OUR MISSION
"Every placement brings life-saving therapies to patients faster." Breakthrough oncology and rare disease science fails without the right leadership to navigate FDA pathways, design robust trials, secure pharma partnerships, and execute flawlessly. We place the executives who've done it before—CMOs with successful BLA/MAA submissions, VP BD leaders with $500M+ partnerships, VP Medical Affairs with global launch experience. For cancer patients and families with ultra-rare diseases: every month matters. Faster executive placements mean faster clinical trials. Faster trials mean faster approvals. Faster approvals mean lives saved.
OUR STORY
The Therapies That Could Have Saved Them Existed. They Just Came Too Late.
We've all lost people to cancer and rare disease. Simeon lost family to cancer. Mike watched loved ones fight rare diseases. Karen experienced the same devastating losses. In each case, therapies were in development—biotechs had promising science in Phase 2, Phase 3, even near-approval.
But the therapies didn't arrive in time.
Why? Not because the science failed. Because the biotechs couldn't hire the right executives fast enough. The VP Medical Affairs who could have accelerated evidence generation. The CMO who knew how to navigate FDA accelerated approval. The VP BD who could have closed the pharma partnership that funded the pivotal trial.
We realized: One placement could change history. One executive hire could bring a life-saving therapy to patients months—or years—faster.
With over 20 years of combined experience placing pharmaceutical executives for Novartis, Roche, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca—building a network of 500+ Big Pharma oncology leaders and 5,000+ medical professionals including UK psychiatrists—we founded SSB Search in 2024 with one mission:
Get breakthrough oncology and rare disease therapies to patients faster.
Here's the problem we solve: Series A-D biotechs developing world-class ADC, CAR-T, immunotherapy, and gene therapy platforms were losing talent wars to bigger brands. They had funding. They had science. But they didn't have access to the VP-level executives who'd successfully taken oncology drugs through FDA approval before.
SSB Search fixes that.
We don't post jobs on LinkedIn. We don't use recruiters who spam candidates. We make warm, direct introductions between proven Big Pharma leaders and the oncology/rare disease biotechs that will define the next decade of treatment.
Based in London. Working US, UK, Europe. VP and C-suite exclusively.
Roles we place:
VP Business Development - $500M+ pharma partnerships
Chief Medical Officer - Successful BLA/MAA submissions
VP Medical Affairs - Global launch expertise
VP Clinical Development - Phase I-III oncology/rare disease
:
Because when you place the right CMO, you don't just fill a role—you accelerate a therapy to patients. And for someone fighting cancer or a rare disease, that's not a placement. That's their future.
"One Placement to Change History"
OUR CORE FOCUS AREAS
Immuno - IO
The future of cancer treatment is immunotherapy.
We place the executives who are building it
—leaders from Keytruda, Opdivo, Yescarta programs who understand checkpoint inhibitors, CAR-T, bispecifics, and IO combinations.
If you're developing novel IO mechanisms, we know who can take them to approval.
AI-Driven Drug Discovery
AI isn't hype anymore—it's generating real drug candidates.
But most "AI leaders" can't bridge the gap between algorithms and biology.
Our network includes the rare executives who've built AI platforms at pharma, validated predictions in the lab, and understand how to convince FDA that your computational predictions are real.
Antibody-Drug Conjugates
ADCs are rewriting oncology.
But hiring an antibody expert won't cut it—ADCs have unique payload chemistry, linker design, manufacturing complexity, and safety profiles.
We place executives who've worked on approved ADCs and understand what regulators need to see.
UK Consultant Psychiatry
Lives matter across all specialties.
With 20 years of NHS and private healthcare relationships, we have connections with GMC-registered consultant psychiatrists within the UK's most respected hospital groups—Priory, Cygnet, Elysium, and major mental health trusts.
Because the UK's psychiatry shortage is a crisis we can help solve.
Our Values
Specialization Over Scale We'd rather be the best in oncology than mediocre across all of life sciences.
