Business Development Manager MEA
A Little Bit about Us
Saphetor’s mission is to enable anyone to find, share and use the most comprehensive human genome data – and to collaborate to improve health and lives around the world.
To do this we have built the VarSome suite of bioinformatic tools, the world’s leading resource for analysis and interpretation of human genome variant data, with more than 6 000 citations in scientific papers, and over 60 000 registered professional users. Our customers work around the globe across academic, clinical, and industry laboratories analysing NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) data for research and diagnostic purposes.
Saphetor is a Swiss precision medicine company with offices in Lausanne (CH), Boston (USA), and Athens (GR) employing a diverse global workforce.
The Opportunity
We are looking for a Business Development Manager, MEA to drive our market expansion and serve as the dedicated point-of-contact for our customers throughout their journey with VarSome. In this high-impact role, you will navigate the full client lifecycle—from initial pre-sales discussions and contracting to post-sales support—while constantly identifying new opportunities for further growth within the region.
Role Responsibilities
- Μarket Expansion: Grow business within the Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions, specifically targeting the NGS bioinformatics market.
- Strategic Account Management: Understand current and future needs to maximize value and drive incremental business from the existing client base.
- Relationship & Early Adoption: Establish and maintain successful relationships with clients and partners to ensure the successful adoption of our products.
- Retention Strategy: Develop and execute a follow-up communication strategy to maintain high engagement and satisfaction levels among existing clients.
- Lead Generation: Use the VarSome.com community to generate new leads for VarSome Premium, VarSome Clinical and VarSome API.
- Competitive Intelligence: Evaluate competitors’ sales strategies and value propositions, providing critical feedback to the Application Science and Product teams.
- Product Evolution: Collaborate with the Product team to translate market needs into clear and specific product requirements, influencing the product development roadmap.
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner with marketing and commercial teams to refine brand positioning and implement high-impact communication strategies.
The Ideal Candidate (Profile)
The ideal candidate combines strong sales expertise, a passion for data analysis, excellent communication skills, and a commercial mindset. You are a professional who understands the intersection of biotechnology and business, capable of driving growth in the MEA region while maintaining high scientific standards.
What you will bring
- Experience: At least 3+ years of professional experience in a quota-carrying Sales or Business Development role, preferably within NGS, Bioinformatics, or Health-Tech sectors.
- Education: An BSc. in Life Sciences, Genetics, Bioinformatics, or a Business degree with a strong background in Biotechnology.
- Expertise: Experience in clinical genomics with strong knowledge of NGS workflows.
- Tooling Expertise: Proficiency with CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) and professional networking tools to manage and report on the sales pipeline.
- Market Knowledge: Deep understanding of the MEA clinical and research landscape, including local procurement processes and regulatory trends.
- Execution Focus: A high level of initiative and the ability to work independently in a remote-first environment while consistently meeting growth targets.
- Languages: Fluency (spoken and written) in English and Arabic is a must. Fluency in French will be considered a plus.
Strongly Valued
- Industry Experience: Previous experience in a bioinformatics software company.
- Technical Depth: Familiarity with variant analysis and interpretation.
- Regulatory Knowledge: Experience in regulated environments (IVDR, CLIA/CAP, or similar).
- Global Mindset: Experience working in a multicultural environment and/or supporting international customers.
- Remote Work: Experience with remote-first environments.
Mindset & Key Skills
- Commercial Mindset: Ability to translate features into customer benefits and balance scientific accuracy with pragmatic sales decisions.
- Scientific Rigor: Curious, detail-oriented, and scientifically rigorous.
- Soft Skills: Exceptional relationship-building skills and a proactive mentality towards problem-solving and customer success.
- Structured Thinker: Strong prioritization skills, comfortable operating in a fast-paced, collaborative scale-up environment.
- Global Mobility: Available to undertake international business travel.
While our foundation is in Athens, our talent pool is spread across Europe, with a strong culture of remote collaboration. Our team is highly experienced in distributed Agile workflows and communicates exclusively in fluent English.
Your career journey with us includes:
- A position in a fascinating healthcare growth domain, at the cutting edge of technology and research
- A competitive compensation package combined with additional benefits
- Remote work with occasional meetings. Everyone in the company speaks fluent English and the company is very experienced in coordinating a regionally distributed team, using an agile workflow.
- Endless learning opportunities, while transferring new technologies from academics to clinical practice all over the world.
Saphetor is proud to be an Equal Opportunities Employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and our employees, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, medical condition or disability, sexual orientation, gender expression, or marital status.
