The C-Level Hiring Guide · CBO
Early, business development is a name on the deck. Then it is a real partnering engine with term sheets and alliances. In Europe the seat is more central than in the US, because partnering and out-licensing is a primary value path, not a side deal. The CBO who closes the first licensing deal at Series B is rarely the CBO who structures a five-hundred-million partnership at Series C. The first kind opens doors. The second negotiates from inside the room.
Two jobs share the title
Both are called CBO. They are different people.
Closes the first licensing deal, runs the early pharma conversations, brings in non-dilutive money.Series B, and only when a deal is live.
Structures the partnership that defines the company, runs a competitive process, negotiates against a pharma team that has done this fifty times.Series C onward. A weak BD seat here leaves tens of millions on the table.
The seat, stage by stage
Six stages, one seat. The label is the state of the seat at that stage; the line under it is what the seat has to deliver. All ten roles on one timeline.
Not yetSeed, preclinical. Positioning. The one job is not to sign anything that mortgages the company early.
WatchSeries A, heading for IND. BD is the CEO's job. The risk is the CEO spending bandwidth on outreach a specialist would run better. A deal starter or a fractional CBO opens the partnering conversation.
First, if a deal is on the pathSeries B, Phase 1b/2. Pharma BD becomes real and the CEO feels the limit. The seat is live only with a deal or multiple assets on the path. Otherwise a fractional lead runs the early talks and the first terms.
UpgradeSeries C, Phase 2. Partnering economics define the company. A permanent CBO is a must-have, and the question is whether the door opener can also close.
StrategicPhase 3, pre-commercial. The major partnership or the exit itself. In Europe a strong CBO may run the ex-US licensing that carries the launch instead of a full commercial organisation.
SuccessionFiled, approved, selling. Corporate development and portfolio strategy.
What makes the question live
That is the sentence I hear most often before a CBO search. The signals are concrete.
A named partnering process, a licensing conversation with a date, or multiple assets and no BD function. Who negotiated the last one? Usually the CEO.
Up to Series B, partnering is a handful of conversations and a deal starter runs them. Past that, a slide in the deck is not a function, and new investors price the round without it.
A CBO hired with an exit record while no CFO is in the building. The CBO then carries investor relations and the model, which is not the job, and the deal waits.
Which shape
The counterpart across the table wants someone who stays. That is the argument for permanent, and it only holds once there is a table.
A deal starter who runs the early conversations and the first terms, before a full-time BD leader is affordable.Against: a fractional lead can lose the thread between meetings.
A senior deal advisor who runs a competitive process at Series C or Phase 3 while the permanent hire is decided.A defined process with an end.
From the moment partnering economics define the company.The partner wants a counterpart who stays through the alliance, not through the signing.
The package
Base, bonus, equity, change of control, severance. The structure is the same in every market. The numbers and the contract law are not.
What the package covers
The one number everyone quotes and the least informative one. It moves with market (Boston and Basel differ), stage and whether the company is listed. Private biotechs pay double-digit percentages below listed peers at C-level.
A target as a percentage of base, paid on milestones the board can verify. I tie it to outcomes, never to activity. Listed US biotechs set targets around 40 to 50 percent of base for non-CEO roles and 60 to 66 percent for the CEO (Bedford Group, FY2023 proxy data).
In a private company a percentage of the fully diluted shares, usually options, vesting over four years with a one-year cliff, refreshed at the next financing rather than annually. Listed companies grant an annual value, increasingly a mix of options and restricted stock.
Often the real negotiation. Candidates walk over trigger terms and unvested equity more often than over base. Double trigger (deal plus loss of the job) is what governance advisers and proxy firms prefer; over 85 percent of listed US biotechs allow some acceleration.
Private companies write one number in months of salary. Listed US companies: twelve months for the CEO is the norm, nine to twelve for the others, and eighteen months of salary plus target bonus on a change of control for the CEO (Pearl Meyer; Bedford). Notice periods in Europe are a contract matter, see the country layer below.
Sign-on appears from Phase 1 and 2 onward, rarely preclinical. Relocation is the honest conversation more often than people admit. Outside commitments (board seats, advisory work, an academic post) get settled before the offer, not after.
Ranges, with sources
Numbers move every quarter, so treat these as the shape of the market, not as an offer. Medians and ranges, native currency, source and year in the last column.
| Market and stage | Base | Bonus | Equity | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US, private (indicative) | Two weak sources disagree: $440K to $580K (2026 guide) versus $200K to $300K (older essay) | 25 to 55% of base, with deal bonuses on top | 0.4 to 1.2% fully diluted; around 2% in the older source | [1] |
| US, listed | Not covered by the proxy survey I rely on for the other seats | no reliable public figure | no reliable public figure | [2] |
| Europe, private and listed | no reliable public figure | no reliable public figure | no reliable public figure | [3] |
No public survey covers venture-backed European biotech at C-level. The listed-company figures above are mid and large caps and overstate what a Series B company pays. Sector-wide German data exists (Michael Page 2026: C-level in healthcare and life sciences €170K to €500K, depending on the role), but it mixes industries. On a call I give you the range from my own mandates, for your stage and your city.
What I tie it to. This is the thinnest public data of all eight seats, and I say so. What is consistent across every source: a deal bonus on top of the annual target, tied to signed terms and milestones received, not to conversations started. The rest I give you from my mandates, on a call.
[1] recruitslab BD salary guide 2026 and LocustWalk essay (weak, directional only). [2] Bedford Group Transearch, Biotech Compensation Report 2024 (FY2023 data, 189 Nasdaq-listed biotechs under $2B market cap). [3] Michael Page Gehaltsreport 2026, C-level healthcare and life sciences (sector-wide).
The country layer
The Geschäftsführer is an organ of the company, not an employee: a service contract, no protection under the Kündigungsschutzgesetz, no statutory severance. Because the statutory notice period is disputed, the contract has to fix it. Terms of two to five years are common, a post-contract non-compete runs at most two years, D&O cover is standard. Removal as organ does not end the service contract; both have to be handled.
Vorstand members are appointed for at most five years (section 84 AktG). The Corporate Governance Code caps severance at two years of pay and the remaining term, and asks boards not to agree change-of-control payments.
Statutory notice runs from one month in the first year to three months after ten years, and most executive contracts set more; Idorsia's executives sit on twelve months. In listed companies severance for board and executive committee members has been prohibited since 2023, and shareholders vote on aggregate pay.
Six to twelve months of notice at the executive level, defined-contribution pensions, and tax-advantaged option schemes (EMI, CSOP) in place of US ISOs. Listed companies put the remuneration report to an annual advisory vote.
At-will employment with the economics written into the offer: severance, change-of-control terms and acceleration carry the protection a European notice period would. Four-year vesting with a one-year cliff is the market standard.
How I read the seat
The CBO is the seat that never breaks on variety, and it runs on recognition at Series B. That tells you what to look for and what to avoid.
Variety and recognition at Translation, variety, recognition and connection at Inflection. A restless builder who has outgrown another seat often finds a dignified home here.
Add a BD director who runs the process while the founder keeps the partner relationships. Or bring in a CBO who has closed alliances while the founder stays on the deals where the partner wants to talk science.
At Series B the CFO usually goes first, because the CFO owns the raise that funds everything else. A CBO without a CFO ends up doing finance.
You already have a CBO
The door opener and the dealmaker are different jobs, and the honest check is the next process: who runs the data room, who holds the term sheet, who the pharma team asks for. If the answer is the CEO, the seat has not moved with the stage. The fix is a BD director beside the current lead, or a CBO who has closed alliances, agreed before the process starts.
Opened the doors. Can they close?
Let's talk
Sixty minutes on a call, no brief and no pitch. I name the role, the reason and whether it should be permanent or fractional.