Location: North Carolina
Company: Early-Stage Manufacturing Platform (Stealth)
Stage: Seed / Technology Transfer
Company Overview
The Company is an early-stage platform emerging from Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, focused on advancing next-generation solutions for cell, gene, and tissue engineering applications.
The platform sits at the intersection of academic innovation and commercial execution, requiring a leader who can successfully translate breakthrough science into a scalable, revenue-generating enterprise while navigating a highly collaborative academic and industry ecosystem.
Position Summary
The Chief Executive Officer will lead the formation and scaling of a novel technology platform emerging from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
This role is fundamentally about bridging the “valley” between academic innovation and commercial product realization translating a promising technology into a scalable, and commercially viable manufacturing platform.
The CEO will operate at the intersection of engineering, regulatory strategy, and company-building, with accountability for:
- Industrializing a research-stage process into a fileable, reproducible product
- Establishing early manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure
- Designing a regulatory-forward development strategy from inception
- Building a culture that successfully integrates academic innovation with operational discipline
This is a highly hands-on leadership role requiring a leader who can simultaneously:
- Drive technical and operational decision-making
- Navigate complex academic and institutional environments
- Build a company, team, and culture from the ground up
The CEO will serve as the ‘rate-limiting reactant’ in the organization, introducing the engineering discipline required to transition from continuous research optimization to a defined, scalable, and regulatory-ready process.”
Key Responsibilities
Company Formation & Strategic Leadership
- Lead company launch, including strategic positioning, operating model design, and execution roadmap
- Drive technology transfer from academic origin into a scalable manufacturing platform
- Balance long-term scientific potential with near-term commercial execution and revenue generation.
Capital Strategy & External Leadership
- Lead all fundraising activities (Seed, Series A/B), including venture and non-dilutive funding
- Build trusted relationships with venture capital, strategic partners, and institutional stakeholders
- Serve as primary interface with the Board, investors and academic leadership
Operational Build & Manufacturing Scale-Up
- Establish early manufacturing capabilities and operational processes that ensure operational discipline and strong systems build.
- Build systems, governance, and procedures that support reliable production and growth.
- Ensure alignment with regulatory pathways appropriate to stage
Commercialization & Business Development
- Develop and execute a B2B go to market strategy for a product-driven platform
- Drive early customer adoption across research institutions, hospitals, and biopharma partners
- Secure strategic partnerships, licensing, and co-development opportunities
Organization & Ecosystem Leadership
- Recruit and build a high-performing, cross-functional team
- Create an environment that fosters innovation accountability and operational excellence.
- Leverage talent and initiative across both company and broader ecosystem
- Support and enable entrepreneurs and translational efforts emerging from the broader ecosystem.
Academic-Industry Integration
- Serve as a bridge between academic innovation and commercial execution
- Build trust and alignment across academic leaders, researchers, and business stakeholders
- Create a collaborative environment that supports entrepreneurs, translational science, and shared success
External Representation
- Represent the company with credibility across scientific, investor, and industry forums
- Position the company as a leader in enabling technologies for regenerative medicine
Candidate Profile
Experience
- Proven experience industrializing scientific processes into manufacturing environments
- Demonstrated success in tech transfer from R&D to commercial-scale production
- Experience establishing or scaling manufacturing and supply chain systems from early-stage
- Prior leadership in life sciences tools, CDMO, or enabling technology platforms (not purely therapeutics)
Technical Orientation Expertise
- Engineering-driven mindset
- Ability to define “good enough” endpoints to enable scale and regulatory progression
- Experience managing stability, comparability, and regulatory readiness requirements
- Comfort making trade-offs between optimization vs. execution
Leadership Profile
- Exceptional ability to lead through ambiguity and scientific tension
- Proven success managing cultural friction between research and operations
- High emotional intelligence and credibility with both:
Able to establish:
- Trust
- Accountability
- Decision discipline
Operating Mindset
- Believes “slow is fast” – disciplined execution over rushed progress
- Proactively integrated regulatory know-how into early development strategy
Education
- Advanced degree
Compensation
- Competitive salary commensurate with experience
- Significant equity participation aligned with company stage
- Performance-based incentives tied to value creation milestones