Associate Director Business Development - Cell & Gene Technologies

Today, Lonza is a global leader in life sciences operating across five continents. While we work in science, there’s no magic formula to how we do it. Our greatest scientific solution is talented people working together, devising ideas that help businesses to help people. In exchange, we let our people own their careers. Their ideas, big and small, genuinely improve the world. And that’s the kind of work we want to be part of.

The Associate Director of Business Development will proactively identify and cultivate new customer relationships and business opportunities to achieve year-over-year revenue growth and pipeline development targets for the Lonza Cell & Gene Technologies (CGT) business unit. This role will effectively promote both existing technical capabilities and emerging technologies to drive the generation and closure of new clinical and commercial deals in the gene therapy, viral therapy, cell therapy, and mRNA manufacturing sectors. The ideal candidate will deeply understand customer needs and offer tailored, clinical-phase-appropriate service solutions, while consistently delivering Lonza’s value proposition and driving sales from prospecting to contract negotiation and deal closure.

This position will focus on generating new business across the US East Coast territory (south of NY), encompassing the full range of CGT BU service offerings, including viral vector and cell therapy, exosomes, and mRNA-related therapies. The role requires up to 50% travel, including attending relevant CGT conferences, trade shows, and customer visits.

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for generating new business from new customers through a high level of customer contact including frequent direct customer visits and extensive networking activities.

• Demonstrate strategic business awareness of the market and customers in order to differentiate Lonza from the competition.

• Develops, nurtures and maintains a strong network in the Cell and Gene Therapy market from which to drive future opportunities. Works closely with marketing department to support tradeshows, roadshows and conferences.

• Spends time in the field networking and attending conferences to generate new prospects, leads and opportunities. Gathers market insights including competitive information.

• Role requires traveling approx. 50-60% of the time. 

• Works closely with the Proposal and Commercial Development team on assessing opportunities and developing a tailored proposal and value proposition to client. Interface with additional internal resources when needed.          

• Structures deals, leads the negotiation process and closes deals with the support of internal functions including commercial development, proposal, legal, controllership.

• Identify market trends, assesses market potential and develop strategies to grow market share using data from customer base and Lonza CGT market intelligence.

• Perform other duties as assigned.  

Key Requirements:

• Bachelor and master's degrees in Life Science's or Engineering

• Significant commercial experience in the Pharmaceutical, Biotech or CDMO space

• Proven track record in delivering year on year business targets for complex high value deals

• Strong understanding of drug development and commercialization processes

• Strong technical understanding of drug substance and drug product manufacturing processes within the Cell & Gene therapy sector

• Fluent command of English, written and verbal, other language skills considered an asset.

• Proven ability to generate PowerPoint presentations and tailoring them to the specific needs of a customer

• Understanding of SalesForce.com customer contact management system

• Familiarity with the overall contents of relevant contracts to be closed, such as Letters of Intent (LOIs), Master Services Agreements (MSAs) and Statements of Work (SOWs)

• A basic understanding of critical commercial contract attributes to run a profitable Cell & Gene Therapy based CMO business

• Strong interpersonal skills. Creative, adaptable, capable of self-motivation and independence

• Customer facing attitude. The ability to build relationships based on trust and long term commitment. Strong gravitas, particularly in specific technology area of focus

• Leadership skills, ability to professionally lead group discussions involving senior execs from pharma & biotech companies 

• Proven previous involvement in contract negotiations in a leading role and as part of negotiating contracts.  The ability to proactiv