VP, Market Strategy and Commercialization

About the role

The Opportunity
The VP, Market Strategy & Commercialization owns the commercial strategy and revenue performance of AI and data products within targeted vertical markets, and serves as a senior commercial presence representing the Applied Research Intelligence (ARI) business unit in executive customer engagements, VP+ level business discussions, and strategic partner negotiations.

The ideal candidate brings strong commercial instincts, savvy product marketing craft, a well-established corporate R&D network, and the curiosity to anticipate market direction before it is explicitly articulated by buyers.

Strategic Context

The Strategic Context
This role owns the commercial intelligence and market strategy required to win complex, high-value enterprise opportunities and to drive the business unit's growth. The VP represents ARI's full value proposition to C-suite and VP-level buyers, capital allocation conversations, and strategic partnership reviews in our target vertical markets of life science, healthcare, engineering/chemistry/materials, and food & ag science.

The VP brings deep competitive intelligence, a market-independent perspective, and an extensive industry network to bear on ARI's most important commercial opportunities — owning the outcomes, not just providing inputs.

Key Responsibilities

• Platform Commercial Strategy & Deal Acceleration (40%)
  • Own the commercial strategy for the highest-value and most strategic use cases and business opportunities in target vertical markets — bringing market credibility, competitive insight, and clear positioning
  • Partner with business development and sales to design and execute winning approaches for complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals — reframing buyer conversations, addressing perception and pricing objections, identify professional services or custom solution opportunities, and building momentum across the Applied Research Intelligence Platform, AI Licensing, and Database Solutions
  • Direct the development and maintenance of a best-in-class sales enablement toolkit (competitive positioning, objection handling, ROI frameworks, demo narratives, and customer materials)
  • Monitor pipeline performance and diagnose stalls or losses tied to messaging, positioning, or competitive threats; feed insights back into enablement and roadmap discussions with the Head of Product
  • Define and govern the engagement model for commercial strategy support across the commercial cycle
• Strategic Prospecting & Market Intelligence (20%)
  • Own and lead market intelligence for priority segments and geographies, including competitor moves, buyer technology decisions, platform evaluations, AI/data sourcing strategies, and emerging workflow requirements
  • Engage the most senior prospects as a VP-level counterpart — building trust and demand signals ahead of formal procurement or sales cycles in settings that require executive-to-executive credibility
  • Represent ARI in industry forums, conferences, and partner events at a level commensurate with the SVP GM — building Wiley's external profile in corporate R&D markets as a commercial and thought leader
  • Leverage an established corporate R&D network to identify and engage net-new prospects across the portfolio, expanding pipeline beyond existing business development and corporate sales coverage
  • Establish a repeatable cadence for market briefs (monthly) and executive updates (quarterly), ensuring insights translate into sales enablement and product roadmap inputs
• Product Positioning & Market Development (15%)
  • Own and continuously advance the portfolio value proposition and positioning by buyer segment, enabling consistent and effective commercial execution
  • Translate technical platform capabilities into concise, buyer-ready value — without overstating what the product can deliver
  • Curate desirable content sources to meet customer use case needs and partner with the content acquisition team to secure rights
  • Ensure external claims and messaging are supported by validated evidence from data science
  • Hold primary accountability for pricing and packaging recommendations to the GM and Head of Product — grounded in buyer input, competitive benchmarks, and market intelligence
• Future Product Opportunity Identification & Development (25%)
  • Partner closely with Product Management to translate market intelligence and customer insight into a pipeline of future product opportunities — identifying where emerging AI and data capabilities can meet unmet corporate R&D needs before demand is formally defined, and supporting the successful commercial launch of new products to market.
  • Pinpoint platform capabilities that can be packaged into scalable offerings addressing unmet or emerging corporate R&D use cases
  • Lead alongside the GM and Head of Product to assess opportunities using consistent criteria (buyer need, differentiation, scalability, and platform fit — and own the go/no-go recommendation)
  • Conduct structured discovery with prospective buyers and partners to test hypotheses, validate Wiley's right to compete, and build evidence for investment cases
  • Deliver an internal capability assessment of current and near-term AI & DA strengths; map capabilities to known and emerging corporate R&D needs; produce an initial opportunity prioritization for the GM and Head of Product

Essential Experience

• 10+ years in commercial, business development, or consulting roles within the biomedical or pharmaceutical R&D, engineering / chemicals / materials science, or information services industries
• Demonstrated ability to operate as the senior commercial presence in executive-level customer engagements — including conversations at Chief Research Officer, VP+, and C-suite level — in settings where the credibility of the individual is as important as the product
• Deep familiarity with corporate R&D buyers in pharma, biotech, engineering, or adjacent sectors — including how buyers evaluate and make decisions around AI and data information solutions and platforms
• Demonstrated success owning primary accountability for a commercial function, service line, or consulting practice — including P&L ownership or equivalent commercial accountability
• Prominent track record leading and closing complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise deals for technically sophisticated data or AI products, and developing and executing global market-facing commercial strategies
• Strong background in pricing, packaging, and positioning professional services or platform solutions
• Working knowledge of enterprise AI and data platform patterns to support accurate positioning, credible deal conversations, and commercially grounded assessments of future products
• Proven track record of influencing and negotiating internally and externally with great latitude on outcomes
• Authoritative and commercially influential at VP+ and C-suite level, both internally and externally
• Collaborative by nature, with strong stakeholder management skills
• Bridges the gap between technical and commercial functions

Skills & Knowledge

• Deep, working knowledge of the research intelligence, academic data platforms, enterprise AI, and enterprise scientific content and competitive landscape
• Exceptional consultative selling and prospecting skills with the ability to navigate complex, multi-stakeholder deals and lead those conversations at VP level and above without senior backup required
• Analytical discipline to assess a potential new product or commercial opportunity rigorously
• Executive-level business acumen and financial modeling capability (revenue forecasting, pricing models, ROI analysis) — with the ability to build and defend commercial investment cases independently
• Ability to translate technically complex AI and data platform capabilities into buyer-language value propositions that are accurate, differentiated, and commercially compelling
• Influences and negotiates internally and externally with great latitude on outcomes. Authoritative and commercially influential at VP+ and C-suite level, both internally and externally

Leadership & Mindset

• Entrepreneurial — comfortable building in ambiguous environments without a defined playbook
• Operates at strategic altitude while maintaining the commercial precision to execute — the duality this role requires
• Comfortable owning outcomes without the structural backing of a large team — this role leads through influence, credibility, and commercial authority, not large headcount
• Collaborative by nature, with strong stakeholder management skills
• Bridges the gap between technical and commercial functions