Head of Business Development, Government

Head of Business Development, Government

Parallel Bio is a venture‑backed biotech at the frontier of human immune system therapeutics. We combine human immune organoids, massive scale, and AI/ML to generate unprecedented population‑scale insights into health and disease. Our goal is to discover new drugs that work in patients from the start and understand how they will perform across an entire population.

Parallel Bio is hiring a Director of Business Development, Government to build and own our federal growth function. This role leads end‑to‑end capture for non‑dilutive funding and partnerships across agencies such as BARDA/ASPR, ARPA‑H, NIH/NCATS, and DoD (e.g., DTRA/DHA, DARPA).

In addition to capture execution, this role requires strong regulatory‑science literacy to (a) identify opportunities where regulatory adoption/validation is a key evaluation factor, and (b) ensure proposals include credible regulatory‑facing elements (e.g., context of use, validation approach, documentation, and data integrity expectations) in coordination with internal scientific leadership and external advisors.

• Build and manage a pipeline of federal opportunities (e.g., BAAs, OTAs, SBIR/STTR, cooperative agreements, FAR‑based contracts).
• Qualify and prioritize opportunities based on strategic fit, probability of win, and potential to advance platform adoption (including regulatory‑facing use cases).
• Develop engagement strategies, capture plans, and partner strategies; drive early engagement with program stakeholders.
• Develop relationships with Program Managers, technical leads, and contracting stakeholders.
• Translate agency priorities into concrete problem statements and proposed programs aligned to Parallel Bio capabilities.
• Evaluate funding opportunities through a regulatory lens: identify where regulatory acceptance, qualification, or translation to IND‑enabling decisions is a stated or implied objective.
• Work with internal scientific leadership to define context of use, performance claims, and validation expectations appropriate for government and regulatory audiences.
• Coordinate with external regulatory/scientific advisors as needed to strengthen proposal credibility and reduce downstream execution risk.
• Lead proposal development and submissions: outlines, compliance, schedules, reviews, and final assembly.
• Ensure proposals are of appropriate quality in partnership with internal scientific leadership (and external advisors as needed).
• Build teaming strategies with primes, integrators, CROs, academic partners, and consortium vehicles; coordinate partner contributions and scopes.
• Support award negotiation and transition into execution; maintain working fluency in common federal terms (OTA structures and FAR/DFARS basics) and standard reporting expectations.

• 8+ years of federal BD/capture experience in life sciences, biotech, health security, or related technical domains.
• Track record of winning and delivering federal awards (contracts and/or grants), including multi‑million‑dollar programs.
• Experience successfully leading proposals end‑to‑end (including partner coordination and budget/pricing inputs).
• Working knowledge of BAAs/OTAs and federal agencies including BARDA/ASPR, ARPA‑H, NIH/NCATS, DoD health/biodefense.
• Regulatory‑science literacy: define context of use and understand what “validation” and “reproducibility” need to look like for government audiences.

• Experience with BARDA/ASPR, ARPA‑H, NIH/NCATS, DoD health or biodefense organizations (e.g., DTRA, DHA, USAMRDC).
• Experience supporting NAM/MPS/organoid, immunology, biologics safety, or translational platform programs where validation and reproducibility are central.
• Familiarity with FDA‑facing frameworks relevant to tools/models (e.g., qualification concepts, precompetitive consortia approaches, regulator workshops).
• Existing relationships with relevant agency stakeholders.
• Experience building a capture function in an early‑stage company.

Parallel Bio is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful workplace. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, or sexual orientation.

Compensation Range: $190K - $205K

Remote, Washington D.C.

Full time