Scientific and Technical Adviser

This is a remote position.

Playing a central role within an established boutique cross-border advisory and capital markets environment, this position leads the scientific substance, technical validation, and intellectual property positioning across the firm’s portfolio and transaction mandates. Operating in a dual capacity of creation and critical appraisal for 4 to 5 hours per day, the role ensures that scientific roadmaps, patent frameworks, and commercial technical narratives are decision-grade, rigorous, and fully defensible for financial, legal, and regulatory audiences.

Working on a part-time, fully remote basis, estimating 5 hours a day, this independent contractor engagement carries primary coverage across biotechnology and drug discovery, with secondary coverage in nuclear and advanced energy. The position immediately supports an early-stage, Delaware-incorporated drug discovery platform company, establishing its intellectual property framework, commercial milestones, and public-facing technical narrative from inception. Additionally, the role conducts independent technical diligence on target companies and drives business development by connecting with institutional research networks.

Key Responsibilities

• Intellectual Property Preparation: Identify patentable subject matter, prepare invention disclosures, conduct prior art landscape searches, and draft technical specifications and claim support to instruct patent attorneys. Design international filing strategies (provisional, PCT, national phase) and evaluate licensing or trade secret alternatives.
  

• Business Plan and Content Development: Author the scientific and technical sections of business plans, information memoranda, technology web pages, and public announcements for non-specialist financial and legal readers without overstatement. Collaborate alongside securities counsel to review all outward-facing technical language for accuracy and defensibility.
  

• Scientific Roadmap and Development Planning: Construct commercial roadmaps featuring dated milestones, regulatory pathways (therapeutic, diagnostic, or energy frameworks), resourcing requirements, and workstream budgets. Identify critical path risks, define evidence needed to retire technical risk, and report progress regularly to management.
  

• Technology Vetting and Diligence: Perform independent technical diligence on unlisted and listed candidate companies. Produce two- to five-page written diligence memoranda evaluating underlying science, technical claims, data provenance, and milestone credibility. Prepare technical question sets and participate in management interrogation calls.
  

• Business Development: Source technology, spin-outs, and listing-capable entities through university, research, and technology transfer office networks. Represent the firm at technical symposia and support counterparty meetings requiring technical authority
  

Requirements

• Doctorate (PhD) in a relevant scientific discipline. Professorial, Associate Professorial, or Principal Investigator standing (current, emeritus, or recent) is strongly preferred.
  

• Substantive track record in biotechnology (drug discovery, therapeutics, diagnostics, or platform biology). Candidates with primary expertise in nuclear or advanced energy will be considered if they can cover the life sciences pipeline or bring an exceptional network.
  

• Direct experience in patent preparation, either as a named inventor, through instructing patent attorneys, or via technology transfer.
  

• Demonstrated ability to construct structured development plans with dated milestones, workstream resourcing, and financial budgeting.
  

• Publication-standard written English with the proven ability to translate complex scientific concepts clearly for a non-technical readership.
  

• Availability for scheduled calls spanning the South African Standard Time zone (specifically between 14h00 and 20h00) to bridge Asian and United States market hours.
  

• Ability to contract on terms where all intellectual property created during the engagement vests in the firm.
  

Desirable Requirements

• Named inventor on granted patents or prior management of an international filing programme.
  

• Prior commercial exposure via technology transfer, spin-out formation, venture/corporate advisory, or Scientific Advisory Board membership.
  

• Track record of authoring investor-facing materials, business plans, corporate technical content, or large-scale grant applications.
  

• Familiarity with public company disclosure standards in major financial markets.
  

• Exposure to computational or machine learning applications in drug discovery.
  

• An active institutional or academic research network capable of generating technology deal flow.
  

Benefits

Independent contractor engagement offering scheduling autonomy subject to agreed deadlines and deliverables.

Fully remote working arrangement.