Senior Life Sciences Partnership Lead

Salary: £70,000 – £80,000 (GBP)(depending upon experience) plus pension and other benefits.

Contract type:

• Part-time/full-time (minimum 30 hours/week)
• Fixed term to 1 year with potential to extend to 2 years

Closing: 12:00pm, 29th Sep 2026 BST

Reporting to:

Executive Director of Innovation & Commercial Partnerships, Health Innovation South West

This role

We are seeking a commercially minded senior leader to establish and lead a new Life Sciences Partnership Function for the South West Secure Data Environment (SWSDE).

Serving more than five million people across six Integrated Care Board areas, the SWSDE enables approved researchers to securely access and analyse health and care data to support research and innovation that benefits patients and populations.

This is an opportunity to shape how the South West works with the life sciences sector to develop research, innovation and commercial partnerships. Working across the NHS, academia and industry, you will build and lead a pipeline of partnership opportunities, taking them from initial engagement through to agreed programmes that deliver clear value for partners and the health and care system.

You will play a key role in developing the frameworks, commercial models and ways of working needed to support effective collaboration between the NHS, academia and industry, while maintaining high standards of privacy, security, ethics and public trust.

As Secure Data Environments continue to evolve across the UK, you will help define how organisations work with life sciences partners to use health data safely and responsibly to support research and innovation.

The role forms part of the SWSDE leadership and delivery model and is hosted by Health Innovation South West on behalf of the SWSDE, working closely with Health Innovation West of England and regional NHS and academic partners.

Role profile

Key success factors

• This role will lead the development and delivery of the Life Sciences Partnership Function for the SWSDE. The postholder will originate, develop and convert high impact partnerships between the SWSDE, NHS organisations and the life science sector that utilise the functionality and capability of the SWSDE safely, ethically and efficiently to deliver benefit for partners and the population of the South West region.
• The role will act as a key interface between the SWSDE and external partners, ensuring opportunities for partnership working between the SWSDE and the life science sector are translated into deliverable, governance-ready programmes that create measurable research, innovation and economic benefits. This will include providing NHS organisations involved in the SWSDE to develop effective partnership working with the life science sector, including pricing approaches, contract development and commercial operating models that enable sustainable collaboration with industry partners.
• This role reflects emerging functions being developed across other SDEs, Trusted Research Environments (TREs) and regional data innovation ecosystems, where specialist life science sector leadership expertise is required to complement technical, governance and academic routes.
• The postholder will develop commercially and operationally viable proposals for consideration through SWSDE governance. The role will not determine access to data. All projects will remain subject to feasibility assessment, information-governance requirements, demonstration of public benefit and independent Data Access Committee approval.

Responsibilities

Leading strategic partnership development

• Lead the development and delivery of the Life Sciences Partnership Strategy for the SWSDE, building the South West’s distinctive position as a preferred regional partner for data-enabled life science sector research and innovation partnerships.
• Build senior relationships with major life science sector organisations and develop strategic anchor partnerships capable of generating sustained partnership activity and long term income.
• Build trusted relationships with SWSDE partner organisations, including Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and NHS providers, supporting partners to develop effective partnership working with the life science sector and the SWSDE.
• Build strategic relationships with relevant national programmes including NHS England, Health Data Research UK and wider research networks.
• Identify collaborative opportunities for Life Science Partnership Function with other SDEs and TREs.

Leading partnership pipeline generation

• Lead the development of a strategically aligned, high quality pipeline of revenue generating partnerships with the life science sector.
• Work with Health Innovation Networks and NHS partners to originate opportunities in collaboration with NHS partner organisations.
• Lead the management, and delivery of the partnership pipeline, ensuring effective planning and oversight to deliver agreed partnership pipeline, revenue targets and KPIs.

Leading partnership opportunity development and conversion

• Translate external opportunities with the life science sector into scoped programmes, studies or service offers, working with technical, IG, governance and delivery teams to assess feasibility of proposals and progress opportunities from concept to approval.
• Work with the wider SWSDE team to identify and resolve barriers to partnership conversion and maintain momentum across the partnership lifecycle: Find / Receive / Develop / Secure / Deliver.
• Develop and deploy pricing models, cost recovery approaches, commercial negotiations and contracting arrangements in line with SWSDE strategy and governance frameworks.
• Support NHS organisations and SWSDE partners to develop and adopt effective and sustainable models of partnership working with the life science sector and the SWSDE, including providing expert advice on contracting mechanisms, commercial frameworks and partnership agreements.
• Work with SWSDE finance, legal, information governance and operational colleagues to develop robust partnership agreements, contractual documentation and commercial propositions that support scalable and repeatable approaches to partnership delivery.

Leading effective governance and assurance

• Ensure all partnership activity aligns with SafeGUARDs, information governance, ethics and NHS standards, working closely with SWSDE governance and operational leads to maintain public trust and transparency.
• Ensure commercial agreements and partnership arrangements align with SWSDE governance, NHS regulatory requirements and agreed organisational responsibilities across host organisations.
• Ensure effective communication and contribution into SWSDE governance and reporting processes.

Leading people and partners in a matrix management structure

• Lead the development of the Life Science Partnership Function and the associated resources and people required to ensure effective delivery of the Life Sciences Partnership Strategy.
• Work collaboratively across multiple SWSDE host organisations and stakeholders, operating effectively without direct line management where delivery is through influence and matrix leadership.

Person specification

Experience we are looking for

• Experience leading partnership working between the NHS and life science sector.
• Track record leading commercial growth and business development.
• Experience leading commercial negotiation and contract development, contract development and partnership agreement design across complex multi-organisational environments.
• Experience operating in environments with complex and rigorous information governance and data sharing requirements.
• Understanding of the UK health, innovation and research landscape.

Desirable experience required:

• Experience leading partnership working with universities and research partners.
• Experience working with health and care data or in trusted research data environments, including NHS data policy, SafeGUARDs or data governance frameworks.
• Experience working with NHS governance structures and decision making.

Abilities and attributes

• Strategic Vision – opportunity-focused, creates new customer markets and develops new revenue streams that balance strategic ambition with attention to risk.
• Customer Orientation – builds trust, anticipates partner needs, works with agility, delivers value to partners.
• Commercial Acumen – skilled in complex negotiations, high levels of financially literacy, focused on sustainable commercial growth.
• Execution excellence – translate partnership opportunities into actionable plans that deliver measurable results, with a strong attention to detail.
• Leadership & Influence – motivates, provides clear direction and build effective working relationships in a matrix managed, partnership structured operating model.
• Communication – translate complexity into clear narrative, compelling storyteller, adapts style to target audiences.

Benefits

We provide a generous benefits package including employer pension contributions up to 10% and an employee assistance programme.

Salary and terms of employment

Annual salary range £70,000 – £80,000 FTE (depending upon experience) plus pension and other benefits.

Applications

We’re working hard to ensure we recruit great people and minimise unconscious bias in our selection process. To support us to do so we use the Applied recruitment platform, which anonymises applicants.

Our process is progressive – alongside submitting a CV, you’ll also answer a few work-related questions. Our goal is to assess how you seek to understand problems, test ideas, and learn from experiences, ultimately to gain a better understanding of your relevant knowledge and skills.

We appreciate that AI programs are capable of answering these questions, and we can easily find those responses independently. What we would value hearing is your perspective, articulated in your unique voice and expression.

As part of our safeguarding approach, you may be required to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check in line with any project requirements. This would be discussed in you and arranged by Health Innovation South West if necessary.

Closing date for applications: 12pm on 29 September 2026.

PLEASE NOTE: WE CANNOT ACCEPT APPLICATIONS FROM CANDIDATES THAT REQUIRE SPONSORSHIP

Interviews

Successfully shortlisted applicants will be invited to interview on 6 October 2026, at our offices in Exeter.

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