Sales Officer - Pharmaceutical Core Facilities

About the role

Ghent University's CESPE (Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Pharmaceutical Engineering and Manufacturing) is looking for a Sales Officer to act as the single commercial point of contact for its three Core Facilities: the Drug Product Development core facility (DPD), the NanoMedicine Core (NMC) and the HighTru core facility. The role works closely with the CESPE General Manager and the Core Facility and Lab Managers.

Key responsibilities

• Serve as the central contact for all industrial inquiries across the three facilities, ensuring a consistent and professional interface with external partners.
• Create a central CRM overview of ongoing and potential industrial interactions so that relationships can be managed systematically.
• Proactively identify market needs and generate qualified leads through networking, sector intelligence, conference presence and outreach to pharma and biotech companies in Belgium, Benelux and beyond; for HighTru, also build new markets for novel capabilities.
• Support the conversion of leads into larger collaborations by preparing tailored proposals, negotiating terms and coordinating with scientific teams until contracts are finalised.
• Map what each industrial contact already uses, identify adjacent services relevant to their pipeline and introduce them to the full platform offering, coordinating across several autonomous academic entities.
• Act as the platform's market intelligence function: consolidate observations on pricing, competitor activity, emerging client needs and R&D trends and turn them into recommendations for facility managers on cost models, service portfolios and investments.
• Coordinate quotations, reporting templates and marketing materials, and liaise with Business Developers within Ghent University for institutional business development support.

Required profile

• MSc in pharmaceutical sciences, biochemistry, chemistry, biomedical sciences or a related discipline; a PhD is an asset but not required.
• Basic understanding of the technologies is needed to communicate effectively with potential clients.
• Knowledge of nanomedicines, formulation science or synthetic chemistry is a strong advantage.
• Demonstrated experience or strong interest in business development, account management, CRO/CDMO sales or building a BD pipeline from early stage is an advantage; ideally a continued connection to industry.

Required skills

• Able to structure proposals, negotiate agreements and close deals.
• Ability to translate complex scientific capabilities into clear value propositions for industry partners.