Job Description:

Looking for a dedicated Business Development / In-Licensing Head to build a structured, high-quality pipeline of external product partnerships that address unmet surgical needs in the Indian market. This is a standalone, hands-on role, not a broad corporate-development mandate, focused entirely on identifying gaps, scouting products and companies (in India and abroad) that can fill them, building and ranking a partnership pipeline, and personally driving deals through to closure.

The role owns the full in-licensing lifecycle: unmet need identification, partner scouting, pipeline prioritization, deal negotiation, and closure, in that order, and is measured on the quality of the pipeline built and the number and value of deals actually closed.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Unmet Surgical Need Identification:

- Systematically map gaps in the Indian surgical market by specialty, procedure, and care setting where surgeons and hospitals lack access to good clinical solutions.

- Engage surgeons, KOLs, hospital procurement teams, and Futura's own sales/marketing/R&D teams to validate and prioritize unmet needs.

- Build and maintain a living need map of the Indian surgical landscape, updated with clinical, epidemiological, and commercial inputs.

- Distinguish genuine white-space opportunities from needs already served by strong incumbents.

2. Partner & Product Scouting (India & Global):

- Proactively search for product companies in India, US, Europe, Korea, Japan, China, and other innovation hubs whose products could be licensed for the Indian (and select export) markets.

- Build and use a wide network across medtech incubators, industry associations, conferences, investor/VC circles, and cross-border business development consultants to surface opportunities.

- Screen inbound and outbound leads for clinical fit, regulatory feasibility, and strategic relevance to Futura's portfolio.

- Maintain a structured CRM/tracker of all companies and products scouted, with status, contact history, and next steps.

3. Pipeline Development & Prioritization:

- Build a consolidated partnership pipeline mapping each opportunity against the unmet needs identified.

- Rank-order the pipeline top to bottom using a consistent framework across three dimensions: market potential, synergy with Futura, and ease of closure.

- Define and continuously refine clear, defensible scoring criteria for each dimension (e.g., market size and growth for potential; portfolio, manufacturing, and channel fit for synergy; partner readiness, deal complexity, and exclusivity expectations for ease of closure).

- Present the ranked pipeline to leadership on a regular cadence, with a clear rationale for sequencing and recommended focus areas.

- Re-rank the pipeline as new information emerges (partner responsiveness, competitive moves, regulatory changes, internal capacity).

4. Commercial & Technical Evaluation:

- Lead early-stage evaluation of shortlisted products clinical differentiation, regulatory status, manufacturing readiness, and cost/pricing viability.

- Coordinate with R&D, Regulatory, Quality, and Manufacturing to validate technical and compliance feasibility before deal discussions advance.

- Build business cases (market sizing, revenue potential, investment required, payback) for each prioritized opportunity.

5. Deal Structuring & Negotiation:

- Structure licensing, distribution, or co-development deal terms (exclusivity, territory, minimum guarantees, royalties/margins, milestones) in line with Futura's commercial and strategic priorities.

- Lead commercial negotiations directly with partner companies, supported by Legal and Finance for contracting and deal terms.

- Manage multiple parallel negotiations while sequencing effort according to the pipeline ranking.

6. Deal Closure, In Order of Ranking:

- Drive deals to signed agreements starting with the highest-ranked opportunities, ensuring the pipeline sequencing translates into actual closures.

- Own the end-to-end closure process term sheet, due diligence, contracting, and internal approvals removing bottlenecks and keeping deals moving.

- Track closure velocity against the pipeline plan and proactively flag and resolve stalled deals.

7. Post-Deal Handover & Partner Relationship Management:

- Ensure a clean handover of closed partnerships to Regulatory, Supply Chain, and Sales/Marketing for launch execution.

- Maintain the relationship with licensor companies post-signing to support smooth onboarding and early performance.

- Monitor partner and product performance against the business case, and feed learnings back into the prioritization framework.

8. Cross-Functional Leadership & Reporting:

- Work closely with R&D, Regulatory, Manufacturing, Marketing, and Exports to align in-licensing priorities with overall company strategy.

- Provide leadership with regular, structured reporting on the need map, pipeline, ranking, and deal status.

- Build robust documentation and audit-ready records for all evaluations, negotiations, and signed agreements.

Key KPIs:

- Number and quality of validated unmet surgical needs mapped.

- Size and quality of the partnership pipeline (India and global).

- Rigor and consistency of the ranking framework (market potential, synergy, ease of closure).

- Number of deals closed against plan, in ranked order.

- Time-to-close per deal and overall pipeline velocity.

- Projected market potential/revenue of closed partnerships.

- Quality of post-deal partner relationships and handover.