept to contract and into launch
- Establish governance models that enable effective decision-making and execution
- Drive internal alignment across geographies and therapeutic areas
- Articulate strategic rationale and long-term value creation to executive committees and external partners
- Position partnerships within the broader portfolio strategy
Knowledge & Experience
- Demonstrated track record of structuring and closing complex, innovation-driven partnerships
- Experience negotiating at C-suite and Board level
- Established global network across senior scientific and industry leadership
- Portfolio-oriented thinking across multinational territories
- Strong understanding of portfolio balance including risk, capital, and resource exposure
- Ability to anticipate emerging scientific and market inflection points
- Experience designing governance models that accelerate decision-making
- Capability to manage long-cycle deals and multi-year partnership build-outs
- Proven ability to operate effectively in high-ambiguity, multi-stakeholder environments
- Strong change advocacy based on external innovation exposure, and networking within pharma
Education and Qualifications
- Minimum Masters in Biological sciences or MBA
- 15 years plus experience working in CRO, CDMO, biopharma or biotech
- Extensive experience in drug discovery, translational science, and early clinical strategy
- Proven experience within strategic partnership
Requirements
- Minimum Masters in Biological sciences or MBA
- 15 years plus experience working in CRO, CDMO, biopharma or biotech
- Extensive experience in drug discovery, translational science, and early clinical strategy
- Proven experience within strategic partnership
- Demonstrated track record of structuring and closing complex, innovation-driven partnerships
- Experience negotiating at C-suite and Board level
- Established global network across senior scientific and industry leadership
- Portfolio-oriented thinking across multinational territories
- Strong understanding of portfolio balance including risk, capital, and resource exposure
- Ability to anticipate emerging scientific and market inflection points
- Experience designing governance models that accelerate decision-making
- Capability to manage long-cycle deals and multi-year partnership build-outs
- Proven ability to operate effectively in high-ambiguity, multi-stakeholder environments
- Strong change advocacy based on external innovation exposure, and networking within pharma
Company overview
Evotec SE is a leading German drug discovery and development partnership company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Founded in 1993 by Nobel Laureate Manfred Eigen and other scientists, Evotec operates as a contract research organization (CRO) that collaborates with pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, academic institutions, and government agencies to advance therapeutic innovations. The company employs approximately 4,788 professionals worldwide and specializes in small molecule drug discovery across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, neurological disorders, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular conditions, inflammation, pain, and respiratory diseases. Evotec's comprehensive service portfolio encompasses target identification and validation, hit identification, in vitro pharmacology, integrated CMC services, and proteomics. With facilities across Europe and the United States, the company has established long-term strategic alliances with major pharmaceutical partners including Bristol Myers Squibb, Bayer, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Eli Lilly. Evotec's innovative Pipeline Co-Creation model represents a flexible, multi-modality approach to drug development, leveraging data-driven disease understanding and AI technologies to accelerate the delivery of quality drug candidates.