Managing Director

About the role

The Principal Business Development Life Sciences will focus on being a trusted advisor to senior leadership at our life sciences or investment firms, like PE & VC, focused on life sciences, and bringing them the optimal leadership solution, which may be a combination of search, leadership advisory, and/or interim.

Responsibilities

• Finds and grows identified target clients/client segments in life sciences.
• Builds and manages productive client relationships, including with PE and VC investors, that position WittKieffer as a trusted leadership advisor across solutions.
• Independently drives the identification of needs at clients and works with Talent Delivery to serve those needs.
• Combines deep industry knowledge of the Quality-of-Life Ecosystem and solution expertise in a pragmatic manner to deliver the very best possible results for our clients.
• Collaborates closely within the interim group as well as with other WittKieffer colleagues, bringing a team-oriented approach to business development.
• To bring the very best of themselves to colleagues:
• Lives the WittKieffer values in all that they say and do.
• Continually seeks opportunities to develop themselves and others.
• Gives timely, constructive feedback to ensure people feel stronger and more capable as a result.
• Business Development: Target responsibility of $5M Gross Revenue/$1.6+M Gross Profit; Initial year $1-2M.
• Develops market and account plans to reach the target.
• Develops and maintains "anchor" clients that generate profitable repeat business and close collaboration.
• Identifies potential clients and projects in collaboration with Market-based and solution-based senior consultants.
• Is a trusted advisor to clients and identifies how interim solutions can help solve client challenges.
• Customizes pitches and helps shape proposals that are focused on client needs, appropriately customized, differentiated from others, and strongly positions WittKieffer and our brand.
• Maintains an appropriate mix of repeat and new business.
• Generates and manages project discovery calls; schedules initial follow-ups and prepares for them.
• Works closely with Talent Delivery to address clients' needs; explores frame budgets (weekly rates) to deliver target economics; negotiates other key engagement terms (subject to necessary approvals).
• Ensures MSAs and NDAs (as needed) are put in place.
• Maintains and grows relationships with purchasing and HR in support of all efforts.
• Actively represents WittKieffer at conferences and industry events.
• Self and Others Development:
• Demonstrates WittKieffer's values.
• Consistently behaves as a positive member of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive place to work.
• Actively seeks opportunities to develop peers or more junior team members.
• Helps to develop and retain a high-performing, diverse, and inclusive team.
• Develops an internal brand and participates as a truly collaborative member of the team.
• Continues to deepen and broaden own business development, advisory skills, client management, selling, account management, sector and business understanding, expertise, and behaviors to enable a more positive impact on clients, colleagues, and all others.
• Contributions to the Management of the Firm:
• Identifies opportunities to improve practice and/or firm performance (e.g., developing capability, communications, operations) and raises appropriately, participating in implementation.
• May take on formal leadership of more junior colleagues.

Requirements

A bachelor’s degree is required; a master's preferred. 10+ years in consulting and/or interim talent acquisition, with a substantial portion of that experience related to life sciences and PE/VC clients. Business development experience and ability to persistently originate, build, and sustain client relationships. Demonstrated high achievement. Strong executive presence. Unabated commitment to quality and consistency in delivery, contributing to exceptional experiences for clients, talent, and team members. Entrepreneurial and able to operate independently, but not individually, with a bias to action. Comfortable with ambiguity and seeks to contribute insight and structured thinking to define the path forward. Demonstrated ability to foster relationships across organizational boundaries and inspire trust; skilled in facilitating collaboration among teams. Critical Competencies: Innovative, operationally disciplined, enterprise-minded. Execution-oriented and pragmatic, with a strong sense of urgency. Empathetic leadership skills. Displays a high degree of resilience. Highly organized, proactive, detail-oriented, and self-motivated. Driven, with a clear bias to proactive decision making, delivering results, and excelling. Ability to see the bigger picture and the patience to walk the path toward it, adjusting as need be to reach desired outcomes. Builds internal collaboration through strategic influence and servant leadership. Articulate, succinct, and proactive communicator; excellent interpersonal and influencing skills. Embraces a culture of purpose, collaboration, and trust. Unwavering integrity and authenticity.