The C-Level Hiring Guide · CTO
In my reading the CTO is the CMC, technical operations and manufacturing owner. The seat nobody budgets for. It is a watch item for three stages and becomes due with Phase 3, when a supply problem stops a trial faster than a science problem. In Europe manufacturing is often outsourced, so the seat can stay a tech-transfer and supply owner rather than a plant owner.
Two jobs share the title
Both are called CTO. One sits under the CSO. The other sits at the table.
Stands up process and quality, manages the CDMO, keeps comparability honest through the early phases.Build through Series C, usually under the CSO.
Owns GMP, scale-up, tech transfer, quality systems and reliable supply. Carries the biggest operational risk in the plan.Phase 3 and commercial. In a platform company the seat also keeps the technology alive through new science.
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. Material comes from a CDMO. Someone keeps an eye on it.
WatchSeries A, heading for IND. An early CMC lead under the CSO. Process and quality start here, quietly.
WatchSeries B, Phase 1b/2. Process and quality for the clinic. Fractional and advisory help for CMC, tech transfer and comparability is common and right.
WatchSeries C, Phase 2. GMP and scale-up planning. The dependency on the CDMO or the platform needs a senior owner before it becomes a Phase 3 problem.
First, for manufacturingPhase 3, pre-commercial. Due. Quality systems and reliable supply as launch approaches. When nobody owns CMC, the problems show up at scale-up, the worst moment.
FullFiled, approved, selling. Dependable supply across markets. A platform-technology seat keeps variety alive through new science.
What makes the question live
That is the read line. The triggers are concrete.
Manufacturing scale-up on the path and no senior technical owner. CMC risk grows fastest when nobody owns it.
A CDMO, a platform or a single supplier that nobody manages at C-level. The dependency is fine until the day it is not.
An AI-driven or platform discovery engine with no senior owner. The seat can be due a stage earlier here, as a technology seat rather than a manufacturing one.
Which shape
The engine has no fractional rule for this seat, but the market does, and it works for the early phases.
CMC and manufacturing scale-up, tech transfer, comparability. Scoped help through Series B and C.A few decisions a month, not a seat.
Through a scale-up or a tech transfer with a defined end. One of my recent mandates was an interim CTO.A defined build with an end.
The manufacturing CTO from Phase 3, or earlier in a platform company.Feeds predictability and contribution. Starves variety, except where the platform keeps it alive.
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, Series A (CMC executive, placement data) | $380K to $450K | 40 to 45% of base | Varies with the raise | [1] |
| US, private, Series B to D | $380K to $550K | 40 to 45% | Long-term incentive $560K to $1.05M | [1] |
| US, post-IPO | $400K to $600K | 45 to 50% | Long-term incentive $770K to $1.12M; milestone and retention cash common | [1] |
| Europe, private and listed | no reliable public figure | no reliable public figure | no reliable public figure | [2] |
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. Technical discipline leaders earn ten to fifteen percent more than general operations profiles in the placement data I trust. Milestone and retention cash is common around a tech transfer or a launch, and it should be tied to batches released and comparability shown, not to dates on a plan.
[1] Phase 3 Search, CMC compensation data 2026 (placement data, indicative). [2] 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
Verify the title twice. I have seen a CEO who was also the CTO on paper, and a CTO title on an aggregator that had been stale for two years.
Predictability and growth at Series B, predictability and contribution from Series C. It starves variety, unless the company is a platform company, where new science keeps the seat alive.
Add a CMC lead who owns the supply chain while the current lead keeps the process science. Later: a Head of CMC who has run manufacturing scale-up while the current lead keeps process development.
The quiz calls the seat CMC and technical. The site calls it CTO. In a platform company it is a technology seat, in a therapeutics company it is a manufacturing seat. Decide which one you are hiring before you write the title on the offer.
You already have a CTO
The lead who built the process through Phase 2 is not automatically the owner of GMP, scale-up and supply in seven markets. Same check as every seat: does the next stage feed what drives them? The honest moves are a CMC lead beside them for the supply chain, or a Head of CMC who has run a scale-up, agreed before the Phase 3 plan is locked.
Process science, or supply at scale?
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.