Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Virtual Science AI (VSAI) – Pharma Tech SaaS/AI
About Virtual Science AI
Virtual Science AI is empowering life science teams to improve patient outcomes. Our industry-first AI-driven insight management platform powers life sciences advisory panels and integrated data programs that deliver faster, more meaningful, and actionable insights for life science teams.
We work with most of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and a growing number of biotechs, helping them engage more effortlessly with healthcare stakeholders and accelerate insights that help bring the best solutions to patients faster.
Headquartered in London, with operations in Europe, North America, and Asia, VSAI is a high-growth SaaS/AI company shaping the future of healthcare stakeholder engagement and intelligence.
With strong commercial momentum in 2025, we are expanding our leadership team to support continued commercial and operational scaling.
Role Overview
We are seeking an experienced and strategic Chief Operating Officer (COO) to lead global operations at Virtual Science AI, you will work alongside the CEO to translate strategy into flawless execution, deliver scalable operational frameworks, and ensure our solutions consistently exceed client expectations.
This role requires not only strong SaaS/AI operational expertise but also experience in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector.
The COO will play a pivotal role in enabling VSAI to scale operations while ensuring that our work continues to support the mission of unlocking breakthrough insights to improve patient outcomes.
Key Responsibilities
1. Commercial & Sales Support
* Partner with the CEO and account teams to deliver on go to market plan
* Support with proposal reviews, pricing and contracting strategies aligned to pharma/biotech procurement processes.
* Ensure smooth transition from sales to delivery, guaranteeing client confidence and implementation readiness.
2. Project Proposals, Pricing & Planning
* Optimize pricing models
* Align delivery models to customer value expectations
3. Implementation & Delivery Execution
* Ensure strong governance across all partnership deliveries
* Build and scale a world-class delivery organization serving pharma clients across multiple geographies
4. Partner & Ecosystem Management
* Establish a network of global agency partners
* Manage strategic partner relationships as win-win long-term collaborations
5. Customer Success & Support
* Lead Customer Success and Support functions to maximize client value creation
* Responsibilie for retention, renewals, and upsell opportunities.
* Monitor client health and churn signals, proactively managing pharma stakeholder satisfaction
6. Regulatory & Compliance Oversight
* Partner with CTO on information security, data governance, and business continuity processes.
7. Performance & Metrics
* Run operations as a P&L function with accountability for efficiency and profitability.
* Track and report KPIs
8. Culture & Leadership
* Act as cultural leader for VSAI, shaping a high-performance, collaborative, and resilient team.
* Support employee engagement across global operations (Europe, US, Asia).
* Build scalable structures while retaining the agility and entrepreneurial spirit of a high-growth SaaS business.
9. Strategy & Growth Enablement
* Translate operational insights and client feedback into strategic input for CEO and board
* Partner with CEO on investor, strategic partnerships, and M&A discussions.
* Ensure organizational design evolves to support expansion and global scale.
Qualifications & Experience
* 7+ years in senior operations leadership, ideally within Pharma Tech/B2B SaaS for life sciences.
* Proven ability to scale SaaS/ Pharma Professional Services, Customer Success, and implementation functions.
* Strong commercial acumen, with experience structuring SaaS deals for pharma/biotech clients.
* Deep knowledge of pharma compliance
* Track record of building P&L-positive operations and optimizing SaaS performance metrics.
* Experience in fast-growth environments, from early-stage scaling through global expansion.