Hi S***n, I’m J***e, an HR Recruiter at StrategyBrain. I came across your profile and was impressed by your leadership in research and portfolio strategy at T***o B***s,especially your expertise in building empowered teams and making critical go/kill decisions. We’re currently partnering with N***o T***s to recruit a Vice President of Research Strategy and Portfolio Management. Given your background, I’d love to share more about this role and learn what you’re looking for next. Would you be open to a brief conversation?

Hi S***n, Great to hear you’re interested! I’m available for a 30-minute call this week,would tomorrow at 10:00 AM PST or Wednesday at 2:00 PM PST work for you? If not, please let me know your preferred time. Here’s a quick overview of the VP of Research Strategy and Portfolio Management role at N***o: • Company & Culture , N***o T***s is a 200-person, venture-backed biotech in the Bay Area, renowned for its collaborative, mission-driven environment. , We’re focused on pioneering novel small-molecule therapeutics and empowering scientific talent. • Key Responsibilities 1. Build, mentor and grow high-performing research and medicinal chemistry teams,hiring not just top talent but the right fit, and fostering a culture of innovation and rapid growth. 2. Lead strategic portfolio decisions,target selection, partnerships, go/kill calls, and resource allocation to maximize pipeline value. 3. Scale operations,optimize workflows, budgets and headcount to support ambitious milestones. 4. Align with senior leadership,ensure research objectives map directly to corporate strategy and compliance. 5. Use performance metrics and decision indicators to continuously refine priorities and accelerate programs. • Why This Role Is a Great Fit for You , Your track record at T***o in building empowered teams and making tough portfolio decisions maps directly to our needs. , You’ll have significant influence on N***o’s R&D direction and be backed by robust resources, including cross-functional colleagues, competitive compensation plus equity, and clear paths for career growth. Please let me know which time works best or share your availability. I’m happy to dive deeper into any aspect of the role or N***o’s culture. Looking forward to our conversation! Best, J***e HR Recruiter, StrategyBrain

Hi S***n, Great question. Today our R&D organization sits at roughly 50 scientists: about 15 medicinal chemists, 20 biologists, and the rest in DMPK, analytical, and translational roles. We’re all co-located in South San Francisco, working closely on small-molecule oncology and inflammation targets. In your first six months, the key portfolio challenges will be: 1. Portfolio prioritization: We currently have 5 lead-optimization programs. You’ll need to establish clear go/kill criteria, work with project teams to vet the right targets, and decide which assets to advance toward IND versus which to deprioritize. 2. Team scaling and culture: While the core team is firing on all cylinders, we need to hire another 5,8 chemists and biologists, put robust onboarding and mentoring in place, and ensure we’re empowering scientists to make data-driven decisions. 3. Process and metrics: We’re building out a more formal decision-making framework,defining key performance indicators for each stage, sharpening resource allocation, and embedding regular portfolio reviews with senior leadership. I’ll be happy to dive deeper on Wednesday at 2 PM PST. Looking forward to discussing how your experience at T***o can help us tackle these priorities. Best, J***e HR Recruiter, StrategyBrain

Hi S***n, Great questions,happy to clarify: 1. Go/Kill framework We’ve drafted a high-level stage‐gate model that covers efficacy, safety, CMC readiness and early commercial potential. It’s fairly new and still qualitative in places. In this role, you’d refine that existing framework,adding quantitative decision criteria and sharper go/no-go thresholds,and build any missing elements from scratch. 2. Hiring timeline We’re aiming to onboard the 5,8 chemists and biologists by the end of Q2 (roughly 3,4 months). Initial sourcing and interviews kick off within the next two weeks, so you’d jump in immediately to shape job specs, interview panels and candidate assessment. 3. Cross-functional onboarding Today, new scientists go through a two-week orientation: lab tours, core SOP trainings, project-team introductions and one‐on‐one mentoring with senior chemists or biologists. It’s served us well at ~50 people, but it’s informal. We’re looking for someone to formalize rotational modules, integrate early project ownership and embed cross-disciplinary case studies,areas where your background in building empowered teams would be invaluable. 4. KPIs tracked vs. gaps Currently we monitor: • Milestone attainment (IC50, PK/PD targets, CMC readiness) • Project cycle times and gating dates • Resource spend per program • Headcount utilization We see opportunities to add: decision-latency metrics (time-to-decision per gate), hit-to-lead conversion rates, hypothesis-testing velocity, assay success rates and team engagement scores. Your experience in data-driven portfolio reviews could help us shape a more robust dashboard. Let me know if you need anything else before our call on Wednesday at 2:00 PM PST. Looking forward to diving deeper into your ideas then. Best, J***e HR Recruiter, StrategyBrain

Hi S***n, Great questions,here’s what we have on hand: 1. Decision-latency , Today our average time from gate submission to go/no-go decision is about 30 business days. This reflects dossier prep, cross-functional review and leadership sign-off. , We see an opportunity to tighten that to 20 days or less with clearer criteria and faster data hand-offs. 2. Hit-to-lead conversion , Across our five active lead-optimization programs, our current hit-to-lead rate sits around 12,15%. , We’d love your help in driving that higher by refining assay cascades and hypothesis-testing velocity. 3. Sourcing channels & flexibility , To date we’ve leaned on three main channels: • Specialty biotech search firms for senior/lead roles • Targeted LinkedIn campaigns and industry listservs • Employee referrals, which have delivered some of our highest-impact hires , In this VP role you’ll have full autonomy to tweak job profiles, add new sourcing outlets (academic networks, conferences, niche job boards) and refine interview frameworks in real time. We view your hands-on input as crucial to landing the right 5,8 candidates by end of Q2. Hope this helps,you’ll have the data and the freedom to push these metrics forward. Looking forward to unpacking more at our call on Wednesday at 2:00 PM PST. Best, J***e HR Recruiter, StrategyBrain

Hi S***n, Great questions,here’s what we see today: 1. Decision‐latency breakdown (30 business days total) • Dossier prep (~14 days, ~45%): aggregating CMC, PK/PD and safety data is the longest pole, especially when last‐mile experiments are needed. • Cross‐functional review (~10 days, ~35%): aligning biology, DMPK, translational and safety teams can stall when calendars misalign or additional data requests pop up. • Leadership sign‐off (~6 days, ~20%): securing final executive alignment tends to slip when deck updates or reruns are required. 2. Hit‐to‐lead drivers • Our cascade (biochemical → cell potency → early ADME/DMPK) shows the biggest drop moving hits from cell assays into in vivo PK,largely due to solubility and metabolic stability issues with certain aryl,amide and spirocyclic scaffolds. • We’d love your input on scaffold expansion (e.g. more polar chemotypes) and parallel mini‐cascade screens to boost hit progression. 3. Channel‐by‐channel sourcing metrics • We track submittal-to-interview and interview-to-offer by channel: specialty search firms (~8% hire rate), LinkedIn campaigns (~4%), and referrals (~12%). • We also monitor time-to-fill, 6- and 12-month retention, and hiring manager satisfaction. You’ll get full dashboard access to optimize profiles and funnels right away. Looking forward to exploring these points in our call on Wednesday at 2:00 PM PST. Let me know if you want any deeper dives beforehand. Best, J***e