Head of Business Development, Pharma/Life Sciences

Head of Business Development

Pharma / Life Sciences | Manta Cares | Remote (East Coast preferred)

About Manta Cares

Navigating cancer is like embarking on a treacherous hike without a map, gear, or guide. Manta Cares provides the most comprehensive self-advocacy toolkit available, empowering patients every step of the way. We are transforming the cancer experience.

We are a digital health company founded and led by cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and oncologists. We’re already partnering with several top life sciences companies (e.g., Gilead, Novartis), and healthcare systems. Our team brings over 50 years of combined healthcare experience, with backgrounds at McKinsey, BCG, Stanford, MIT, Harvard, IDEO, and ASCO. Backed by top-tier venture funds including Pear Ventures, Sozo Ventures, and 1843 Capital, we are generating revenue through partnerships with leading life sciences organizations.

The Opportunity

We have built a beloved AI patient platform and a proprietary view of the cancer journey that life sciences companies cannot get anywhere else. Pharma partnerships are how we turn that trust into a durable business. The patients who trust Manta are our core asset, never an ad audience, and protecting that trust is how we earn and keep pharma partnerships. This is Manta's first dedicated life sciences leader: a senior, pharma-fluent dealmaker who personally builds and closes co-developed pharma partnerships.

You will report directly to the CEO and be her commercial point person with pharma. This is a senior individual-contributor role at the start. You carry the bag, you source, you pitch, you structure, and you close. The seniority is the point: your experience means you personally open doors and close deals. As the function scales, future account executives and sales-ops hires are expected to move under this role. You will not start from zero: you walk into active partnerships with Novartis and Gilead, steady inbound from our newsletter and ASCO presence, a deep advisor network, and warm intros already in motion. Early on, the CEO co-sells alongside you. Your job is to turn that running start into signed, co-developed deals.

If you are a closer who knows how pharma actually buys, carries live relationships, and wants your work to directly improve the lives of cancer patients, we would love to meet you.

What You'll Do

• Own the pharma pipeline end to end: source, qualify, pitch, structure, close, and renew named pharma and biopharma accounts.
• Carry the number: own signed bookings against the pharma revenue plan.
• Run the pharma sales cycle: navigate medical-affairs, brand, and market-access buyers, plus procurement, MLR, legal, and CDAs.
• Build the value narrative: the pitch, the ROI story, and the proof points that make pharma pay.
• Partner cross-functionally: work with data and AI on unit economics and proof, and with delivery so signed deals actually ship.

What We're Looking For

• Pharma fluency (12+ years): in pharma commercial or medical affairs, or at a vendor that sells into pharma (RWD, diagnostics / biopharma, eClinical, CRO, point-of-care). You know how pharma buys across medical affairs, brand, and market access, and you understand procurement, MLR, and the budget cycle.
• Live pharma-buyer relationships: active, warm relationships with decision-makers at the VP / Sr-Director level that translate into meetings now. Real and current, not five years stale.
• A personal closing track record: you have personally closed consultative six-to-seven-figure deals (co-developed partnerships, data / services, or platform deals, not transactional SaaS). You can walk one specific deal end to end: the buyer, the value story, the structure, the cycle, and the close.
• Quota DNA: you have personally carried and hit a bookings quota. A doer who sources, pitches, and closes.
• Startup-stage adaptability: You can operate without a built-out commercial org, marketing engine, or sales-ops, and build the motion as you go. You have worked with young, seed-stage startups. 
• Location: East Coast based, or willing to travel extensively and live on the road (pharma HQs and brand teams are East Coast).

Bonus Points

• You have sold a data or engagement asset monetized with pharma (RWD licensing, patient engagement / point-of-care, or diagnostics-biopharma). Double points for the clinical / patient footprint feeds a pharma data business motion.
• Deep oncology and precision-medicine relationships specifically, versus broad pharma.
• You have stood up a commercial function from scratch (0-to-1).
• Channel or partnership dealmaking experience.
• A personal or mission connection to cancer and patients.

Note: we can teach the disease. Oncology domain depth is strongly preferred but not required. We cannot teach pharma fluency or a closing track record.

This Role Is NOT For You If

• You know everyone but have never personally signed a six-to-seven-figure deal.
• You run teams that sell but have not carried a bag in years.
• Your pharma experience is corp-dev or licensing only. You have bought or licensed assets for a pharma, but never sold services or data into pharma.
• Your selling is transactional SaaS: quick-cycle, self-serve, no long consultative pharma cycles.
• You need a built-out machine (marketing, SDRs, sales-ops, a roadmap) handed to you.
• You treat a patient base as an ad audience rather than the trust asset that makes Manta different.

Compensation & Equity

• Base: $185,000 - $200,000
• On-target earnings: $285,000 - $315,000 (variable paid on booked / collected revenue, with a ramped quota and non-recoverable draw to protect the ramp)
• Equity: Competitive 
• Health: Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental
• PTO: Unlimited

How to Apply

Apply with your resume. Before we schedule a call, we will ask you to share three deals you personally led end to end. For each: the pharma buyer and their function, how you got in, the value story you told, the deal size and structure, the sales-cycle length, the objections you overcame, and what closed it. Come prepared to walk a deal in depth. We speak with past managers and verify deal claims as part of our process.