Head of Business Development

Overview

At Single Cell Discoveries we're looking for a Head of Commercial Operations to join our team.

About the job

Single Cell Discoveries is a fast-growing biotech company looking for a senior commercial leader to join its management team. In this role, you will own and shape all aspects of our Business Development, Sales and Marketing strategy — from supporting prospecting and deal making hands-on to mentoring the BD and marketing team to build a scalable commercial engine.

You will lead our BD and Marketing team, work directly with the CEO and Board, and be accountable for driving sustainable growth in a complex, fast-moving life-science market. This is a key leadership position for someone who enjoys operating at the intersection of cutting-edge science, enterprise (service) sales, and people leadership.

If you get energy from building relationships with senior scientific and translational leaders, structuring biopharma collaborations, and translating advanced NGS technologies into real world impact, this role is for you. Compensation includes a competitive salary, bonus and option package.

About our company

Single Cell Discoveries is a venture-backed biotech company providing high-quality single-cell sequencing services to an international client base in academia and biopharma. With a young, highly driven team, we help scientists answer complex biological questions using state-of-the-art single-cell, bulk and spatial transcriptomics, combined with strong experimental design and data analysis.

Alongside our service portfolio, we run an active R&D program focused on assay development and translational applications, with the long-term ambition of bringing single-cell technologies closer to the clinic.

Roles and responsibilities

• Own commercial growth — You are accountable for new business acquisition (both by prospecting and digital marketing), pipeline health, and revenue growth across academia and biopharma.
• Lead and develop the BD team — You lead and coach our 6-person sales and marketing team, setting clear priorities, targets and development paths.
• Close complex, high-value deals — You actively support enterprise-level opportunities, including large multi-stakeholder MSAs and strategic partnerships with biopharma clients.
• Set commercial strategy — You define and execute BD strategies that align with company goals, scientific capabilities and market demand — translating strategy into concrete actions.
• Build structure and insight — You design and maintain reporting dashboards, optimize CRM workflows and forecasting tools to track performance, identify bottlenecks and improve decision-making.
• Operate as part of the management team — Reporting & collaboration: You report directly to the CEO, present to the Board, and contribute to broader company initiatives, including pricing and other internal operational projects in collaboration with leaders from other areas like Finance and Lab Operations.

Your skills and background

• MSc or PhD in Life Sciences or a related discipline; you are comfortable discussing biology, experimental design and NGS workflows with senior scientists.
• 6+ years of commercial experience in the life-science industry, with at least 3+ years in NGS, genomics, single-cell, or closely related technologies.
• Proven track record of closing complex, high-value deals with (potentially) long sales cycles (biopharma, translational research, platform sales, or services).
• Experience working with MSAs, procurement processes and multi-stakeholder decision making in biotech or pharma.
• Strong strategic thinking combined with a hands-on mentality — you’re comfortable building decks and being in front of clients.
• Experience building, coaching and scaling commercial teams in a high-growth environment.
• Highly adaptable, comfortable with ambiguity, and able to prioritize in a fast-moving scale up setting.
• Excellent communication skills in English (spoken and written); you can clearly articulate value to both scientific and non-scientific audiences.
• A collaborative team player who enjoys developing others and working closely with scientific, operational and R&D teams.
• Preferably living in or willing to relocate to the Netherlands, but we consider applicants based in other countries.

Why apply?

• A senior leadership role with real ownership and influence in a growing biotech company.
• You will learn the ins and outs of single-cell, spatial transcriptomics and other -omics technologies.
• Direct impact on the company’s trajectory, strategy and commercial success.
• A motivated, international and scientifically strong team.
• Exposure to a broad and global client base across academia and biopharma.
• Competitive compensation, strong pension plan, and an option package.

Apply for the job

Do you want to join our team as our new Head of Business Development? Then we'd love to hear about you!

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