Business Development Manager - North America
Fortis Life Sciences
Fortis partners with diagnostics and life sciences companies to design, validate, and manufacture solutions to solve their complex development problems. Fortis’ tailored approach and end-to-end capabilities accelerate the work of its customers as they bring the next generation of medicines and diagnostics to market. Fortis serves a global customer base and has offices across the world including four R&D sites and cGMP manufacturing in three ISO 13485 certified facilities in North America.
About the Role
Fortis Life Sciences is seeking a Sales Director to lead business development and strategic customer engagement for our Diagnostics Solutions business unit across North America. This role is responsible for driving revenue growth through direct sales and key account expansion of our molecular and point-of-care diagnostics portfolio, with a strong emphasis on OEM, custom manufacturing, and RUO/IVD solutions.
This leader will manage and grow a portfolio that includes Empirical Bioscience and International Point of Care (IPOC) products. These offerings span enzymes, buffers, and lyophilized reagents for PCR/qPCR, isothermal amplification, NGS library prep, and lateral flow assay development—manufactured under ISO 13485 and cGMP conditions.
Key Responsibilities
- Serve as the senior commercial leader responsible for all customer acquisition, growth, and retention within the Diagnostic Solutions unit.
- Build and convert a pipeline of OEM, RUO, and IVD opportunities for custom and catalog molecular diagnostics solutions, including custom enzyme blends, master mixes, lyophilized reagents, and full assay development.
- Identify and close new business across diagnostics, food safety, cosmetics, veterinary, and other regulated and non-regulated life science segments.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with field application scientists, R&D, and manufacturing to define and deliver tailored technical solutions that meet complex customer specifications.
- Own the customer relationship and act as the primary point of contact from lead qualification through post-sale support and project management.
- Navigate multi-stakeholder environments and drive structured project timelines with clearly defined milestones for evaluation, scale-up, and commercialization.
- Deliver accurate forecasting, CRM management (Salesforce), and reporting aligned with commercial and operational objectives.
- Develop strategic account plans to expand wallet share and establish long-term partnerships with key accounts.
Experience & Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in a life sciences field required; advanced degree preferred.
- 5–10 years of experience in sales or business development in the diagnostics, genomics, or life science tools space.
- Strong understanding of molecular biology workflows, reagent manufacturing, and OEM sales cycles.
- Experience selling to scientific, technical, and procurement stakeholders in regulated environments.
- Proven track record of meeting or exceeding sales targets with a consultative, solutions-oriented approach.
- Self-motivated, collaborative, and capable of managing complex, technical sales cycles.
- Proficiency with CRM tools (e.g., Salesforce) and MS Office Suite.
Travel Requirements: Willingness to travel approximately 50% of the time.
Mission and Values
We have an incredibly talented group of intelligent, down-to-earth individuals who are committed to developing and manufacturing only the highest quality products. Our mission: “Pursuing a Healthier World by Creating Tomorrow’s Science Today” is complemented by our core values (EXCITE):
- Excellence - We believe in solving for root cause. No shortcuts, no “band-aids.”
- Customer First - We prioritize the experience and outcomes of our customers above all.
- Integrity - We are honest and accountable, holding ourselves to a high standard of ethical conduct.
- Trust - We believe an engaged, empowered team begins with a foundation of trust. We trust our team members to make the right decisions and to be driven by and evaluated on results.
- Entrepreneurship - We encourage smart risk taking. We value novel mistakes in the pursuit of innovation.
Benefits
Fortis provides a competitive salary, success-sharing bonus plan, medical, dental, disability and life insurance, and a 401(k) plan.
Fortis is an equal employment opportunity employer. The Company’s policy is not to discriminate against any applicant or employee based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, age (40 and over), disability, military status, genetic information or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Fortis also prohibits harassment of applicants or employees based on any of these protected categories. It is also Fortis’ policy to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws respecting consideration of unemployment status in making hiring decisions.