Director, Corporate Strategy

Shape strategy, partnerships, and investor engagement at a pivotal point in Vesalius's growth and clinical evolution.

Vesalius Therapeutics has built a unique AI-enabled platform to identify disease-causing biology pairing the world's largest iPSC collection with state-of-the-art cellular models and rich phenotypic screens. The platform uses genetics as the arbiter of causality to translate human biology into therapeutic hypotheses, and generate rigorous, decision-enabling evidence for drug development programs.

Position Summary

Vesalius Therapeutics is seeking a highly analytical, execution-oriented Director of Corporate Development to help lead enterprise strategy, external partnering, and investor engagement. This individual will work closely with senior leadership and cross-functional teams to translate scientific, clinical, competitive, and financial information into clear strategic choices, compelling external narratives, and coordinated action.

Key Responsibilities

Corporate Strategy & Portfolio Planning

• Support development and ongoing refinement of Vesalius's enterprise strategy, strategic priorities, portfolio plan, and long-range plan.
• Lead portfolio and scenario analyses that integrate scientific differentiation, clinical path, probability of success, investment requirements, competitive context, and potential value.
• Create clear decision frameworks for program prioritization, resource allocation, sequencing, partnering, financing, and organizational investment.
• Facilitate cross-functional strategy discussions and translate conclusions into accountable plans, milestones, and decision follow-up.

Strategic Analysis & Executive/Board Support

• Lead market, competitive, pipeline, modality, company, and financing-environment analyses that inform corporate and program strategy.
• Synthesize scientific, clinical, regulatory, commercial, and financial information into concise implications and recommendations for senior leadership and the Board.
• Develop scenario analyses, valuations, and financial models to evaluate strategic alternatives, investment needs, milestones, and value-creation pathways.
• Develop high-quality executive and Board materials, and partner with Finance and functional leaders on annual planning, resource allocation, operating priorities, and milestone tracking.

Business Development & Partnering

• Develop and maintain a business development strategy aligned with Vesalius's enterprise and portfolio priorities.
• Identify, assess, and prioritize licensing, collaboration, partnership, and other external growth opportunities.
• Lead or coordinate partner outreach, scientific and business presentations, cross-functional diligence, and integrated recommendations on strategic fit, value, risk, and execution requirements.
• Develop valuations and transaction scenarios, support deal structuring and negotiations with leadership, Finance, and Legal, and help transition completed transactions into effective alliance governance.

Investor Engagement & External Communications

• Help shape Vesalius's investor engagement strategy, engagement plan, and financing narrative in partnership with the executive team and Finance.
• Develop and maintain investor presentations, corporate messaging, Q&A, diligence materials, and other communications that clearly connect scientific and clinical progress to enterprise value.
• Prepare executives for investor meetings, conferences, financing discussions, and follow-up; coordinate accurate, consistent inputs across scientific, clinical, financial, and legal stakeholders.
• Monitor investor feedback, peer-company positioning, market sentiment, and the financing environment; translate external insights into recommendations for leadership.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant experience in biotechnology or pharmaceutical business development, investor relations, corporate strategy, management consulting, investment banking, or a comparable role.
• Demonstrated experience across at least two of the following areas: business development, investor relations, and corporate or portfolio strategy, with the ability to contribute effectively across all three.
• Strong understanding of biotechnology R&D, clinical development, portfolio strategy, partnering, and the drivers of enterprise value.
• Experience evaluating partnerships or licensing opportunities, including diligence, valuation, financial modeling, and transaction support.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex scientific and clinical information into clear investor, partner, executive, and Board materials.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional work, manage multiple high-priority workstreams, and build external relationships without relying on formal authority.
• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree in business, science, medicine, engineering, or a related field strongly preferred.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working across strategy, business development, or investor relations in an early-stage or clinical-stage biotechnology company.
• Experience in CNS, neurodegeneration, Alzheimer's disease, or complex disease areas.
• Direct experience supporting licensing transactions, strategic partnerships, private financings, investor meetings, or related external processes.
• Experience developing investor narratives and materials for a venture-backed or publicly traded biotechnology company.
• Familiarity with human genetics, data-driven drug discovery, and platform-based biotechnology models; experience supporting executive teams and Boards through major portfolio, financing, or partnering decisions.

Leadership Profile

• Gets quickly to the essential strategic, partnering, or investor question and distinguishes analysis that changes a decision from analysis that does not.
• Combines intellectual rigor with commercial judgment, pragmatism, speed, and a strong bias toward action.
• Communicates complex science and strategy simply, accurately, and with clear implications for internal and external audiences.
• Builds trust across scientific, clinical, financial, and operational teams and with external partners and investors.
• Challenges assumptions constructively and remains objective when the evidence conflicts with the preferred answer.
• Takes ownership from initial question through recommendation, external engagement, alignment, and execution follow-through.
• Thrives in an environment where priorities evolve and high-quality judgment matters more than process for its own sake.

What Success Looks Like

The successful candidate will build a trusted, high-impact capability across strategy, business development, and investor relations. They will improve the quality and speed of Vesalius's most important decisions, identify and advance high-value partnerships, strengthen the company's investor narrative and engagement, raise the quality of executive and Board materials, and ensure that strategic priorities translate into coordinated action and measurable progress.