The Head of Business Development – India & South Asia is responsible for driving strategic growth through new opportunity creation, brand engagement, partnership development, and category expansion across the food, beverage, nutraceutical, and pharma-nutra sectors. This role identifies, shapes, and qualifies business opportunities, nurtures high-value strategic relationships, and hands over confirmed commercial opportunities to the Senior Sales Manager while ensuring continuity and long-term relationship building.
The position reports to the Founder & Director.
Strategic Business Development & Market Creation
- Identify, develop, and qualify new opportunities across India & South Asia, including:
- New products with existing customers
- Existing products with new customers
- New products with new customers
- Category expansion opportunities in F&B, nutraceuticals, wellness, and pharma-nutra
- Build BD-driven business cases for new launches, new formats, and category entry opportunities.
- Map emerging trends and whitespace opportunities; translate insights into BD strategies.
Brand, Partner & Ecosystem Engagement
- Build and nurture relationships with brands, contract manufacturers, third-party formulators, and ingredient partners.
- Co-develop concepts, prototypes, and application solutions with partners to accelerate adoption of Bio-gen Extracts ingredients.
- Collaborate with practitioner-led models and medical marketing teams (within pharma-nutra companies) to drive evidence-backed adoption of key ingredients.
- Facilitate joint promotions, strategic alliances, and multi-brand collaboration opportunities.
Application Development & Innovation Enablement
- Coordinate with external research organizations, innovation labs, universities, and application centres for:
- Food & beverage application development
- Nutraceutical and dosage-form innovation
- Proof-of-concept and prototype creation
- Advise customers on concept positioning, application possibilities, and innovation pathways.
Partnerships, Licensing & Strategic Agreements
- Identify opportunities for trademark licensing, co-branding initiatives, and partner-level ingredient differentiation.
- Lead commercial discussions for partnership frameworks, licensing terms, and long-term BD agreements.
- Evaluate and structure collaborations with market-leading manufacturers and solution providers.
Opportunity Management & Handover to Sales
- Own the early-to-mid BD pipeline: mapping, qualification, technical scoping, commercial viability.
- Maintain ongoing engagement with strategic accounts to ensure continuity, trust, and long-term relationship expansion.
Cross-functional Collaboration
Work with marketing on:
- BD-focused campaigns, concept sheets, application themes, and launch plans.
- Showcasing Bio-gen Extracts capabilities to brands and partners.
- Align with CRM & BD tracking teams to maintain pipeline quality and opportunity visibility.
Strategic Contribution
- Develop annual BD plans for India & South Asia, including category strategies, partnership roadmaps, and priority segments.
- Identify new growth vectors—premiumization opportunities, new dosage forms, emerging categories, and whitespace markets.
- Provide market and partner intelligence inputs to leadership for mid- and long-term decisions.
Travel Requirements
- Frequent domestic travel for BD meetings, innovation sessions, partner engagements, and industry events.
- Periodic travel within South Asia as required.
- Flexibility for short-notice meetings with strategic partners and brand owners.
Performance Metrics
- Revenue generated from BD-led new opportunities.
- Number and quality of qualified opportunities added to the pipeline.
- Number of new customers and new category entries unlocked.
- Strategic partnerships established (contract manufacturers, brand alliances, licensing opportunities).
- Application development outcomes (successful prototypes, concept validations, co-developed formulations).
- Expansion into new segments or whitespace categories.
Key Skills & Competencies
- Strong strategic BD capability with deep understanding of F&B, nutraceutical, wellness, and pharma-nutra ecosystems.
- Ability to engage with CXOs, brand leads, formulators, innovation heads, and medical marketing teams.
- Excellent relationship-building, conceptual selling, and opportunity shaping skills.
- Strong understanding of application possibilities across food, beverage, and nutraceutical delivery formats.
- Ability to operate independently and drive initiatives from concept to qualification.
Experience & Specific Requirements
- Minimum 15+ years of overall experience, including at least 12+ years of industry experience, preferably in the Pharmaceutical, Nutraceutical, or FMCG sectors.
- Educational Qualification: B.Sc / M.Sc / B.Pharm / M.Pharm / MBA.
Preferred Location: Candidates based in Mumbai or Bangalore are preferred.
