VP, Alliance Management

Company Description

Zai Lab (NSDAQ: ZLAB) is an innovative, research-based, commercial stage biopharmaceutical company based in China and the U.S. focused on bringing transformative medicines for cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases to patients in China and around the world.

Headquartered in Shanghai since our founding in 2014, our experienced team has secured partnerships with leading global biopharma companies, generating a broad and late-stage pipeline of innovative drug candidates. Based on our extensive track record of execution and delivering results, Zai Lab has earned the reputation as a trusted partner of choice for global biopharmaceutical companies seeking to not only access the Chinese market but also find a long-term strategic partner for global clinical development.  Through these partnerships, Zai Lab has built the strongest late stage oncology portfolio with global first-in-class and/or best-in-class profile, among innovative Chinese biotech companies. We are further supplementing our pipeline with an in-house discovery effort aiming to produce 1-2 global INDs per year.

Zai Lab is rapidly expanding into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company, discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing innovative medicines. To that end, we have built our internal R&D center to advance our discovery pipeline, a strong clinical development and operations team, and our own manufacturing facilities in China. We have also established a highly specialized commercial team to support marketing of our innovative products in China. We believe this integrated approach will provide sustainable competitive advantages for Zai Lab.

Zai Lab was successfully listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market in September 2017 and completed secondary listing on Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September 2020. Zai Lab significantly expanded with several offices across China and U.S. and opened its U.S. headquarters in San Francisco in December 2018. As of June 2021, the Company has a global team of over 1600 employees.

Job Description

Zai is looking for an experienced Alliance Professional to manage several critical high profile partnerships with Biotech and multi national companies as well as manage a group of alliance managers.

 KEY RESPONSBILITIES:

• Work closely with the Head AM & S&E and Zai's corporate partners to set the direction and scope for implementation of the partnership agreements: identify key activities, timing and responsibilities of both parties
• Oversee and ensure that Zai has appropriate representation on governance committees with all of ZAI's partners to ensure all obligations to the partners are met according to the partnership agreements
• The successful candidate will be expected to actively participate in governance committees and working group meetings for key partnerships in addition to manage a team of alliance managers
• Support the career development of more junior Alliance Managers to ensure continuity in the partnerships
• Continuously monitor and optimize the Alliance function to maintain Zai status preferred partner through partner feedback, partnership healthchecks and lessons learned exercises
• Ensure the Alliance functions as the central point of contact to streamline communication and meetings between functional areas within ZAI and across Zai's partners.
• Develop and cultivate strong relationships with leaders at Zai's partners.
• Actively mitigate the risk of potential relationship issues; anticipate and manage potential conflicts before they reach crisis level. Escalate as needed issues that require immediate attention to sr leaders in ZAI in a timely manner.
• Liaise with legal, compliance, finance, BD and R&D functions to ensure that key contract milestones, financial transactions, progress reports etc are handled appropriately and provide information/updates/reports across all partnerships.
• Conduct regular reviews/meetings with senior management and functions to communicate key issues, milestones etc and gather feedback.
• Participate in review of new partner contract negotiations as appropriate and provide input into partnership execution terms of the contract, in particular, governance structures and processes.
• Proactively suggest process, strategy and prioritization changes or areas of opportunity to optimize the value of each assigned relationship
• Partner with appropriate functional stakeholders to ensure that: o Strategy and plans are formed and endorsed o Roadblocks and challenges are recognized and escalated to senior management and decision making is facilitated to address and solutions are implemented.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences or relevant field; advanced degree preferred.
• At least 10 years experience in the Biotechnology / Pharmaceuticals industry.
•  At least 5 years experience in alliance management and a successful track record of successful partnership management across the R&D value chain from Discovery to Commercialization

Additional Information

Diversity Statement:  At Zai Lab we believe a diverse workforce drives our success as a company. We are always working to create an environment where different backgrounds and viewpoints are valued and celebrated.
Zai Lab is an equal opportunity employer. Zai Lab makes employment decisions, including in recruitment and selection, without consideration of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or disability.

Recruiter Statement: Zai Lab acknowledges that providers may be a valuable resource for identifying and recruiting candidates for employment.  However, we require that all recruiters engage directly with Zai Lab’s Human Resources Team and comply with Zai Lab’s requirements prior to transmitting any resumes/CVs or introducing any candidates to Zai Lab.  Zai Lab’s Human Resource Team is the only function within the Company that can enter contractual relationships with external recruiters and recruiting agencies.