Job Description
Job Summary
The Associate Director, Applied and Agriculture Market Development, APAC is responsible for driving commercial growth by expanding the total addressable market in these key segments for Oxford Nanopore Technologies across the Asia Pacific region. This role focuses on identifying and unlocking new customer segments, applications, and geographies, translating ONT's unique long-read sequencing capabilities into scalable, commercially impactful market opportunities. Working at the intersection of science, policy, and commercial strategy, this role partners closely with sales, marketing, product, regulatory, and government affairs teams to accelerate adoption and long-term revenue growth.
This role has a primary focus on applied genomics and agriculture, including food and fibre systems, agri-biotech, environmental genomics, biosecurity, and broader bioeconomy applications, supporting the transition from research to operational and production-scale deployment.
This role is suited to a highly self-directed builder who thrives in ambiguous environments and can create momentum ahead of fully scaled organisational infrastructure.
Primary Objective
Drive sustainable growth by expanding the total addressable market through identification, validation, and execution of new use cases, customer segments, and applied, agricultural, environmental, and bioeconomy genomics markets across APAC.
Key Responsibilities and Duties:
Market Expansion & Growth
- Identify, assess, and validate new market opportunities for ONT technologies across applied, agricultural, environmental, and industrial genomics segments, including research-to-production transitions.
- Develop and execute commercial-forward market development strategies with clear milestones and measurable growth outcomes.
- Expand market access by enabling entry into new customer segments and geographies across APAC.
- Identify opportunities where long-read sequencing enables step-change improvements in productivity, resilience, traceability, sustainability, or biosecurity outcomes.
- Provide structured input into future product, workflow, and portfolio roadmaps based on market needs and evidence gaps.
Partnerships, KOL & Ecosystem Development
- Develop strategic partnerships and collaborations to enable entry into new markets and applications.
- Build, engage, and develop Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and influencer networks aligned to ONT growth priorities.
- Lead community advocacy, education, and awareness initiatives to support market creation and adoption.
- Build partnerships across the applied genomics ecosystem, including agribusiness, ag-tech, food and fibre organisations, environmental agencies, contract research organisations, and government-linked institutes.
- Partner with academic, industry, and government stakeholders to strengthen ONT's ecosystem presence.
Evidence Generation & Standards Shaping
- Define and execute evidence generation strategies, including gap analysis to support new market entry.
- Support development of scientific, technical, and economic proof points that enable adoption and scale in applied and agricultural settings.
- Partner with thought leaders to influence professional societies, reference frameworks, and standards that maximise the impact of ONT technology.
- Translate evidence into compelling commercial and value-based narratives for customers and stakeholders.
- Support the development of operational standards, reference workflows, and best-practice frameworks that enable repeatable, trusted deployment of ONT technologies in applied and production environments.
Regulatory, Policy & Market Access Enablement (Applied & Agriculture)
- Support regulatory, policy, and market access pathways when entering or expanding applied and agricultural genomics markets, including engagement with biosecurity, food safety, environmental, and agricultural authorities.
- Work closely with regulatory and government affairs teams (where established), aligning market development activities with policy, compliance, and procurement requirements, acting as the key conduit with customers in-region and proactively supporting early engagement and coordination where formal capability is still evolving.
- Enable customers operating in both regulated and unregulated environments through education and strategic guidance.
Commercial Enablement & Cross
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Functional Leadership
- Partner with regional commercial teams to support pipeline development, strategic deals, and complex opportunities.
- Enable sales and marketing teams through education, positioning, and strategic content tailored to emerging markets.
- Communicate market intelligence and customer insights to inform commercial strategy and execution.
- Operate effectively within a global, matrixed organisation, influencing across functions and seniority levels.
Leadership & Capability Development
- Provide leadership and strategic direction to market development activities across APAC.
- Support capability building through training, coaching, and knowledge transfer.
- Foster collaboration, accountability, and execution discipline across cross-functional teams.
- Drive cross-regional alignment and knowledge-sharing, partnering with global Market development leaders across APAC, EMEAI and AMR to ensure consistency of strategy, prioritisation, and execution as the global capability scales.
- Act as an early builder for the global Market Development function, contributing learnings, frameworks, and operating models that inform future role expansion across regions.
Core Competencies, Qualifications and Experience
Core Competencies
- Market creation and commercial strategy
- Strategic partnerships and ecosystem development
- Evidence-based value creation
- Cross-functional leadership and influence
- Customer and KOL engagement
- Clear, compelling scientific and commercial communication
Qualifications & Experience
- Advanced degree in genomics, molecular biology, life sciences, or related discipline; MBA, PhD, or MD advantageous.
- Extensive experience in genomics, life sciences, or applied biotechnology, with strong exposure to commercial strategy and market development.
- Demonstrated success in creating or expanding markets, launching new collaborations and evidence generation initiatives, or enabling adoption of innovative technologies.
- Demonstrated experience in society engagement, white paper creation, and participating in or driving standards-setting activities.
- Strong understanding of applied genomics, agriculture, environmental, and industrial biotechnology ecosystems in APAC.
- Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and operate effectively in complex, matrixed environments.
- Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in lean or emerging organisational environments, building capability and momentum without reliance on established support functions.
- Strong personal network across applied genomics, agriculture, bioeconomy, or policy ecosystems, with the ability to independently open doors and create opportunities.
- Hands-on mindset, with willingness to contribute directly to content development, stakeholder education, and early market-shaping activities.
- High resilience and adaptability, with the ability to progress initiatives even when cross-functional resources are limited or evolving.
- Willingness to travel across the APAC region.
Please note that no terminology in this advert is intended to discriminate on the grounds of a person's gender, marital status, race, religion, colour, age, disability or sexual orientation. Every candidate will be assessed only in accordance with their merits, qualifications and abilities to perform the duties of the job.
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About Us
Oxford Nanopore Technologies: Our goal is to bring the widest benefits to society through enabling the analysis of anything, by anyone, anywhere. The company has developed a new generation of nanopore-based sensing technology for faster, information rich, accessible and affordable molecular analysis. The first application is DNA/RNA sequencing, and the technology is in development for the analysis of other types of molecules including proteins. The technology is used to understand and characterise the biology of humans and diseases such as cancer, plants, animals, bacteria, viruses, and whole environments. With a thriving culture of ambition and strong innovation goals, Oxford Nanopore is a UK headquartered company with global operations and customers in more than 125 countries.
