Senior Officer, Alliance Management & Product Access
- Company
Gates Foundation
- Location
New Delhi, India
- Employment Type
Full-Time
-
Functional Category
Programme Management & Implementation
-
Experience
15 - 16 years
- Date Posted
15-Nov-2025
About Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, we work with partners to create impactful solutions so that people can take charge of their futures and achieve their full potential. In the United States, we aim to ensure that everyone—especially those with the fewest resources—has access to the opportunities needed to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of Bill Gates and our governing board.
Overview of the Role
As Senior Officer, Alliance Management & Product Access, DHAI, you will support the DHAI team in identifying and evaluating strategic business partners and licensing opportunities aligned with the foundation’s charitable mission. You will be responsible for negotiating access to key assets with new and existing partners, working closely with the team members to ensure agreement structures reflect innovation needs and associated technical risks. You will be specifically supporting the DHAI team by providing transaction and negotiation support to execute agreements with select private sector partners. These agreements enable access to critical assets and technologies for charitable purposes (excluding Strategic Investment Fund transactions such as debt, equity, and volume guarantees). You will also contribute to shaping best practices for private sector engagement and negotiation, in close coordination with DHAI and the foundation’s global Business Development and Licensing (BD&L) team. This role involves collaboration with external partners to advance agreements that support the foundation’s global health priorities. The position is based at the foundation’s ICO in New Delhi, and reports to the Director, Health R&D, Digital Innovation and AI.
Job Description
1. Structuring and Executing Strategic Transactions
• Collaborate closely with DHAI leadership (Director, Deputy Directors) and team members, as required, to structure, negotiate, and co-lead strategic collaborations and alliances. Ensure agreements advance innovative health assets from India - including drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, probiotics, AI tools, and technology platforms - from early concept through development, commercialization, and delivery to underserved populations in India and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
• Work with the BD&L team on transaction execution and lead post-signature management, serving as the point of contact to organize terms, ensure contractual responsibilities are met, support renegotiations where needed, and maintain alignment with deal objectives across the DHAI portfolio.
• Conduct due diligence and partner evaluations, support negotiations, align internal stakeholders, and provide clear, evidence-based recommendations to DHAI and executive leadership.
• Coordinate across functions - including business development, strategic sourcing, product launch, and the Global Health Division BD&L team - to ensure smooth deal handoffs, informed pre-deal insights, and reporting of risks, priorities, and opportunities. Represent DHAI in BD&L Business Council meetings.
• Facilitate conflict resolution, proactively anticipating and addressing disputes as a single point of escalation, while following contract mechanisms for formal escalation when required.
• Manage multiple high-complexity opportunities concurrently, ensuring strong collaboration with internal and external partners, robust analysis of commercial prospects across High-Income Countries (HICs) and LMICs, and timely decision-making at each stage of the transaction execution process
2. Supporting Stakeholder Engagement and Access Strategy
• Leverage biopharma experience to support the DHAI team in designing and executing private-sector engagement strategies aligned with the foundation’s functional strategy.
• Lead the alliance management principles, processes and an effective alliance management framework to manage strategic agreements, medical research agreements, license and collaboration agreements, and key service providers
• Evolve global access terms - such as affordability, access, sustainability, and price - that are essential for achieving DHAI program goals.
• Leverage experience in negotiating with local and multinational pharma and biotech companies, keeping in mind global and India regulatory agency considerations.
• Support the development and implementation of programs that foster public-good data sets and cross-sector collaboration.
• Support sharing of best practices and lessons learned from private sector engagements.
• Serve as a thought partner to the DHAI team in cultivating key relationships with biopharma companies and other strategic partners.
3. Internal Alignment and Strategic Collaboration
• Establish highly effective and collaborative relationships with key internal functions, including Legal, Finance, Strategic Investment Fund, Product introduction to support impact at scale.
• During deal negotiations, working closely with BD&L team and the Investment Officer within DHAI to ensure local context and background is prioritized as we structure and negotiate the deal terms (especially pertaining to Global Access).
• As a DHAI team member, participate across the clusters to review annual collaboration goals and proactively foster coordination and alignment of all internal and external partners to the goals and objectives of the alliance to support the Investment Officer.
• Facilitate high-quality opportunity assessments and due diligence reviews, including benchmarking of comparable transactions, agreement structures, funding needs, Target Product Profiles (TPPs), and relevant partner landscapes.
• Help build local alliance management capabilities, tools, and practices, within the DHAI team, based on their experience
• Identify cross-cutting synergies and strategic solutions across the DHAI team and other divisions to enhance strategy execution in line with the impact goals laid out.
Required & Preferred Qualifications
Skill
• Proven track record of leading cross-functional transaction teams to completion across geographies and sectors.
• Exposure to global health partnerships and alignment of nonprofit–for-profit incentives preferred.
• Strong negotiation and legal acumen related to IP and licensing in the Indian context.
• Exceptional interpersonal and collaboration skills within matrixed organizations.
• Ability to quickly understand and assess new technologies, particularly in health and AI.
• Sound knowledge of biopharma market dynamics, especially vaccines in India and the region.
• Strong analytical capabilities, including financial modeling and product P&L (Profit & Loss) evaluation.
• Excellent communication skills- written, verbal, and executive presentation.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to weigh complex tradeoffs and drive decision-making. Comfortable operating across strategic and execution levels in ambiguous, high-complexity settings.
• Team-oriented, inclusive, and effective across diverse internal and external stakeholders.
• Mission-driven and solutions-oriented mindset.
• Promote and imbibe a culture of rigour, innovation, optimism, collaboration, and inclusion - in the work and the partnerships supported.
Education
Bachelor’s degree and 10+ years of relevant experience required; advanced degree (MBA, PhD, or equivalent) preferred.
Experience
• 15+ years of biopharma or health technology industry experience in India, including significant experience executing complex agreements across therapeutic areas and modalities. • Experience across multiple functional areas in a local/multinational health, pharma, or tech organization (e.g., business development, product development, legal, commercialization). • Demonstrated success in alliance management, negotiating IP, data, privacy, and liability-related business terms, especially in cross-sector partnerships. • Experience negotiating with multinational and Indian-based organizations, including multi-partner collaborations.