Director, Alliance Management

Overview of 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. Role reports to the Senior Director Alliance Strategy & Management, 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.  This includes execution of day-to-day communications, or activities, operational coordination and integration with partners and program team, plus maintaining Summit oversight.  Routine collaboration, maintenance, tracking and executive reporting to be established and maintained as the company grows.

This role interfaces with internal & external partners, driving alignment, accelerating joint OKR achievement, resolving issues, and unlocking long-term value. The capabilities to contribute to strategy building, delivering operational plans and executing the details is essential. The ideal candidate brings proven experience in alliance management, contracting, Joint Committees, strong cross-functional leadership, and a proactive mindset to maximize the impact of external innovation. 

Role and Responsibilities:

• Alliance Governance & Oversight
  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.
• Relationship Management
  Serve as point of contact for alliance partners, building trust, facilitating communication, nd resolving issues with speed and diplomacy; a face and voice of the company externally.
• Milestone & Performance Tracking
  Monitor progress against contractual milestones, deliverables, and KPIs; ensure timely reporting and actively solving issues.
• Strategic Integration & Value Realization
  Collaborate with internal teams to integrate alliance activities into broader portfolio and pipeline strategies, ensuring long-term value creation across tumors, indications and regions.
• Cross-Functional Coordination
  Partner with Program Team, R&D, Clinical, Regulatory, Legal, Market Planning and Commercial teams to align joint program execution, decision-making, and resource planning.
• Continuous Improvement & Best Practices
  Develop and implement alliance management frameworks, dynamic tools, and processes to enhance efficiency, speed to execution, transparency, and partner satisfaction.\
• Executive Reporting & Communication
  Prepare updates and strategic insights for the Department Head and Executive leadership on alliance progress, health, risks, and opportunities.

Experience, Education and Specialized Knowledge and Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field required; Advanced degree preferred (MBA, Masters, etc.), 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 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.

• All other duties as assigned