Ginkgo Bioworks
Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer.
Associate Director / Director of Technical Business Development
About the role
Ginkgo is a well-funded, high-growth biotech company in Boston that is redesigning the living world to solve some of the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our mission to “make biology easier to engineer” is poised to disrupt multiple industries by leveraging our innovative data, automation, and scale capabilities in biological engineering. We are seeking a Director of Technical Business Development to join our dynamic, passionate, and collaborative team dedicated to cultivating and executing new business partnerships within Ginkgo’s space.
As an Associate Director / Director of Technical Business Development for our Commercial Cell Engineering team, you will be a core part of the Business Development team at Ginkgo that is pursuing opportunities in a variety of market sectors (e.g. Nutrition & Wellness, Materials, Energy, and more). You will be scouting and conducting diligence in new areas where Ginkgo’s platform can effectively serve as a disruptive technology. Given your industry experience, you know the key players, understand the biotechnology field and keep up with emerging trends. You also enjoy understanding the technical capabilities of the platform, building relationships, and taking a proactive approach to maximizing new and existing business opportunities.
In this role, you will work cross-functionally with team members from deal transaction, IP, legal, and technical program teams throughout all aspects of the technical pitch, scoping, proposal, negotiations and contract execution. You will play a key role as the technical lead for the Business Development team in partnering discussions. Working closely with the Ginkgo scientific teams and potential partner scientific teams, you will understand the problems that Ginkgo can help a partner address, answer technical questions, and build a scope of work during the business development partnering process. And most importantly, you see the bigger picture: you’re excited about Ginkgo and eager to help us achieve our mission of making biology easier to engineer.
_ Note on additional materials to include: As noted, we are seeking candidates for Associate Director / Director of Technical Business Development who are enthusiastic about supporting the Business Development process from the technical side to help pitch, scope, negotiate, and close new deals and business opportunities. Please include a deal sheet with your application if available/applicable. _
_ Note on position location: This position has the flexibility to be full-time onsite in Boston or part-time residence based, with requirements to be onsite at Ginkgo to remain current on technical understanding and for other team needs. _
Responsibilities
- Actively seek new opportunities in several market areas in coordination with Ginkgo’s Business Development team
- Identify new markets that Ginkgo should enter and scope out the key applications and differentiating capabilities of the Ginkgo platform in such markets
- Identify new capabilities Ginkgo should build to address emerging platform needs
- Lead the technical aspects of partnering discussions with customers in identified markets
- Serve as an internal liaison between the Business Development team and the Foundry and Program Teams during the partnering process
- Speak and meet with potential partners at industry conferences
- Travel as necessary
Desired Experience and Capabilities
- Master’s degree or PhD in a scientific field
- Deep understanding of the synthetic biology and biotechnology industry and its applications
- Track record of helping to translate scientific value and applications of scientific platforms in partnering discussions
- Ability to understand different parts of the Ginkgo platform and find new applications that could benefit partners
- Ability to thoughtfully expand existing partnerships
- Passion for collaboration and significant experience in relationship-building, and leveraging and converting market knowledge and relationships into business opportunities
- Motivation and ability to innovate while working towards Ginkgo’s goals
- Excellent communication skills, emotional intelligence and an ability to work across organizational boundaries
- Eagerness to learn quickly in a fast-paced environment and enthusiasm to be a part of Ginkgo’s mission
To learn more about Ginkgo, check out some recent press:
Ginkgo Bioworks Redirects Its Biotech Platform to Coronavirus (Wall Street Journal)
Ginkgo Raises $70 Million to Tackle Covid-19 Testing (Bloomberg)
Ginkgo Bioworks to Build Infrastructure for Rapid Epidemic Response (PR Newswire)
How to Test Every American for COVID-19, Every Day (The Atlantic)
The engineering of living organisms could soon start changing everything (The Economist)
Synthetic Bio Pioneer Ginkgo Raises $290 Million in New Funding (Bloomberg)
Ginkgo Bioworks raises $350 million fund for biotech spinouts (Reuters)
Ginkgo Bioworks Is Turning Human Cells into On-Demand Factories (WIRED)
Can This Company Convince You to Love GMOs? (The Atlantic)
We also feel that it’s important to point out the obvious here – there’s a serious lack of diversity in our industry, and that needs to change. Our goal is to help drive that change. Ginkgo is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its practices, especially when it comes to growing our team. Our culture promotes inclusion and embraces how rewarding it is to work with people from all walks of life.
We’re developing a powerful biological engineering platform, so we must remain mindful of the many ways our technology can – and will – impact people around the world. We care about how our platform is used, and having a diverse team to build it gives us the best chance that it’s something we’ll be proud of as it continues to grow. Therefore, it’s critical that we incorporate the diverse voices and visions of all those who play a role in the future of biology.
It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants.
Why you should join Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the organism company. We design custom organisms for customers across multiple markets. We build our foundries to scale the process of organism engineering using software and hardware automation. Organism engineers at Ginkgo learn from nature to develop new organisms that replace technology with biology.
Engineering biology isn't easy. It is frustratingly, painfully difficult. It's programming without a debugger, manufacturing without CAD, and construction without cranes. At Ginkgo we are building a team that can build debuggers, write CAD, and operate cranes. We are looking for the best engineers, scientists, and hackers.
