Head of Solution Consulting R&D / Field CSO

WHY THIS ROLE, WHY NOW

R&D leaders trust people who have done the science. More than half of the world's top 50 biopharma companies already use Benchling, and many of the most important are in Europe. Our ambition is 10x faster science, from idea to first dose. With Science Foundries, launched at Benchtalk 2026, agents and scientists run entire R&D workflows together, so a three-person team can have the productive capacity of thirty.

In a senior R&D role, you can change how one organisation does science. As our Field CSO, you'll take one question to R&D organisations across EMEA: how do we get from idea to first dose 10x faster?

ROLE OVERVIEW

You'll lead our EMEA R&D Solution Consulting organisation: a team of 12, with two first-line leaders covering our Enterprise and Strategic segments, plus occasional support for APAC deals. You'll be the scientific counterpart to our General Manager, EMEA, and work alongside our Field CTO. They lead on IT, data science and architecture; you lead on the scientists and how their work changes.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Be the scientific voice in the room. Brief the GM and account teams before key meetings, then join them as a peer to the CSOs and Heads of R&D across the table. Act as senior sponsor on our largest EMEA opportunities, and use account-team introductions to open new R&D relationships.

• Lead the 10x conversation. Turn Benchling's vision, from AI agents to Science Foundries, into a credible plan R&D leaders can act on, including how their scientists move onto Benchling and what changes in the lab.

• Lead and develop two first-line leaders and their team of 10. Provide in-region leadership continuity, set the scientific bar for every customer engagement, and build a succession plan as the team grows.

• Shape EMEA strategy and the roadmap. Decide with sales leadership where to focus the team's expertise, and bring patterns from the field back to Product, Marketing and global Solution Consulting.

HOW WE'LL MEASURE SUCCESS

This is a commercial role with a scientific core. We'll look at EMEA revenue growth and influenced pipeline, technical win rate, forecast accuracy on the technical side of deals, regional ownership of our largest R&D relationships, and the strength of your leadership bench.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Substantial hands-on R&D experience in biotech or pharma, with a PhD or equivalent scientific depth. You've run experiments, led programmes and know how large R&D organisations make decisions and adopt change.

• A record of driving change, from adopting new technologies to rethinking how your teams work, and clear views on how AI will change R&D.

• Experience leading through other managers, and executive presence with VPs, Heads of R&D and C-level leaders.

• Commercial ambition and a growth mindset. We'll teach you how software is sold. We can't teach how a large R&D organisation works from the inside, and that's what you bring.

• Readiness for a field role: frequent on-site time with the largest pharma and biotech companies across EMEA, plus US travel three to four times a year for team offsites and our global sales kickoff.

• Fluency in English; German or French is a plus.

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience with Benchling or a comparable R&D platform (ELN, LIMS or R&D data platform), including leading its evaluation or rollout

• Customer-facing scientific, internal consulting, or CRO/CDMO programme leadership roles

• Presales or solution consulting experience

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