Director, Life Sciences Strategy & Development

About Abridge Abridge was founded in 2018 with the mission of powering deeper understanding in healthcare. Our AI-powered platform was purpose-built for medical conversations, improving clinical documentation efficiencies while enabling clinicians to focus on what matters most—their patients. Our enterprise-grade technology transforms patient-clinician conversations into structured clinical notes in real-time, with deep EMR integrations. Powered by Linked Evidence and our purpose-built, auditable AI, we are the only company that maps AI-generated summaries to ground truth, helping providers quickly trust and verify the output. As pioneers in generative AI for healthcare, we are setting the industry standards for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems. We are a growing team of practicing MDs, AI scientists, PhDs, creatives, technologists, and engineers working together to empower people and make care make more sense. We have offices located in the Mission District in San Francisco, the SoHo neighborhood of New York, and East Liberty in Pittsburgh. The Role This is a zero-to-one role. You’ll be the first strategy and development lead for our life sciences business, responsible for figuring out which use cases are worth pursuing, what value the products will drive, and how to structure the first deals. You’ll work directly with Abridge’s product, strategy, clinical, and commercial teams. The right person has done life sciences business development and partnerships before – they’ve sat across the table from pharma executives, structured complex deals, and shaped what their company built based on what the market actually wanted. What You’ll Do Shape the life sciences strategy. Identify the highest-value use cases, prioritize them, and shape what Abridge brings to market first. Gather market intelligence from life sciences prospects, existing health system customers, and industry trends to inform product priorities. Lead discovery with pharma partners. Sit with executives across commercial, medical affairs, R&D, and market access. Understand their workflows, data needs, buying processes, and willingness to pay. Build and manage the partner pipeline, cultivating relationships and target accounts across pharma. Leverage Abridge’s scale and network to open doors. Own deals from first conversation to signed contract. Negotiate NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, and data use agreements. Structure pilots with clear scope and success criteria. Navigate data, compliance, and trust constraints. Work with legal, clinical, and product to understand what we can sell, under what conditions, and how to structure agreements that protect clinician trust. Execute 0-to-1 product launches with customers, collaborating internally and externally to ensure ease of launch. What You Bring 7+ years in life sciences BD, partnerships, or strategy, with meaningful time spent at a pharma, biotech, or health tech / data company. You’ve been in rooms with pharma executives and you know how those conversations work. 0-to-1 experience. You’ve shaped something that wasn’t fully defined yet, and helped define it through customer discovery. Deal track record. You can walk through the mechanics of complex deals you’ve personally owned – stakeholders, key terms, inflection points. You’ve negotiated NDAs, MSAs, and SOWs yourself. Pharma fluency. You can seamlessly map a pharma buying process across commercial, medical affairs, R&D, market access. Comfort with ambiguity. You’re good at running discovery, forming hypotheses, and updating quickly when you’re wrong. Strong collaborator. You share what you learn, surface problems early, and don’t run ahead of the group. Clear, direct communication. You write and speak well. You can take something complicated and make it simple without losing precision. Bonus Points Experience with real-world data, clinical data platforms, or health data partnerships (e.g., Flatiron, Tempus, IQVIA, Symphony). Relationships with pharma digital health, medical affairs, or commercial innovation leaders. Familiarity with ambient AI, clinical documentation, or point-of-care data. Prior work building new business lines at growth-stage healthcare technology companies. Why Work at Abridge? At Abridge, we’re transforming healthcare delivery experiences with generative AI, enabling clinicians and patients to connect in deeper, more meaningful ways. Our mission is clear: to power deeper understanding in healthcare. We’re driving real, lasting change, with millions of medical conversations processed each month. Joining Abridge means stepping into a fast-paced, high-growth startup where your contributions truly make a difference. Our culture requires extreme ownership—every employee has the ability to (and is expected to) make an impact on our customers and our business. Beyond individual impact, you will have the opportunity to work alongside a team of curious, high-achieving people in a supportive environment where success is shared, growth is constant, and feedback fuels progress. At Abridge, it’s not just what we do—it’s how we do it. Every decision is rooted in empathy, always prioritizing the needs of clinicians and patients. We’re committed to supporting your growth, both professionally and personally. Whether it's flexible work hours, an inclusive culture, or ongoing learning opportunities, we are here to help you thrive and do the best work of your life. If you are ready to make a meaningful impact alongside passionate people who care deeply about what they do, Abridge is the place for you. How we take care of Abridgers: Generous Time Off: 14 paid holidays, flexible PTO for salaried employees, and accrued time off for hourly employees Comprehensive Health Plans: Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage for all full-time employees and their families. Generous HSA Contribution: If you choose a High Deductible Health Plan, Abridge makes monthly contributions to your HSA. Paid Parental Leave: Generous paid parental leave for all full-time employees. Family Forming Benefits: Resources and financial support to help you build your family. 401(k) Matching: Contribution matching to help invest in your future. Personal Device Allowance: Tax free funds for personal device usage. Pre-tax Benefits: Access to Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Commuter Benefits. Lifestyle Wallet: Monthly contributions for fitness, professional development, coworking, and more. Mental Health Support: Dedicated access to therapy and coaching to help you reach your goals. Sabbatical Leave: Paid Sabbatical Leave after 5 years of employment. Compensation and Equity: Competitive compensation and equity grants for full time employees. ... and much more! Equal Opportunity Employer Abridge is an equal opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants equally without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or disability. We provide reasonable accommodations throughout the interview process. If you need reasonable accommodation in applying, interviewing, completing any assessment or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please contact us at View email address on click.appcast.io Staying safe - Protect yourself from recruitment fraud We are aware of individuals and entities fraudulently representing themselves as Abridge recruiters and/or hiring managers. Abridge will never ask for financial information or payment, or for personal information such as bank account number or social security number during the job application or interview process. Any emails from the Abridge recruiting team will come from an @abridge.com email address. You can learn more about how to protect yourself from these types of fraud by referring to this article. Please exercise caution and cease communications if something feels suspicious about your interactions.