Director, Alliance Strategy

Location
: Menlo Park, CA / Miami, FL / Princeton, NJ ONSITE

About Summit
Summit Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical oncology company with a mission focused on improving quality of life, increasing potential duration of life, and resolving serious unmet medical needs. At Summit, we believe in building a team of world class professionals who are passionate about this mission, and it is our people who drive this mission to reality. Summit's core values include integrity, passion for excellence, purposeful urgency, collaboration, and our commitment to people. Our employees are truly the heart and soul of our culture, and they are invaluable in shaping our journey toward excellence.

Summit's Team Is Inspired To Touch And Help Change Lives Through Summit's Clinical Studies In The Field Of Oncology. Summit Has Multiple Global Phase 3 Clinical Studies, Including

Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)

• HARMONi: Phase 3 clinical study which was intended to evaluate ivonescimab combined with chemotherapy compared to placebo plus chemotherapy in patients with EGFR-mutated, locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous NSCLC who were previously treated with a 3rd generation EGFR TKI.
• HARMONi-3: Phase 3 clinical study which is intended to evaluate ivonescimab combined with chemotherapy compared to pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy in patients with first-line metastatic NSCLC.
• HARMONi-7: Phase 3 clinical study which is intended to evaluate ivonescimab monotherapy compared to pembrolizumab monotherapy in patients with first-line metastatic NSCLC.

Colorectal Cancer (CRC)

• HARMONi-GI3: Phase 3 clinical study intended to evaluate ivonescimab in combination with chemotherapy compared with bevacizumab plus chemotherapy.

Ivonescimab is an investigational therapy not presently approved by any regulatory authority other than China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). Summit is headquartered in Miami, Florida, and has additional offices in California, New Jersey, the UK, and Ireland.

Overview Of Role
The Director, Alliance Strategy & Management leads the performance and strategic evolution of the company's external partnerships. This role ensures that alliances deliver on their scientific, clinical, and commercial potential by fostering trust, transparency, and operational excellence across collaborations. Working closely with the Department Head and Business & Strategy colleagues, this leader is a key contributor to product strategy & combinations strategy with ownership of operational integration with partners, plus maintaining oversight.

This role interfaces with internal & external partners, driving alignment, accelerating joint OKR achievement, resolving issues, and unlocking long-term value. The capabilities to actively build strategy, deliver operational plans and execute the details is essential. The ideal candidate brings experience in hands-on R&D and product management, alliance management, strong cross-functional leadership, and a proactive mindset to maximize the impact of external innovation. This leader will have end-to-end accountability for multiple external collaborations.

Role And Responsibilities

• Alliance Governance & Oversight

Lead collaboration planning, activation and execution; to include study start-up, joint committees, governance forums, and operational reviews to ensure strategic alignment and execution across partnered programs.

• Relationship Management

Serve as point of contact for alliance partners, building trust, facilitating communication, and resolving issues with speed and diplomacy; a face and voice of the company externally.

• Milestone & Performance Tracking

Monitor progress against contractual milestones, deliverables, and KPIs; ensure timely reporting and actively solving issues.

• Strategic Integration & Value Realization

Collaborate with internal teams to integrate alliance activities into broader portfolio and pipeline strategies, ensuring long-term value creation across tumors, indications and regions.

• Cross-Functional Coordination

Partner with R&D, Clinical, Regulatory, Legal, and Commercial teams to align on joint program execution, decision-making, and resource planning.

• Continuous Improvement & Best Practices

Develop and implement alliance management frameworks, dynamic tools, and processes to enhance efficiency, speed to execution, transparency, and partner satisfaction.

• Executive Reporting & Communication

Prepare updates and strategic insights for the Department Head and Executive leadership on alliance progress, health, risks, and opportunities.

• All other duties as assigned

Experience, Education And Specialized Knowledge And Skills

• Bachelor's degree in relevant field required; Advanced degree preferred (MBA, Masters, etc.), dual scientific and business background is a strong plus.
• Minimum of 12+ years of experience in oncology biopharma with a primary focus on alliance management and clinical development program leadership; end-to-end indication planning is a plus.
• Prior oncology drug experience in late-stage development and/or commercial stage required; strong understanding of oncology drug development, scientific platforms, and global commercial dynamics.
• Hands-on experience leading pharma or biotech drug development clinical trial collaboration start-up & management with external partners required.
• Understanding or experience in collaboration preparation, kick-off meetings, joint clinical trial or project management to ensure successful contract implementation & relationship management.
• Proficient user of MS Office suite (e.g., PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Project), experience using electronic document management systems, document review tools and can quickly build presentations for leaders/teams.
• Prior experience with technology tools (e.g. Smartsheets, MS Project) in planning, maintenance and communication of information is highly desirable.
• Excellent communicator in public-speaking, meeting facilitation and email communication.
• Ability to excel in a fast-paced, demanding and diverse environment that includes global virtual meetings outside standard business hours.
• Ability to travel to collaboration or business meetings, to include semi-frequent travel to hub office locations in Summit territories or collaboration partner sites.
• Role is primarily office-based.

The pay range for this role is $184,000-$230,000 annually. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience, certifications, and specific work location. This may be different in other locations due to differences in the cost of labor. The total compensation package for this position may also include bonus, stock, benefits and/or other applicable variable compensation.

Summit does not accept referrals from employment businesses and/or employment agencies in respect of the vacancies posted on this site. All employment businesses/agencies are required to contact Summit's Talent Acquisition team at to obtain prior written authorization before referring any candidates to Summit.