Senior Manager, External Innovation
About this opportunity
At Eisai, satisfying unmet medical needs and increasing the benefits healthcare provides to patients, their families, and caregivers is Eisai’s human health care (hhc) mission. We’re a growing pharmaceutical company that is breaking through in neurology and oncology, with a strong emphasis on research and development. Our history includes the development of many innovative medicines, notably the discovery of the world's most widely-used treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. As we continue to expand, we are seeking highly-motivated individuals who want to work in a fast-paced environment and make a difference. If this is your profile, we want to hear from you.
This role integrates search & evaluation (S&E) with hands-on alliance management to translate external innovation into meaningful impact for Eisai’s portfolio. A central component of this position is the end-to-end management of external collaborations to ensure delivery against scientific, strategic, and contractual objectives.
In parallel, this role is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing new external opportunities across academia and industry. The position serves as a scientific and strategic thought partner, ensuring both effective execution of ongoing collaborations and continued development of the external innovation pipeline.
Key Responsibilities:
Alliance Management & Execution
Lead and manage active external collaborations, ensuring delivery against scientific objectives, timelines, and contractual commitments
Drive collaboration governance, including meeting leadership, milestone tracking, and issue resolution
Ensure alignment between scientific activities and contractual terms
Translate scientific discussions into clear deliverables, action plans, and next steps
Search & Evaluation (S&E)
Conduct S&E of external opportunities including novel therapeutics, platforms, models, and consortia
Develop competitive and technology landscapes across priority therapeutic areas
Identify and cultivate relationships with external experts and key opinion leaders (KOLs)
Prioritize opportunities for diligence using scientific and strategic criteria
Strategic Integration
Provide scientific and strategic input into collaboration workplans and external opportunities
Partner cross-functionally to align external activities with internal program and portfolio strategy
Ensure external innovation activities support both near-term execution and long-term portfolio growth
Qualifications:
Master’s degree with 5+ years of biotech/pharma industry experience. PhD preferred.
Direct experience independently managing external collaborations in a biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry setting
Strong scientific expertise in neurology with an interest in exploring other therapeutic areas.
Demonstrated ability to critically evaluate novel technologies and platforms, particularly in the neurodegeneration space
Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex scientific ideas
Demonstrated ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional colleagues and engage senior stakeholders in a global matrixed environment. This includes openly sharing knowledge and resources, valuing different perspectives, and contributing to a positive work environment.
Ability to build and maintain effective working relationships with internal stakeholders and external partners
Demonstrated ability to balance hands-on alliance management with proactive opportunity identification
#LI-CC
Eisai Salary Transparency Language:
The annual base salary range for the Senior Manager, External Innovation is from :$136,800-$179,600
Under current guidelines, this position is eligible to participate in : Eisai Inc. Annual Incentive Plan.
Final pay determinations will depend on various factors including but not limited to experience level, education, knowledge, and skills.
Employees are eligible to participate in Company employee benefit programs. For additional information on Company employee benefits programs, visit https://careers.eisai.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits .
Certain other benefits may be available for this position, please discuss any questions with your recruiter.
Eisai is an equal opportunity employer and as such, is committed in policy and in practice to recruit, hire, train, and promote in all job qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or veteran status. Similarly, considering the need for reasonable accommodations, Eisai prohibits discrimination against persons because of disability, including disabled veterans.
Eisai Inc. participates in E-Verify. E-Verify is an Internet based system operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security Administration that allows participating employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of all new hires in the United States. Please click on the following link for more information:
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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 120 comparable Manager BD&L & Strategic Planning roles across 40 biopharma companies.
Salary context
45 of 120 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 120 comparable roles
+ 17 more countries
Seniority mix
120 of 120 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
16 of 120 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.
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How we calculate "similar"
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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.