Market Development Manager - Pharma Solutions, Lipids

Summary

Croda’s Pharma Solutions team applies advanced lipid science, customer needs, and market intelligence to support innovation across pharmaceutical and related life-science markets. The Market Development Manager will lead customer discovery, market and competitive assessments, opportunity evaluation, and strategic recommendations to guide the lipids portfolio, partnerships, commercialization, and growth.

Responsibilities

• Establish and lead a systematic voice-of-customer program across priority market segments and strategic growth areas
• Develop a deep understanding of customer workflows, unmet needs, decision criteria, adoption barriers, and buying behaviors
• Build trusted relationships with customers, partners, industry experts, research institutions, and market influencers
• Identify and assess new applications, technologies, customer segments, adjacent markets, and business-model opportunities
• Evaluate market size, growth potential, strategic fit, customer value, commercial attractiveness, adoption barriers, risk, and value potential
• Maintain a prioritized pipeline of validated opportunities with documented assumptions, evidence gaps, risks, and next actions
• Develop actionable competitive and industry intelligence, including market trends, partnerships, investments, substitute technologies, and emerging developments
• Translate customer and market insight into recommendations for portfolio strategy, strategic platforms, innovation, partnerships, positioning, market entry, and commercialization
• Support market-driven business cases, investment proposals, partnership evaluations, and strategic growth initiatives
• Lead priority customer discovery, segmentation, market assessment, competitive-intelligence, and opportunity-assessment work
• Translate complex scientific, technical, customer, and market information into concise business implications and executive recommendations
• Partner across Portfolio Management, Product Management, Business Development, R&D, Technical and Strategic Marketing, regional commercial teams, Operations, Quality, Regulatory, Legal, Intellectual Property, Finance, and Customer Service
• Ensure mature opportunities transition effectively to the appropriate portfolio, platform, partnership, product-management, or commercial owner
• Complete required training and follow applicable health, safety, environmental, privacy, and compliance requirements

Skills

• Bachelor's degree in life sciences, chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, pharmaceutical sciences, engineering, business, marketing, or a related field required
• Experience in market development, strategic marketing, product management, business development, market intelligence, commercial strategy, or a related role in life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, drug delivery, specialty ingredients, or an adjacent market
• Demonstrated success identifying and evaluating market opportunities and converting customer needs into clear business recommendations
• Experience designing and conducting voice-of-customer programs, customer interviews, workflow research, market research, segmentation, market sizing, and competitive analysis
• Experience supporting strategy, portfolio, innovation, partnership, investment, commercialization, or market-entry decisions
• Strategic perspective with the ability to connect customer needs, market dynamics, technology trends, and business priorities
• Strong research, interviewing, workflow analysis, segmentation, market sizing, forecasting, scenario-development, and competitive-intelligence capability
• Sound commercial judgment and strong analytical and business-case development skills, including financial framing and recommendation development
• Ability to separate facts, assumptions, hypotheses, risks, evidence gaps, and confidence levels when information is incomplete or conflicting
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, presentation, and facilitation skills across technical and commercial audiences
• Ability to influence without direct authority, build alignment, manage multiple priorities, and follow through in an ambiguous and changing environment
• Curiosity about emerging science, technologies, applications, customer needs, and business models, paired with the discipline to test assumptions objectively
• Proficiency with standard business, research, analysis, presentation, and collaboration tools
• Advanced scientific or business degree preferred
• Experience in lipids, lipidomics, diagnostics, drug delivery, pharmaceutical ingredients, research tools, or related scientific markets preferred

Qualifications

Must Haves

• Bachelor's degree in life sciences, chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, pharmaceutical sciences, engineering, business, marketing, or a related field required
• Experience in market development, strategic marketing, product management, business development, market intelligence, commercial strategy, or a related role in life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, drug delivery, specialty ingredients, or an adjacent market
• Demonstrated success identifying and evaluating market opportunities and converting customer needs into clear business recommendations
• Experience designing and conducting voice-of-customer programs, customer interviews, workflow research, market research, segmentation, market sizing, and competitive analysis
• Experience supporting strategy, portfolio, innovation, partnership, investment, commercialization, or market-entry decisions
• Strategic perspective with the ability to connect customer needs, market dynamics, technology trends, and business priorities
• Strong research, interviewing, workflow analysis, segmentation, market sizing, forecasting, scenario-development, and competitive-intelligence capability
• Sound commercial judgment and strong analytical and business-case development skills, including financial framing and recommendation development
• Ability to separate facts, assumptions, hypotheses, risks, evidence gaps, and confidence levels when information is incomplete or conflicting
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, presentation, and facilitation skills across technical and commercial audiences
• Ability to influence without direct authority, build alignment, manage multiple priorities, and follow through in an ambiguous and changing environment
• Curiosity about emerging science, technologies, applications, customer needs, and business models, paired with the discipline to test assumptions objectively
• Proficiency with standard business, research, analysis, presentation, and collaboration tools

Nice to Haves

• Advanced scientific or business degree preferred
• Experience in lipids, lipidomics, diagnostics, drug delivery, pharmaceutical ingredients, research tools, or related scientific markets preferred

Benefits

• Excellent Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage, available immediately
• Generous PTO
• 401(k) match
• Wellness reimbursement
• Parental leave
• Career development
• Company-paid and voluntary Life and AD&D insurance
• Short- and long-term disability
• Paid holidays
• Flexible/remote role