What industries does Permanent Solutions Group recruit for?

Permanent Solutions Group recruits across six specialist practice areas: pharmaceutical and biotech commercial leadership (spanning oncology, rare disease, hematology, gene therapy, cell therapy, ophthalmology, and specialty pharma), private equity and portfolio companies, construction, robotics, AI/ML engineering, and finance and accounting. Each practice is led by a dedicated specialist recruiter.

What search models does Permanent Solutions Group offer?

Permanent Solutions Group offers contingency search, retained search, and subscription-based search, giving biotech and pharma clients flexible options based on role seniority and hiring volume.

What types of roles does Permanent Solutions Group place?

The firm places commercial roles including marketing, market access, commercial strategy, patient advocacy, field leadership, and business development, typically at the director, VP, and C-suite level.

Should a Series B biotech hire a CCO?

Usually not yet. A VP of Commercial Strategy or New Product Planning delivers what the stage requires. The CCO seat is typically right around pivotal readout, 18 to 24 months before approval.

What does a first commercial hire cost a Series B biotech?

Plan on $250,000 to $320,000 base plus bonus and an equity package competitive enough to pull someone from a safer seat. Fully loaded, roughly $400,000 to $500,000 a year.

Can we use consultants instead of hiring?

For discrete questions, yes. For ongoing commercial judgment inside your decision-making, no. The compounding value comes from someone who owns the outcome and stays.

When Should a Series B Biotech Hire Its First Commercial Leader?

By Travis Sjursen, Founder, Permanent Solutions Group

The honest answer: later than your investors sometimes push for, and earlier than your CFO wants. For most Series B companies, the right time to hire a first commercial leader is when you have a credible line of sight to pivotal data, typically 2 to 3 years before potential approval, and the right first hire is usually not a Chief Commercial Officer.

Why not a CCO yet

A full CCO at Series B is often a mis-sized hire. The company doesn't yet have a commercial organization to run, the launch is years out, and the executives with genuine CCO credentials rarely thrive with nothing to operate. What Series B companies actually need is commercial input into decisions being made right now: indication sequencing, trial endpoints payers will care about, pricing corridors that make the program financeable, early KOL and advocacy groundwork.

The better-fit titles for that work: VP of Commercial Strategy, VP of New Product Planning, or a Chief Business Officer who carries commercial assessment alongside BD. One senior athlete, not an organization.

The signals it's time

Your lead program has Phase 2 data worth building a company around
Board conversations keep hitting questions nobody in the room can answer: market size assumptions, pricing, launch cost
Partnering discussions are starting, and you're negotiating commercial terms without commercial expertise on your side of the table
Your clinical team is designing the pivotal trial, which is the last cheap moment to make the label commercially useful

That last one is the one that bites. Endpoints, comparators, and patient populations chosen without commercial input produce approvable products that are hard to sell, and no launch hire two years later can fix a label.

What the hire looks like

Look for someone who has done early commercial work at a company your size, not just operated inside a big organization. New product planning backgrounds from mid-size pharma often translate well. Expect base compensation broadly in the $250,000 to $320,000 range at this stage, with meaningful equity doing the heavy lifting, because you're asking someone to bet years on your science.

Fractional or advisory commercial support can bridge for a while, and for capital-constrained companies it's a legitimate play. But advisors advise; they don't own outcomes, sit in the pivotal-design meetings week after week, or build the relationships your launch will eventually run on.

Frequently asked questions

Should a Series B biotech hire a CCO?: Usually not yet. A VP of Commercial Strategy or New Product Planning delivers what the stage requires. The CCO seat is typically right around pivotal readout, 18 to 24 months before approval.
What does a first commercial hire cost a Series B biotech?: Plan on $250,000 to $320,000 base plus bonus and an equity package competitive enough to pull someone from a safer seat. Fully loaded, roughly $400,000 to $500,000 a year.
Can we use consultants instead of hiring?: For discrete questions, yes. For ongoing commercial judgment inside your decision-making, no. The compounding value comes from someone who owns the outcome and stays.