Business Development Manager (Life Sciences)

The highest calling for AI is improving human health. We are building the AI operating system that powers drug discovery: a single intelligence layer that connects evidence, reasoning and action across the whole drug lifecycle, from scientific discovery through preclinical and clinical research to development. Scientists and AI discovering drugs together. Not replacing the expert, making them superhuman.

Our founders built and deployed production AI at Palantir, including the first public release of AIP. Our CEO spent twenty years across Caltech, Cambridge and ETH before leading AI strategy for life sciences. Founded less than two years ago, we are already deployed with mid to top tier pharma and biotech on live programmes.

Why this role, and why now

We are in tandem to this role hiring a Director of Business Development to take our sales motion from the founders and make it repeatable. This role is the other half of that team. The Director owns the deals. You own the top of the funnel: finding the right people inside pharma and biotech, starting conversations with them, and turning those conversations into qualified meetings.

Pharma is not a volume game. There are perhaps a few hundred people in Europe whose problem we solve, and most of them have never heard of us. Getting to them takes research, good writing, a working understanding of what they do all day, and persistence. Blasting a list of ten thousand contacts will not work here and we will not ask you to do it.

What you get in return:

You will be in the room for enterprise deals from your first month, learning directly from a senior seller and three technical founders, in a market that is early enough that the people you meet this year will still be your network in ten years. If you want to become an enterprise seller in life sciences AI, this is a fast route.

What you will do

• Research. Map the accounts that matter across pharma, biotech, CROs and academic research institutes. Who leads R&D data and digital, who runs discovery, preclinical or clinical development, who has bought tools like ours before. Build the list the Director and commercial team will sell into.

• Outbound. Email, LinkedIn, phone, conferences and warm introductions. Written well, in the language of the person receiving it, with a reason to reply that is about their problem and not our product.

• Qualification. Run first calls. Work out whether there is a real problem, a real budget and a real person who can make a decision. Hand over opportunities that are worth the Director's time.

• Events. Own our presence at the conferences that matter in pharma R&D and AI in life sciences. Book the meetings before we arrive, work the room, follow up within 48 hours.

• Inbound. Respond to every inbound lead the same day. Qualify it, route it, and make sure nobody who reaches out to us falls through a gap.

• CRM. Keep the CRM accurate. Every account, contact and conversation logged, so the pipeline the Director reports to the board is real.

• Market intelligence. You will hear more first reactions to our pitch than anyone else in the company. Write them down and bring them to the Director and to product every week.

• Deal support. Sit in on the Director's deals. Take notes, chase actions, draft follow-ups, prepare materials. This is how you learn to close.

The first twelve months

AI is moving at a speed unlike anything else before. You will be able to learn fast, but also take responsibility from day one to build a strong flow of qualified meetings each month.

You’ll be able to learn the product and buyers, sit on every customer call you can, and explain to R&D leadership why they should care about what we build. You work out your first target list with the commercial team, but quickly move to designing and owning the outreach machine of Perceptic.

Who we are looking for

Essential

• One to four years in a business development, sales development or commercial role where you had a target and can tell us whether you hit it. B2B software, data or scientific products preferred.

• A genuine interest in life sciences. A science degree, time at a pharma, biotech, CRO or scientific vendor, or simply the evidence that you have read enough to have a view. You will be talking to scientists and you need to be curious about their work.

• You write well. Most of your outbound will be read, not heard. Short, specific and about the reader. We will ask for examples.

• You are comfortable on the phone and in a room with people who are more senior and more expert than you, and you do not pretend to know things you do not.

• You are organised. Lists, follow-ups, CRM hygiene. This is unglamorous and it is the job.

• You want to become a closer and you are prepared to earn it rather than be handed it.

Strong signals

• SDR or BDR experience at a scientific software, data or AI company selling into pharma or biotech.

• A life sciences degree (biology, chemistry, biomedical sciences, pharmacology or similar).

• Experience at a CRO, pharma or biotech in a customer-facing or scientific support role, and a wish to move into commercial.

• You have used AI tools properly in your own work and can talk about where they helped and where they fell short.

• A second European language, German above all.

Probably not the right role if

• You want a high-volume SDR role with dialler targets. Our list is small and the quality of each conversation matters more than the count.

• You are already a closer and want to carry your own quota from day one. Talk to us about the Director role instead, or about where this could go in twelve months.

• You are not interested in the science. You do not need a PhD, but you need to want to understand it.

Compensation and equity

Base of £50-65k with an OTE of £80-100k, depending on experience. Variable is paid on qualified meetings and pipeline created, with a kicker on closed revenue you sourced, so you are rewarded for the quality of what you hand over and not just the quantity. Equity as an early employee.

We will guarantee a proportion of variable in your first three months while the list and message are being built.

Process

• Intro call with Al Mortlock, Head of Talent (30 minutes)

• Conversation with the Tilman Flock, Founder & CEO on how you sell and what you know about the market (45 minutes)

• Practical exercise. We give you a target account and an hour. You come back with a short list of people to contact and a first email to one of them, then talk us through your thinking

• Meet the founders (45 minutes)

• References

Five stages, run in under two weeks.

Perceptic is an equal opportunity employer. We hire for judgement and evidence of doing hard things well, and we are glad to make adjustments at any stage of the process. Just tell us what you need.