The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is responsible for driving ESPERO’s vision, strategy, and execution. This leader will oversee product, commercial, operations, finance, and culture — enabling sustainable growth while maintaining strong alignment with regulatory and scientific rigor.
The CEO will partner closely with the Founder (Kimberly Tableman) to scale ESPERO from a high-impact early-stage company to a category-defining leader in protocol intelligence and clinical research AI.
Key Responsibilities:
- Own and execute ESPERO’s multi-year growth strategy, including product, commercial, regulatory, and partnerships.
- Translate the Founder’s vision into executable priorities and operational plans.
- Identify market opportunities in protocol optimization, clinical AI, digital design, and ecosystem data alignment.
- Develop and articulate ESPERO’s positioning as the leader in protocol intelligence.
Product and Technology Leadership
- Partner with Product & Engineering to define the roadmap for:
- Digital protocol authoring (ICH-M11 aligned)
- Amendment intelligence and risk scoring
- Insights as a Service (IAAS)
- Study design complexity scoring
- Operational dataset (BRAID, USDM, etc.) integrations
- Ensure regulatory-aligned data practices and scientific rigor.
- Evaluate emerging technologies (LLMs, structured data harmonization, predictive models) and integrate them responsibly.
Commercial Growth and Revenue Expansion
- Build a scalable commercial engine including sales, marketing, customer success, and partner channels.
- Drive enterprise sales into pharma, biotech, CROs, and IRB networks.
- Develop pricing, packaging, and channel strategies to accelerate ARR.
- Oversee execution of client implementations, renewals, and expansions.
Partnerships
- Forge strategic partnerships with data providers, technology platforms (e.g., Medidata, Veeva), CROs, regulatory-aligned partners, and real-world data companies.
- Expand ESPERO’s ecosystem footprint, including academic, regulatory, and industry collaborations.
- Represent ESPERO with investors, boards, and external stakeholders.
Team Leadership + Operational Excellence
- Build and lead a high-performing, mission-aligned leadership team.
- Create operational processes for planning, forecasting, finance, and risk management.
- Establish KPIs and dashboards for performance, product adoption, and revenue.
- Foster an empowering, transparent culture centered on innovation, accountability, and resilience.
Fundraising
- Oversee future fundraising (Seed+, Series A) including:
- Pitch development
- Investor pipelines
- Diligence readiness
- Manage capital allocation, runway optimization, and financial planning.
- Maintain strong relationships with current investors and board members.
Qualifications
Required:
- Proven executive leadership experience in a SaaS, AI, life-sciences, or clinical-tech company.
- Deep understanding of clinical research processes, protocol development, or data standards (ICH-M11, CDISC, USDM).
- Experience driving growth from early-stage to $5M–$20M ARR.
- Strong product intuition with ability to partner with technical teams.
- Track record of enterprise sales and partnership development.
- Exceptional communication, executive presence, and change leadership.
Preferred:
- Experience with regulatory bodies, IRBs, or data interoperability.
- Background in AI/ML-enabled platforms.
- Prior CEO, COO, GM, or SVP-level P&L ownership.
- Comfortable in a fast-paced, founder-driven environment.
- Passion for transforming the clinical research ecosystem.