Founding Head of Strategy & Partnerships

Location: New York City Type: Full-time

About CellType

CellType (YC W26) is building the biological reasoning layer for pharma AI. We train frontier LLMs to reason about cells—predicting drug response, perturbation effects, and patient outcomes from single-cell data.

Our foundational technology (Cell2Sentence, or "C2S") was developed at Yale and validated in collaboration with Google DeepMind. Our C2S-Scale model recently predicted a novel cancer therapy combination confirmed in human cells, earning recognition from Sundar Pichai and coverage across scientific and mainstream press. We are the exclusive commercial licensee of the underlying Yale patent family.

Backed by top-tier investors, we have early pilots in motion and are actively working with multiple doctors and top 10 pharma companies. We believe there is a massive opportunity to build a biological reasoning layer that makes every frontier model smarter at drug discovery.

About the role

We are seeking a Founding Head of Strategy & Partnerships to build and lead our commercial engine. We have validated science, robust IP, and active pharma pilots. Now, we need a commercial leader to translate our foundational technology into scalable, high-value partnerships.

As a founding-team member, you will own our commercial strategy end-to-end, working directly with the CEO to define our market positioning, structure data partnerships, and close revenue-generating deals.

What you'll do

• Pharma & Biotech BD: Build the pipeline, structure deals, and close contracts with pharma drug discovery and translational medicine teams. Drive active conversations with multiple top 10 pharma companies toward signed, revenue-generating partnerships.
• Data Strategy: Define our data acquisition roadmap. Evaluate opportunities like ex vivo patient tumor perturbation data, molecular glue degrader libraries, and retrospective pharma datasets to determine which modalities drive the highest commercial value.
• Partnership Sourcing: Establish academic collaborations, consortium participation, data-sharing agreements, and strategic partnerships with compute providers and model vendors.
• Commercial Strategy & Positioning: Define our pricing, packaging, and business model (e.g., API, services, platform license, or data co-development). Maintain sharp market intelligence to differentiate CellType from competitors.
• Fundraising Support: Partner with the founding team to shape the Series A narrative, manage investor diligence, and articulate our commercial traction to top-tier VCs.

You may be a fit if you

• Bring deep expertise in pharma commercialization and a strong perspective on the intersection of AI and biology
• Have experience in Pharma BD / Alliance Management, closing platform, data, or methodology deals at major pharma companies
• Have tech-bio commercial leadership experience at scaling platform companies (e.g., Recursion, Insitro, Tempus)
• Have a background in biotech strategy consulting with significant client work in AI biotech or pharma R&D
• Have associate-to-principal level experience at top life sciences VC funds, ready to transition into an operating role
• Have a track record of closing deals and navigating complex diligence processes

Note: This role requires deep industry background; it is not a fit for generalist tech BD professionals or pure academics without commercial exposure.

What we offer

• $200K–$280K base salary commensurate with experience
• Meaningful founding-team equity (0.5–2.0%)
• Remote-friendly with regular team gatherings in NYC / New Haven
• Comprehensive health, dental, and 401(k) benefits
• A senior seat at the table for every major strategic decision
• Direct exposure to pharma executives, top-tier investors, and the Yale/Google DeepMind scientific networks

This role will directly shape the commercial trajectory of CellType. The right person will help determine not only how we position our technology, but how fast we can scale our partnerships and how confidently we can build a generational company.

If you want to work on difficult commercial challenges with real scientific and industry consequences, we encourage you to apply. Please include a brief note in your application highlighting which of our core beliefs you most agree or disagree with, and why. We care more about your reasoning than the conclusion.