Academic Partnerships Director
RemoteBoston, Massachusetts, United States
Job Summary
Build and manage a portfolio of relationships with principal investigators, academic medical centers, and research consortia pursuing NIH, NSF, and foundation-funded studies in neurology, psychiatry, and sleep. Partner with PIs during proposal development to position the Beacon Waveband EEG platform as the preferred solution, supporting the scientific and budgetary narrative from early proposal through study execution. Own account-level pipeline generation, negotiation, and closing for academic and grant-funded opportunities, while representing Beacon at major scientific conferences to build networks among grants administrators and technology transfer offices. Serve as a credible scientific thought partner to research teams, translating technology assets into clear value for specific study designs. Provide leadership with visibility into pipeline health and win/loss patterns, and extend the Academic strategy including pricing structures to align with partner priorities. This remote role involves periodic travel to customer meetings and site visits, with preferred in-person hubs in Boston and New York City.
Required Qualifications
- MD with training in psychiatry or neurology, or PhD in neuroscience
- 3+ years of experience in business development, academic partnerships, alliance management, or a related commercial role
- Firsthand familiarity with the academic research and grant funding environment, gained through prior lab, postdoctoral, or research administration experience
- Ability to use CRM tools to track accounts and opportunities
- Experience contracting with academic institutions, including Tech Transfer Offices and Legal teams
- Willingness to travel for conferences, site visits, and internal meetings, 1-3 times per quarter
Desired Qualifications
- Strong scientific acumen, with experience in neuroscience, sleep science, or a related clinical research domain preferred
- Demonstrated ability to translate strategic and commercial context into actionable operational briefs for delivery teams
- Exceptional interpersonal skills, with a demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with PIs, research administrators, and academic leadership
- A track record of self-generated pipeline, managing not only inbound interest but also building new interest with PIs, core facilities, and consortium relationships through creative demand generation that become revenue generating partnerships
- Entrepreneurial mindset, comfortable navigating the long and often unpredictable timelines of academic funding cycles while managing a disciplined pipeline
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to build compelling proposal language and presentations for scientific and administrative audiences
- Empathy for all stakeholders, including academic researchers, research administrators, co-workers, and most of all patients
- Avid curiosity
- Bias towards simplicity
- Eye for composability
- Self-service mindset
- Deep empathy towards colleagues, stakeholders, users, and patients
- Diverse team background
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