Senior Director, Search & Evaluation

POSITION SUMMARY:

This leadership Search and Evaluation (S&E) position will be part of the corporate development group and will support Business Development (BD) goals by sourcing and assessing external partnering opportunities that are aligned with Rigel’s strategic vision, values, and business development initiatives. This position will interact with biotech organizations, biopharma, large pharma, venture firms, and other life sciences companies to explore opportunities to collaborate, in-license, out-license, or acquire assets. This position will lead the global search efforts for assets of high strategic value from mid-clinical stage assets to commercially available assets in the therapeutic areas of hematology, oncology, and other tangential disease indications.

Assets in the hematology, heme-oncology and oncology space are of strategic therapeutic focus for Rigel. The Director of Search & Evaluation will be responsible for conducting scientific/technical due diligence to ensure an in-depth understanding of the science and medical relevance behind (oncology) opportunities, will coordinate due diligence cross-functionally and present assessments of individual partnering opportunities to therapeutic area leadership and senior leadership of Rigel.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Proactively search for, identify, and evaluate potential opportunities that are consistent with Rigel’s values and BD strategies. Reviewing and assessing these opportunities for scientific merit, strategic fit, and feasibility.
• Lead the internal assessment of opportunities cross-functionally, working closely with key stakeholders in commercial, clinical development, safety, CMC, regulatory, legal, IP, quality, compliance, and business development.
• Lead, manage, and execute on the interactions with external parties, overseeing the evaluation process.
• Prioritize opportunities and lead recommendations for senior management.
• Support business development and commercial in commercial assessments of opportunities.
• Lead/support the due diligence efforts and general conclusions for advanced opportunities, preparing technical documents as needed and presenting those to senior management.
• Support business development with deal structuring, contract negotiations, and risk mitigation based in DD findings.
• Represent Rigel at key scientific and industry forums expanding Rigel’s reputation as a partner of choice. Network with external parties to ensure awareness of Rigel’s business, values, capabilities, and BD objectives.
• Manage the tracking and organization of external opportunities to create and support institutional memory for all relevant opportunities.
• Build strong relationships with peers cross-functionally, and with partners outside of the team to enable exemplary performance. Ability to influence and develop strong relationships with potential partners, representing Rigel with the utmost in professionalism, gravitas, and business savvy.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s degree in a related scientific field (e.g. biology, chemistry) required, PhD, MD, MD/PhD in a Life Sciences Field desired (preferably Oncology-related).
• 10+ years of relevant industry experience required, of which a minimum of 3 years is in S&E, BD, venture capital, technology transfer, or other partnering-focused professional experience / 6+ with masters / 4+ with PhD.
• Practical experience in the pharmaceutical or biotech industry of at least five years in at least one major area of drug development, such as Discovery, Preclinical Development, Clinical Development, or Regulatory Affairs. Must possess a solid understanding of BD analysis and best practices from opportunity identification to deal close.
• Proven track record using strong analytic skills to assess and identify appropriate business opportunities.
• Demonstrated project management/leadership skills to lead/manage cross-functional teams in evaluating target opportunities partnering opportunities and producing high-quality assessments of scientific and therapeutic hypotheses, as well as preclinical and clinical data.
• Proven ability to initiate and drive projects with timely results and lead necessary follow-through activities on internal and external commitments.
• Strong communication skills to effectively communicate business strategies, objectives, capabilities, results, conclusions, and recommendations clearly and concisely, and build cross-functional collaborations, strong relationships, and internal consensus.
• Highly developed people leadership, interpersonal skills and demonstrated negotiation and influencing skills with diverse groups of internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong existing network and networking skills to reach out to a broad range of industry decision-makers to keep abreast of emerging opportunities.
• Business acumen, acute sense of initiative, and ability to make fact-based decisions.
• Cultural fit with Rigel: bias for action, values-centric approach to results and process

WORKING CONDITIONS:

• PHYSICAL DEMANDS: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to stand, walk; sit; talk, and hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.
• WORK ENVIRONMENT: The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. Some travel may be required. Some travel is required, including international.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by the law