In another post, we explained broadly what the most common biotech jobs are actually like – what sort of actions you are taking on a daily basis. In this series, we will talk about all of the job roles that exist in a typical biotech company, as well as (eventually) some biotech-adjacent companies.
Let’s start at the top – the CEO – Chief Executive Officer
The CEO is responsible for leadership of the company. They are typically the highest paid employee, and are responsible for the overall direction of the company. Daily responsibilities might include conference calls with the board of directors, shareholders, banks, other CEOs, and company leadership. As CEO, you are the one who, with the guidance of the board of directors, actually pulls the trigger on expanding (or contracting) the company. To become CEO, you need to put in decades of insanely high work ethic, as well as to be in the right rung of the corporate ladder at the right time during multiple points in your career. Or perhaps you founded the company and continue to be the head honcho. Your degree does not matter much, but getting an MBA can help you learn the skills and make the connections needed to reach the apex of the corporate ladder.
Reporting to the CEO –
CFO – Chief Financial Officer
The CFO is responsible for reporting financial metrics to the shareholder, company and CEO. It is a very important job that any company with over a dozen employees needs. Basically the CFO comments on and plans for the financial health of the company. If you only have a year’s worth of cash left to run a company, those with ownership in the company would certainly like to know that. Making false statements about the health of the company is an easy way to get tossed in prison, so it can be stressful balancing making people happy and being truthful about the current state of affairs. In biotech companies, CFOs typically do not have any biotech experience, except for doing financial work for other biotech companies. To become CFO, you need to be good with numbers and have a degree in finance, accounting, etc. MBA will certainly help with this role.
CSO / CTO – Chief Scientific / Technological Officer
The CSO / CTO provides direction for a company regarding scientific / technological goals. They work with other members of the leadership team to determine what is the best course of action. Should we focus on cancer? Heart disease? Is there a promising new technology like exosomes that we should put all our money towards? If there are 5 promising drugs in our development pipeline, which should be our priority? The CSO/CTO struggle over these difficult questions and provide leadership to other senior leaders who lead research and development teams of their own. To become a CSO you almost definitely need a PhD and years of research experience before travelling up the corporate ladder.
Presidents / Vice presidents – There is not a consistent difference between these roles. In big companies there may be multiple levels of VPs, with VPs reporting to other VPs, reporting to Presidents. Sometimes a President will even report to a VP. If the company is split into multiple operating companies, there will often be individual presidents for each operating company. For example, if XYZ biotech has a regenerative medicine, diagnostics, and healthcare division, there may be a president for each, each of whom report in to the CEO. The presidents may essentially be the CEO of the operating company, except that they report in to the CEO rather than directly to the shareholders. Or they may have very limited power, just a few important-sounding letters in their title.
Also note that reporting to the senior leadership teams often are Executive Assistants, who are assistants that help with scheduling, email drafting, organizing, etc.
Presidents / VPs
Can have a broad range of roles. Here is a list of VPs/departments for a typical biotech company:
Research and Development
Manufacturing
Quality Assurance / Regulatory Affairs
Business Development
Sales
Information Technology
Human Resources
Environmental Health and Safety
There may be many more VP-type people in a company, depending on size and bloat. VP of communications, supply chain, logistics, or what have you. Or there may be one VP that fills multiple roles, such as a VP of Operations, who would cover both R&D and Manufacturing. This is super dependent on the style of individual companies.
In this series, we will cover each of the above departments and discuss what are their goals and functions. We hope that by the end of the series you will find which role is the best fit for you, and have an appreciation for what other employees of a typical biotech company do.
Click on the links below to learn more about the different groups in a typical biotech company (work in progress):
Research and Development
Manufacturing
Quality Assurance / Regulatory Affairs
Business Development
Sales
Information Technology
Human Resources
Environmental Health and Safety
Biotech and biotech-adjacent companies
Big Pharma
Big Biotech
Mid-size Biotech
Small Biotech
Universities
Commercial Manufacturing Organizations (CMO)
Clinical Research Organizations (CRO)
Suppliers