Job Description
Location:
Sydney
Reports to:
CEO
Works closely with:
CSO, CFO, COO, Investments team, Science team
Why this role exists
Proto Axiom is building a repeatable company-creation engine. This role is the single owner for everything between “we like this asset” and “this is a fundable, Series A-ready company with a credible team and plan”.
Role Summary
You will turn scientific conviction into new ventures, fast and clean. You will design spin-outs, build founding teams, stand up day-1 company infrastructure, and codify the playbook so venture creation becomes a system, not heroics. You will run the venture creation side of the triad model per deal (Science, Investments, Venture Creation), and make founders terrifyingly effective.
What You Will Own
Venture creation, end-to-end
Decide spin-out vs in-house development pathways, and drive the chosen path to execution in coordination with the CSO and Science team
Lead university, MRI and hospital negotiations (IP, licences, equity, governance, milestones) in coordination with the COODesign cap tables, option pools, and governance that survive real financing rounds in coordination with the CEO and CFO
Build “day-1” companies: incorporation, board setup, reporting cadence, budgets, bank accounts, hiring plan, vendors, and operating rhythm
Founder and leadership recruitment
Build and maintain a founder pipeline (Entrepreneur in residence bench, CEO candidates, early executives)
Run CEO searches for newco formation and founder transitions when needed
Coach and support founders through early “firsts”: first board, first clinical hire, first BD deal, first fundraise narrative
Company-building platform and playbook
Codify Proto Axiom’s venture creation playbook: templates, checklists, timelines, decision gates, and kill points
Establish shared vendor relationships (CROs, CMC, regulatory, legal, finance ops) and a standard early-stage stack
Stand up repeatable launch kits: diligence to formation, formation to seed, seed to Series A readiness
Operating cadence and decision hygiene
Run weekly “build room” working sessions for venture creation workstreams
Maintain clear ownership loops with Science and Investments so IC decisions are decisive, not circular
Drive portfolio reviews with explicit thresholds: kill, fix, or double down
Portfolio support as a system
Implement a lightweight but rigorous portfolio operating cadence
Ensure each venture has clear KPIs, governance, board pack discipline, and executional hygiene
Be the escalation point for early execution blockers, hiring gaps, and founder support needs
Ideal background, Core profile
Science-first investor with real company-creation mileage: you have led or co-led the translation of academic or early biotech assets into investable companies, not just memos and committees.
Strong judgement under uncertainty: you can underwrite messy early data, map what proof actually matters, and sequence de-risking to match financing reality.
Comfortable straddling worlds: you can speak credibly with top scientists, tech transfer, clinicians, and growth-stage capital, and you can hold your own with sceptical ICs.
Must-have Experience
Scientific evaluation: repeated reps assessing preclinical packages, translational rationale, competitive landscapes, and platform risk. You can pressure-test mechanisms, biomarkers, endpoints, and what could kill a program.
Deal structuring and negotiating: term sheets, licensing, option deals, sponsored research, milestone frameworks, governance design, and incentive alignment across university, founders, and investors.
Path-to-Value design: clear ability to define the smallest set of experiments that unlock the next value inflection, and to budget and schedule that plan with credible vendors and operators.
Founder and team formation: you have recruited CEOs, CSOs, and early executives, or have built repeatable access to people who can. You know what “founder-market-fit” looks like in biotech.
Financing fluency: you understand seed through Series A mechanics, syndicate design, investor signalling, data rooms, and narrative discipline. You can build a fundable story that is still true.
Operating discipline: you can install early operating cadence: board rhythm, KPI stack, runway management, vendor governance, and decision gates.
Nice-to-have
Domain depth in one or more of: immunology, oncology, metabolic, neuro, gene or cell therapy, RNA, biologics, devices, diagnostics, AI-bio tools, or other areas of obvious focus to the Proto Axiom portfolio.
Pattern recognition from a recognised VC, crossover, venture studio, or strategic BD seat, plus a strong network across KOLs, CROs, CMC, and regulatory talent.
Experience bridging Australia-to-global: setting ventures up to raise offshore and recruit internationally, while keeping Australian translational advantages.
Signals that you are probably the one
You can point to 2 to 5 assets where you materially changed trajectory: better experiments, better team, better structure, faster formation, cleaner financing.
You are allergic to “science theatre” and can politely dismantle it in a room full of smart people.
You can move from hypothesis to decision to execution without losing scientific integrity.
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