Head of External Innovation, China (Shanghai, China, Shanghai)
Notify me about similar jobsAbout this opportunity
About Innovation Unit China
Innovation Unit China (China R&D Center) is a strategic innovation hub within Boehringer Ingelheim’s global R&D network, established to harness China’s rapidly evolving scientific capabilities and vibrant innovation ecosystem. By integrating Experimental Medicine, External Innovation, Development CMC, and Clinical Pharmacology & Non-clinical Safety Science, IU China connects promising science with early development expertise to accelerate high-potential opportunities, contribute to the global pipeline, and help accelerate breakthrough therapies for patients in China and around the world.
Role & Responsibility:
Responsible for leading a team of business development personnel & investment managers with the aim to identify pre-clinical and clinical in-licensing opportunities in China for Boehringer Ingelheim as well as venture investment opportunities in China for the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund in line with the Corporate strategy.
Increase BI’s visibility and leverage and grow strong external and internal network, seek and evaluate external licensing and investment opportunities with academia, biotech, and venture capital in order to access novel target ideas or technologies which contribute to the IU portfolio in line with the Corporate IU strategy.
Implement global strategy, working and governance module for TCM BD&L. Give guidance to the BD&L search and evaluation, transactions, and alliance managers in China.
Assure a consistent China IU/China external innovation strategy implementation approach which contributes to the implementation of the overall strategy as defined at global Corporate level.
A member of the TMC leadership team
-Assure a consistent China IU/China external innovation strategy
-Actively participate in TCM LT activities and meetings and contribute to T.C.M vision as well as China Strategy
A member of the China Licensing Committee
A member of the Global BD&L Leadership Team
As the Head of the External Innovation in China, connect Boehringer China and the external Chinese innovation ecosystem in China, familiar with the Chinese market ,especially to the therapeutic areas relevant for global IU strategy and China HP Commercial Strategy
In-depth evaluation and negotiation support:
- Guide and support the investment managers to conduct high quality in-depth evaluations with a focus on medical and scientific concepts, management team, and business terms.
- Lead or delegate negotiations with target companies and potential co-investors, incl. negotiations of term sheets and signing off contract following the governance module
- Review all necessary documents for the Management Committee and the Investment Committee for an investment decision
Guide and support the BD colleagues in identifying collaborations and /or inl-icensing opportunities fit the global BD&L objectives as well as China HP Commercial strategy.
Guide and support BD&L deal process, IDE,manage interactions with different local & global cross functions ensure robustness of the overall IDE & deliverables. Supervision the successful completion for structuring, negotiation and execution of different transactions
Overview the portfolio of China based alliances by driving alliance governance modules and operational process, proactively identify and manage risks and issues to ensure adherence to contractual obligations and protect the best interest of the alliance
Manage performance, take care of development and coach/mentor employees of EIH.
TCM LT members
Communication of IU China and External Innovation Hub strategy internally and externally. Close interaction with local and global communication group
Required Capabilities:
Degree / Education
Doctoral Degree e.g. PhD or MD in :Biochemistry,Biology,Chemistry,Medicine,Pharmacology,etc.
15 years working experience in biotech, pharmaceutical business in an R&D, BD&L, or venture role with 5 years team leadership experience are required
Excellent medical/scientific background with a good understanding of business needs
Is innovative, shows intra/enterpreneurship and has the ability to work independently and to solve complex problems and work/align with multiple stakeholders internal and external
Excellent interpersonal and organisational skills & leadership competencies; team player, good people management and excellent communication skills
Demonstrates a broad experience of External Innovation/Collaborations, BD&L and Venture Business
Proven experience in interacting with academia biotechs Venture Capitals, etc.
Fluent in English and Chinese
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active BD&L & Strategic Planning role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 397 comparable BD&L & Strategic Planning roles across 86 biopharma companies.
Salary context
116 of 397 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function. This posting doesn't list a seniority level, so peers aren't narrowed by seniority either -- the range below may span more levels than usual.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 397 comparable roles
+ 32 more countries
Seniority mix
295 of 397 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
57 of 397 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
Notify me about similar jobs
Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.
Or follow a whole field: get every new BD&L & Strategic Planning job in China, and choose locations and companies.
How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.