Associate Director, Business Development Life Science

Cognizant is hiring a Business Developer – Associate Director to form an integral part of the continued rapid growth of Intuitive Operations & Automation (IOA) Business Unit for large accounts in Life Science. The role will involve daily exposure to our clients and Cognizant senior management. Reporting into our GGM IOA Business Unit Leader and based in Zurich, this role offers hybrid work model and opportunities to thrive and grow within our Sales Leadership Team.OverviewIntuitive Operations & Automation (IOA) business unit is one of Cognizant’s highest growth businesses and a critical part of Cognizant’s Digital imperatives in the market. DACH is a high-growth region and IOA is looking for a highly accomplished, results-driven sales executive to originate, advance, and close large sales opportunities in Life Science. You will be working with industry community (Client Partners, SLM (Service line managers), IOA leadership and the DACH MCUs (Market Commercial Unit) leadership to drive sales and business development in a high growth and highly autonomous environment.As a Service Line Specialist, your role will be to drive growth for IOA :Define and improve the go-to-market plans, offerings, and value propositions.Drive sales and pipeline, win new deals with existing and new customersBuild strong internal relationships with Cognizant’s MCU & MDU (Market Commercial & Delivery Unit) leadership, IOA Commercial/Offshore Delivery Heads and other core leaders.:What you are looking for :This role offers high visibility within IOA BU within a distributed SLS team in Europe. You will be responsible for achieving targets of 25+ m€ TCV :Demand Generation –Identify prospects, create marketing plans and take responsibility to engage new clients in conversationSales Plan Creation – develop and execute a growth plan for your dedicated IndustryPipeline Management – Develop the opportunity pipeline, qualify high priority deals and win new business in line with agreed targets.IOA Solution Development Oversight – As a pursuit leader, partner with IOA solution architects, delivery teams and other horizontal practices to create effective deal solutions.Deal Shaping / Pricing Development – Develop creative deal shapes, commercial structures, and pricing proposals as part of a winning sales pursuit. Work closely with the business unit and regional FP&A teamsC-Level Client Relationship Building – Bring and build new relationships across CXO levels in client organizations and develop executive level relationships.What are we looking for?You demonstrable seasoned experience in selling BPO/Consulting services working for a blue-ship company, developing BPO solutions ground up with:Sales Performance : Experience in proactively growing customer relationships within a portfolio of accounts and achieving TCV targetsIndustry centricity : you master business process challenges in Life ScienceGlobal Experience : Significant international experience required including being conversant in global service delivery models – both shared services and IOA.Verbal Communication Skills – Excellent public speaking and presentation skills including the ability to convey a set of complex and detailed deal elements in a compelling, engaging, and easy to understand manner suitable for C-level buyers.Approach to Work - Possess the innate ability to thrive in a fast-paced, client-focused, changing environment and work independently in a self-directed manner.At Cognizant, we embrace diversity. We believe it’s what helps us thrive. Our goal is to include everyone at the table, and to value and respect their unique voices and backgrounds.Need a change in 2026 to grow in responsibility and evolve in your career ? Join us Please share you CV in English and we will connect soon.