Director, Alliance Management

Summit Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical oncology company with a mission focused on improving quality of life, increasing potential duration of life, and resolving serious unmet medical needs. At Summit, we believe in building a team of world-class professionals who are passionate about this mission, and it is our people who drive this mission to reality. Summit’s core values include integrity, passion for excellence, purposeful urgency, collaboration, and our commitment to people.

About the role

The Director, Alliance Management leads the performance and strategic evolution of assigned external partnerships. This role ensures that alliances deliver on their scientific, clinical, and commercial potential by fostering trust, transparency, and operational excellence across collaborations. Reports to the Senior Director Alliance Strategy & Management and works closely with the VP BD & Strategic Alliances, plus Business & Strategy colleagues. This leader is a key contributor to alliance strategy, Akeso alliance management, and combinations partnership planning, including execution of day-to-day communications, operational coordination, and integration with partners and program teams, plus maintaining Summit oversight.

Responsibilities

• Lead collaboration planning, activation, and execution; to include start-up, joint committees, governance forums, and operational reviews to ensure strategic alignment and execution across partnered programs.
• Serve as point of contact for alliance partners, building trust, facilitating communication, and resolving issues with speed and diplomacy; a face and voice of the company externally.
• Monitor progress against contractual milestones, deliverables, and KPIs; ensure timely reporting and actively solving issues.
• Collaborate with internal teams to integrate alliance activities into broader portfolio and pipeline strategies, ensuring long-term value creation across tumors, indications, and regions.
• Partner with Program Team, R&D, Clinical, Regulatory, Legal, Market Planning, and Commercial teams to align joint program execution, decision-making, and resource planning.
• Develop and implement alliance management frameworks, dynamic tools, and processes to enhance efficiency, speed to execution, transparency, and partner satisfaction.
• Prepare updates and strategic insights for the Department Head and Executive leadership on alliance progress, health, risks, and opportunities.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field required; Advanced degree preferred (MBA, Masters, etc.). A dual scientific and business background is a strong plus.
• Minimum of 10+ years of experience in oncology biopharma with a primary focus on alliance management; end-to-end program planning is a plus.
• Prior oncology drug experience in late-stage development and/or commercial stage required; strong understanding of oncology drug development, scientific platforms, and global commercial dynamics.
• Hands-on experience leading pharma or biotech drug development clinical trial collaboration start-up & management with external partners required.
• Understanding or experience in collaboration preparation, kick-off meetings, joint clinical trial or project management to ensure successful contract implementation & relationship management.
• Proficient user of MS Office suite (e.g., PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Project), experience using electronic document management systems, document review tools, and can quickly build presentations for leaders/teams.
• Prior experience with technology tools (e.g., Smartsheets, MS Project) in planning, maintenance, and communication of information is highly desirable.
• Excellent communicator in public-speaking, meeting facilitation, and email communication.
• Ability to excel in a fast-paced, demanding, and diverse environment that includes global virtual meetings outside standard business hours.
• Ability to travel to collaboration or business meetings, to include semi-frequent travel to hub office locations in Summit territories or collaboration partner sites.

Role is primarily office-based.

Pay

$203,000 - $253,000 USD. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience, certifications, and specific work location. This may be different in other locations due to differences in the cost of labor. The total compensation package for this position may also include bonus, stock, benefits, and/or other applicable variable compensation.