Chief of Staff / Mission Operating Partner (Rare Cancer Initiative) in Bournemouth

Compensation will be calibrated to structure, candidate seniority, network, and scope.

• 2 days per week: £4,500 per month.
• 3 days per week: up to £7,000 per month for a strong candidate (£84,000 per year equivalent at that cadence).
• 12-month full-time first-year appointment: expected annual range of £120,000-£150,000. The rough benchmark is £140,000 per year, reflecting the £7,000/month 3-day tier annualised to a full-time equivalent.

Final level depends on seniority, relevant network, domain depth, and scope.

Notes on how this is paid:

• Figures for the fractional options are monthly, not pro-rated by hour. The monthly amount is fixed for the agreed day count, regardless of weekly fluctuations in workload.
• The full-time option is stated on an annual basis and may be paid monthly.
• Full-time compensation should broadly reflect the £7,000/month 3-day tier for a strong candidate, but adjusted for the wider ownership, availability, and first-year build expectations of a 12-month full-time appointment.
• Paid in GBP, or in the local-currency equivalent (EUR, USD, SGD) at the prevailing exchange rate at the time of payment.
• Reasonable travel is reimbursed separately.
• Candidates may move between structures by mutual agreement, including from fractional to full-time during the build phase or from a 12-month full-time first-year appointment to a fractional rhythm once the operating system is mature.

About Mission Pegasus

Mission Pegasus is a multi-year initiative to advance care strategy and accelerate research for SDH-deficient gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST), a rare cancer. The initiative is seeded by the founder's personal funds, with the intent to expand through fundraising and partnership over time. It operates with zero overhead and a maximum-urgency posture. Active workstreams span clinical care coordination, primary scientific research collaborations across leading academic centres, drug discovery intelligence, working partnerships with established rare disease foundations, and an AI-augmented research operations stack. The mission is personal. It is led by the founder to ensure a family member receives the best possible outcome and to multiply that effort into research progress for the wider SDH-deficient community.

The role requires a senior operating partner to turn founder urgency, scientific input, philanthropic relationships, and active research opportunities into a reliable execution system. Responsibilities include:

• Run the Pegasus operating system end-to-end.
• Drive cadence across every active thread.
• Prepare the founder for high-stakes conversations he must hold himself.
• Represent Pegasus credibly in scientific and philanthropic settings when the founder is not in the room.

This is not a heavy administrative role. The operating layer should be AI-augmented, async-first, and low-friction. The human value is judgement, communication, representation, prioritisation, and closing loops. The work is high-context and low-supervision. The founder is bi-coastal between Singapore and the United States and is the foundational voice on every relationship that matters. The COS makes sure those relationships and threads keep moving when the founder is operating elsewhere.

Flexible structure:

• 12-month full-time first-year appointment for a senior candidate able to take broad ownership during the build-and-acceleration phase.
• 3 days per week for a strong senior operator who can own cadence, founder preparation, second-tier scientific and philanthropic follow-up, and the Pegasus operating system with limited supervision.
• 2 days per week for an unusually high-leverage candidate with strong domain fluency, excellent writing, AI-native operating habits, and the ability to create momentum asynchronously.

This structure is only appropriate if scope is tightly focused. Flexibility is at the level of role design, not week-to-week availability. Once agreed, the structure should be stable enough for planning and accountability. Scope will be calibrated to the structure at offer and reviewed after the 90-day pilot.

What you own:

• Active threads as a live system. Every open item has an owner, a next action, and an age; nothing important drifts past threshold without being surfaced.
• Notion and AI tools as the system of record for tasks, threads, weekly scorecards, briefings, drafts, and retrieval.
• Cadence with the second tier of the scientific and philanthropic network: lab-level coordination, donor maintenance, conference follow-ups.
• Test coverage and tissue logistics across multiple active research partners.
• Founder calendar logic and travel coordination around Pegasus priorities. Routine admin should be minimised, AI-assisted, or delegated where sensible.
• Conference operations for key sarcoma and oncology gatherings such as ASCO and CTOS, with possible in-person attendance alongside or in place of the founder where useful.
• Cold and warm outreach to second-tier scientific and patient-organisation contacts.
• Adjacent group mapping and coalition-building for the SDH-deficient community.
• Internal briefings, synthesis, short memos, and decision frames.
• Working-level management of operational partners.
• Support for the broader fundraising effort as it develops.

What you prepare for the founder:

• High-stakes communications to inner-circle contacts (first-tier advisors and clinicians).
• Strategic memos and decision frames for major moves (tissue strategy, treatment branch points, China engagement, coalition design).
• Outreach where the founder's name carries weight but the writing need not be his.

Profile Required:

• 8 to 15 years of operating experience, ideally including a chief of staff or special projects role to a high-velocity founder, scientist, or principal.
• PhD, MD, or equivalent depth in life sciences, oncology, biotechnology, or precision medicine; alternatively, biotech business development with deep scientific exposure.
• Existing professional network across academic medicine, biotech, or rare disease philanthropy.
• Excellent verbal communicator.
• Excellent written communicator.
• AI-native.
• Demonstrated bias to action.
• Comfortable operating in a flexible structure.
• Comfortable with directness.

Strong plus:

• Sarcoma, GIST, or rare cancer domain experience.
• European or Asian scientific network access in addition to North American.
• Experience working inside or alongside a venture philanthropy or patient foundation model.
• Track record of making things happen at conferences (ASCO, CTOS class).

Not required:

• Bench science experience.
• Pharmaceutical industry tenure.
• Native English (high written fluency is required; native is not).

Working structure:

• Async-first. Weekly written summary on Fridays.
• Structure set at offer: 12-month full-time first-year appointment, 3 days per week, or 2 days per week.
• The 12-month full-time first-year structure may include a higher-frequency tactical rhythm during the build phase.
• Monthly half-day strategy session with the founder and the closest advisors as the advisory structure formalises.
• Possible travel to US conferences two to three times per year, and possible travel to Singapore once a year.
• Notion as the operating system. Required AI tools provided, including a top-tier frontier Claude plan where useful.

90-day success metrics:

• Pegasus has a live operating system with owners, next actions, thread age, and escalation points.
• No important open thread is aged past threshold without being surfaced.
• Weekly written summaries are useful enough that the founder can make decisions from them.
• Founder's calendar load on Pegasus operational work is materially reduced, with the target calibrated to the agreed structure.
• Priority scientific, philanthropic, and partnership threads have either closed, moved to a clear next step, or been consciously parked.
• Demonstrated ability to represent Pegasus credibly in at least one scientific or philanthropic setting, where relevant to the agreed scope.
• Clear recommendation on the right next-phase structure: full-time, 3 days per week, 2 days per week, or another model.

How to apply:

Complete the application form at https://tally.so/r/QKzV0G. In the application, please indicate which structure or structures you would consider: 12-month full-time first-year appointment, 3 days per week, 2 days per week, or more than one of these.

The selection process has five stages:

• Structured written application (the form above).
• Asynchronous video screen. Six prompts, approximately eight minutes total.
• Kolbe A working-style assessment. Approximately 25 minutes, completed online. Not pass/fail; used to understand how you naturally operate and how you would partner with the founder.
• One-hour panel interview with case-based discussion.
• Final conversation with the founder, possibly in person.