Commercial Strategy Manager

Position: Manager, Commercial Strategy

Location: Brooklyn, NY

Salary: 150k-170k + equity (stock options)

This role spans three key areas: defining the path for existing ingredients into human markets, scoping and prioritizing the future ingredient development roadmap across pet and human health, and setting clinical study targets that align the trial pipeline with the most compelling commercial opportunities.

This is a commercial strategy role, with success measured by the speed and quality of the ingredient bets made, as well as the revenue opportunities they unlock.

This is a full-time, in-person role based at the company's headquarters in Brooklyn, NY, with occasional travel to customers and industry conferences.

Founded in 2019, the company is focused on cultivating healthier living through natural microbes and has raised $40M in venture funding from leading investors. Less than a year into commercialization, its ingredients are already powering dozens of products from prominent pet brands, with strong customer reception. One out of three product launches using its ingredients has earned a #1 New Release ranking on Amazon, and 90% of customers from the prior year are launching additional products with the company this year.

The company's core technical advantage is its scientific platform, which spans ingredient discovery, clinical trials, and manufacturing scale-up.

Responsibilities

In this role, you will report to the VP of Commercialization and work closely with the co-founders, commercial team, key scientists, customers, and external industry advisors.

Define the path for existing ingredient technologies in human markets

Short- to medium-term focus

• Scope and prioritize human market opportunities for existing ingredient technologies, based on end-product and claims landscape, unmet consumer needs, competitive ingredient set, and related factors.
• Define market structure, pricing segments, key players, and end-consumer willingness to pay.
• Own customer discovery for prospective opportunities by building foundational relationships, gathering commercialization and claims-relevant insights, attending conferences, and expanding the company's presence in target markets.
• Define the final ingredient concept, moment of truth, end-product applications, and commercialization path, including positioning, claims, unit economics, and regulatory implications.

Identify and prioritize new ingredient development opportunities

Medium- to longer-term focus

• Review and refine the commercial criteria and evaluation process for assessing future ingredient opportunities.
• Scope future ingredient opportunities across pet and human markets, including food, supplements, cosmetics, and adjacent categories.
• Own customer discovery across prospective opportunities by introducing the company as a potential partner, building relationships, and surfacing commercialization insights.
• Develop opportunities from early concept to clear ingredient commercial specifications, including moment of truth, customer and expert validation, end-product prioritization, unit economics, and key technical requirements for handoff.
• Partner with the technical team and external experts to refine and finalize ingredient concepts.

Collaborate with the technical team to set clinical study targets

Ongoing focus

• Test, refine, and maintain target claims for the ingredient pipeline.
• Provide the clinical team with prioritized claims, relative importance, and the commercial business case needed to inform clinical strategy.
• Collaborate with the clinical team on trial prioritization based on commercial considerations, trial complexity, and likelihood of success.

Competencies & Qualifications

• 3 to 5 years of experience, ideally with a foundation in top-tier consulting, paired with experience in strategy, product innovation, or commercial roles within CPG, consumer products, biotech, or ingredients.
• Strong ability to derive insights from data, customer interviews, and expert conversations, including market sizing, opportunity quantification, unit economics, and competitive landscaping.
• Technical or scientific fluency, or a demonstrated ability and interest in quickly learning technical subject matter, with enough depth to be a credible partner to scientific and technical teams.
• AI-native working style, including daily use of Claude Code or similar tools, strong prompt fluency, and willingness to rebuild operating cadence around agentic tools.
• Consultant-style analytical toolkit, including top-down thinking, MECE problem decomposition, and comfort moving between high-level strategy and detailed opportunity analysis.
• High agency and builder mentality, with the ability to take loose direction, create a structured plan, and execute against deadlines.
• Strong project management discipline, including the ability to keep multiple workstreams visible, surface obstacles with proposed solutions, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
• Comfort operating at multiple levels of detail, from broad market strategy to granular single-ingredient opportunity scoping.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to navigate internal dynamics, build trust quickly, and align senior stakeholders around a clear path forward.
• Clear and effective written and verbal communication skills.

Why Join

• Meaningful work: Shape what the company builds, validates, and launches. This role will help drive the innovation direction at a category-defining biotech company operating at the frontier of postbiotic science.
• Growth and learning: The role will expand as the company scales. As new ingredients and markets are developed, there is room to grow scope, move into a specific ingredient or market vertical, or transition into GTM, sales, or product roles as the organization builds them out.
• Ownership and autonomy: Own the roadmap that determines which markets and ingredients the company pursues next, with early and sustained exposure to the CEO, Chief Science Officer, and senior leadership team.
• Team and culture: Join a small, high-performing, kind, and AI-native team.