Research & Development Leadership — CSO, CTO (R&D), VP R&D
More than 267 executive roles classified in Research & Development, with 21 new this week. Chief Scientific Officers, R&D leaders across biotech and tech, and Heads of Research who own the long-horizon technical roadmap.
Tier breakdown
8
Founder10
C-Suite89
VP38
Sr Director122
DirectorWhat this category covers
Research & Development covers Chief Scientific Officers, VPs of R&D, Heads of Research across biotech, pharma, materials, and deep-tech. The unifying signature: ownership of multi-year technical bets that aren't the day-to-day product roadmap.
Includes Chief Medical Officer roles in biotech/pharma when the seat carries scientific direction-setting, plus Heads of Applied Research at tech companies whose work feeds future products rather than current ones.
Across the 267 active roles in this category, the largest tier is Director. The classifier weighs company size, scope, and reporting line — not just the title prefix — so the tier mix reflects real responsibility, not vanity titles.
Sample Jobs (10 of 267)
| Title & Company | Location |
|---|---|
| Director, External Innovation, DPDS (Biology Technologies) Johnson & Johnson Lead external innovation efforts in biology technologies, focusing on partnerships and development of human-relevant models for pharmacology and translational sciences. VP | Cambridge, MA / South San Francisco, CA / La Jolla, CA / Spring House, PA Hybrid |
| Senior Director, Early Clinical Development (MD) - Neuroscience Bristol Myers Squibb The Senior Director will own the clinical strategy for neuropsychiatry programs, requiring extensive experience in clinical development in neuropsychiatric indications. Sr Director | Uxbridge, GB Unknown |
| Founding Research Engineer Raindrop The role involves studying AI agent behavior, developing simulations, and publishing research findings. The company focuses on monitoring AI agents and has raised significant funding. Founder | San Francisco, CA Onsite |
| Vice President, Medical Affairs Hello Heart The role involves integrating clinical expertise into product development and market strategies, working with various teams, and representing the company at industry events. Requires an MD, board certification in Cardiology, and 12+ years of clinical experience. VP | Remote Remote |
| Director, Search & Evaluate Asia Pacific Johnson & Johnson The role involves sourcing external innovation opportunities in the life sciences industry, engaging with academia, venture capital, and startups, and collaborating with internal teams to advance opportunities. VP | Seoul, Korea Hybrid |
| Senior Vice President & Chief Economist American Cement Association The role involves leading the Market Intelligence team and serving as ACA’s economic expert, influencing the cement and concrete industries. VP | Washington, DC Hybrid |
| Director, Health and Nutrition (ACVN) Ollie The role involves leading health and nutrition initiatives, managing the veterinary team, providing clinical guidance, and driving scientific research and publication. It requires a DVM/VMD degree and Board Certification in Veterinary Nutrition (ACVN). Director | Remote Remote |
| Director of Brain and Behavior Institute University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland seeks a visionary, collaborative, and internationally recognized scientific leader to serve as the next Director of the Brain and Behavior Institute (BBI). The role involves elevating the neuroscience community and defining the future of brain and behavior research. VP | College Park, Maryland Onsite |
| Director of Research William Blair The Director of Research is responsible for setting strategic direction, overseeing performance, and driving growth of William Blair’s research franchise. This role involves leading a large research organization, maintaining research quality, and strengthening client engagement. VP | Chicago, Illinois | New York, New York Unknown |
| Chief Research Officer & Scientific Director (CROSD) Mitacs The CROSD provides scientific leadership, strategic vision, and governance for Mitacs, supporting research excellence and innovation. The role involves overseeing application review mechanisms and supporting leadership in executing Mitacs' strategic plan. C-Suite | Remote Remote |
How classification gets to this category
Research & Development classification follows the same multi-stage pipeline as every other category, with category-specific signal at three stages:
- Title recognition. Direct title hits resolve fast — common variants are recognized immediately, including the senior, VP, and Director-tier flavors.
- Compensation threshold. An exec-tier base-comp floor filters out individual-contributor roles that share the title language. Roles below the floor in unambiguous category titles are flagged for manual review rather than auto-classified.
- JD signals for ambiguous cases. GPT reads the JD for scientific-direction authority, IP/clinical-pipeline ownership, and external scientific stature. The classifier separates true R&D leaders from product-engineering managers using research-flavored titles. See the AI Classification page for the full signal hierarchy.
Negative filters explicitly block adjacent IC and analyst roles whose titles can resemble executive ones. The result: Research & Development as a category in your inbox is the executive cut, not the entry-level cut.
How matching works for your search
Matching on Research & Development is conjunctive. Every dimension you add narrows the result set rather than expanding it.
Example: select Research & Development + Biotech & Life Sciences and you see CSOs and VPs of R&D at therapeutics and devices companies — not engineering managers in tech — your inbox shows the intersection, not the union. You won't see roles that match only one of the filters and not the other.
Tier filtering layers on top. If you only want VP-tier and above in this category, the seniority-tier filter does that cleanly. Restrict further to C-suite only to see the most senior seats, or open it up to Director-tier to widen the funnel during early-stage exploration.
Remote mix