Job Description
As Assistant Director/Senior Assistant Director of the Entrepreneur Partnership Program at A*STAR, you will help identify, evaluate, and shape research opportunities into fundable life sciences spinout concepts. You will bridge early-stage scientific discovery and company creation by applying rigorous scientific judgment, translational development experience, and investor-oriented thinking.
The ideal candidate brings hands-on experience in early-stage drug development across modalities such as small molecules, biologics, monoclonal antibodies, nucleic acids, or related therapeutic platforms, with exposure to autoimmune, oncology, metabolic, or adjacent disease areas.
Success in this role requires first-principles scientific thinking, strategic judgment, and the ability to recognize opportunities that are differentiated, fundable, and credible as new company concepts.
Key Responsibilities
- Due diligence: Serve as the scientific lead for sourcing and evaluating program opportunities. Assess scientific validity, translational readiness, competitive landscape, intellectual property position, and investor relevance, then recommend whether each project should advance.
- Project development: Provide subject matter expertise in your primary therapeutic area, such as oncology, immunology, or metabolism, to guide experimental design, address technical risks, and help entrepreneurs and scientific founders build development plans around clear value inflection points.
- Stakeholder coordination: Work with scientific founders, entrepreneurs, and the operations team to keep development plans on track, resolve cross-functional issues early, and ensure milestones are aligned with program objectives and investor expectations.
Candidate Qualifications
- Advanced degree: PhD or MD in pharmacology, biology, chemistry, biomedical sciences, or a related life sciences field.
- Industry Tenure: 6–10+ years of relevant experience in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, translational research, venture creation, or early-stage life sciences investment. Prior experience conducting diligence on early-stage life sciences opportunities, assessing fundability, and supporting investment or company-formation decisions is strongly preferred.
- Fluent in verbal and written communications
Core Competencies
- Analytical rigor: Uses a disciplined, evidence-based approach to review data, identify gaps in preclinical packages, and determine what evidence is needed to support investment or company-formation decisions.
- Commercial instinct: Understands the value inflection points, competitive positioning, and de-risking milestones that make a project attractive to investors, strategic partners, or pharmaceutical acquirers.
- Leadership: Collaborates with senior scientists, influences entrepreneurs and cross-functional teams, and leads effectively without direct authority in a matrixed environment.
- Communication: Translates complex biological mechanisms, development risks, and competitive positioning into clear business cases for internal stakeholders, entrepreneurs, and investors.