Grow our Life Sciences business unit

About Life Couriers

Life Couriers is one of the world’s most trusted healthcare logistics partners. For more than forty years we have moved the shipments that cannot be late and cannot fail: radiopharmaceuticals with a half-life measured in hours, stem cells travelling from a donor to a waiting patient, investigational product for clinical trials, and therapies delivered directly into the home.

Today we operate in more than thirteen countries, employ around 750 people and handle approximately nine million shipments a year. We are backed by JLL Partners and headquartered in Munich under SLS Group GmbH.

We are organised around four global business units Radiopharma, Point of Care, Emergency and Life Sciences. Each is led globally, each is building at pace, and each is supported by a single international operating model rather than a collection of country businesses. This is a company with four decades of operating credibility and the ambition and ownership structure to move quickly.

Our CARE Values

Our CARE values are at the heart of how we work and how we lead. Customer excellence, Accountability, Respect and Enthusiasm shape the way we treat our people, our clients and the patients who ultimately depend on the services we provide.

For this role, living our CARE values means putting the patient and customer at the centre of every solution, taking ownership of product integrity from collection to delivery, building respectful relationships with operations and quality, and setting consistently high standards for how we win and serve regulated business. We are looking for a leader who not only delivers commercial results but does so in a way that reflects our values, strengthens our culture, and builds confidence with colleagues, customers and partners.

The opportunity

We are appointing a Commercial Lead to grow our Life Sciences business unit: clinical trials, specimens, stem cells, cell and gene therapies and temperature-controlled pharma freight.

Working at Vice President level and reporting to the Chief Commercial Officer, you will own the Life Sciences new-business plan and pipeline, win new customers among pharma, biotech, contract research organisations and laboratories, and grow existing accounts profitably.

You will shape compliant, temperature-controlled solutions with operations and quality, coach the sellers in the business unit and build the Life Sciences sales playbook.

What the business unit covers

  • Clinical trials: Investigational product, clinical trial samples and lab-to-lab movements for sponsors and CROs.
  • Time-critical biological specimens moving between sites and laboratories.
  • Stem cell: Donor-to-recipient on-board courier service, hand-carried from harvest to the transplanting physician.
  • Cell and gene therapy: Apheresis material, cryogenic shipping and the advanced therapy supply chain.
  • Temperature-controlled pharma freight: Compliant, temperature-controlled movement of pharmaceutical product.

What you will do

  • Put the customer first. Understand each customer’s trial pipeline, regulatory requirements and patient timelines, and build relationships across clinical operations, supply chain and quality functions.
  • Own the plan. Own the Life Sciences new-business plan, pipeline and targets, including new-logo and growth gross profit, and convert the business unit’s Must Win opportunities.
  • Price to profit. Price within agreed floors and approval thresholds, keep every opportunity accurate in Salesforce, and report pipeline, conversion and margin monthly.
  • Design compliant solutions. Shape temperature-controlled solutions with operations and quality that protect product integrity from collection to delivery.
  • Lead and partner. Coach and develop the sellers in the business unit, work closely with operations, quality, pricing, regional sales and Customer Success, and hand every new customer over with a clear plan.
  • Raise the bar. Build the Life Sciences sales playbook and market intelligence routines, tracking trial launches, regulatory approvals and customer pipelines, run win/loss reviews and develop reference cases from accounts we run well.

How success is measured

  • New-logo gross profit and Life Sciences gross profit growth against plan.
  • Conversion of the business unit’s Must Win opportunities.
  • Credible pipeline coverage of at least three times the annual new-business target.
  • Win rate on tenders and RFPs.
  • Gross margin at or above the agreed floor on all new business.
  • Customer satisfaction, retention and audit outcomes on key Life Sciences accounts.
  • Sales team productivity and Salesforce data quality.

What you will bring

Essential:

  • At least 10 years’ experience selling logistics or services to pharma, biotech or contract research organisations, including experience leading or coaching sellers.
  • Strong knowledge of clinical trial logistics, GDP and temperature-controlled transport.
  • A track record of winning large, complex, multi-country contracts and tenders.
  • Strong commercial and financial judgement and experience pricing to gross profit.
  • Proficiency with Salesforce or a similar CRM and Microsoft Office.
  • Fluent English.

Desirable:

  • A degree in Life Sciences, Business, Supply Chain or a related field.
  • Experience with cell and gene therapy, stem cell or specimen logistics.
  • Knowledge of IATA Dangerous Goods and cold chain packaging solutions.
  • A second European language.

The kind of leader we are looking for

This is a builder’s role in the business unit we intend to become the largest growth engine in Life Couriers.

The clients in this segment do not move for price. They move for reliability, expertise and trust, earned over time. We are looking for a leader who understands this and has built those relationships before.

Reporting and team

  • Reports to: Chief Commercial Officer.
  • Leads: Sellers within the Life Sciences business unit.
  • In absence: Duties transfer to the Global Head of Life Sciences (the Chief Commercial Officer until appointed).

Location

Hybrid or remote, based near a major international airport. Frequent domestic and international travel, up to 40%, for customer meetings, business reviews, site visits and internal leadership sessions. The role may need to support critical customer escalations outside normal working hours. Candidates must be authorised to work in their country of residence without sponsorship, now or in the future.

What we offer

A competitive package, including base salary and a performance incentive, benchmarked to the market for the successful candidate’s location, and a leading role in one of the most significant growth agendas in healthcare logistics.

Apply now

To apply for this role, send an email to the appropriate address below, attaching a CV and cover letter.

For US-based applicants, please email: hr.americas@lifecouriers.com

For Europe-based applicants, please email: recruiting.uk@lifecouriers.com

Equal Opportunity and Applicant Data Privacy

Life Couriers is committed to providing a fair, inclusive and transparent recruitment process across all locations in which we operate. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates and make employment decisions based on merit, skills, qualifications and business needs, without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable law.

If you require a reasonable adjustment or accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know.

As part of the recruitment process, Life Couriers collects and processes personal information for legitimate recruitment-related purposes. Applicant data is handled in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection laws, including the UK GDPR, EU GDPR and applicable United States privacy laws. Personal information is accessible to authorised individuals and is retained only for as long as necessary to support recruitment activities and comply with legal obligations.

For questions relating to recruitment, equal opportunities, or the processing of applicant data, candidates may contact Life Couriers Human Resources team using the contact details provided within the recruitment process.