Pairwise is agriculture’s gene editing powerhouse, building a healthier world through partnership and plant innovation. Co-founded by CRISPR pioneers, the company’s Fulcrum® Platform accelerates the development of climate-resilient, nutritious, and sustainable crops that are easier to grow and better to eat.
Founded in 2017 and based in Durham, North Carolina, Pairwise partners with global leaders and nonprofit institutions to help breeders move faster and transform food and agriculture for farmers, consumers, and the planet. The company collaborates with partners and licenses its Fulcrum® CRISPR tools to diversify breeding programs and bring innovations to market faster—from developing the world’s first pitless cherry to improving staple crops such as corn, soy, cacao, yam, and rice.
Backed by leading investors including Deerfield, Aliment Capital, Leaps by Bayer, Temasek, and Corteva Catalyst, Pairwise has raised $155 million in total funding. In 2025, the company was recognized as one of MIT Technology Review's 10 Climate Tech Companies to Watch and named to Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in Agriculture, while also earning "Best Ag-Bio Company" honors in the Triangle Business Journal's Life Sciences Awards. For more information, visit www.pairwise.com.
About This Role:
Pairwise is building a commercial engine to bring CRISPR-edited produce to market, and this role sits at the core of it. As a strategic finance subject matter expert, you’ll build the product-level forecasts and data-driven analyses that shape how we prioritize crops, size markets, and make go-to-market decisions. You’ll also model the economics behind R&D portfolio decisions — which programs and crops get funded, at what pace, and with what expected return — and provide the finance support behind licensing deals and research collaborations. Partnering closely with the strategy, commercial, R&D, and finance teams, you’ll translate messy primary and secondary data into clear recommendations that leadership acts on.
This is a role for someone who built their foundation in a life sciences consulting or investment banking environment—rigorous Excel modeling, primary research design, and PowerPoint storytelling—and is ready to own analytical workstreams end-to-end inside a company shaping the future of food and agriculture.
Essential Functions:
- Own product-level commercial forecasts in Excel end-to-end, from assumption architecture through scenario and sensitivity analysis
- Scope and lead discrete analytical workstreams, managing them to deadline with limited oversight
- Design and execute primary research (interviews, surveys) with growers, buyers, and other market stakeholders to test key hypotheses
- Analyze secondary data sources to size markets, map competitive landscapes, and pressure-test commercial assumptions
- Synthesize quantitative and qualitative findings into clear, actionable insights and recommendations for strategy and commercial teams
- Support licensing deals and research collaborations with deal economics — valuation, milestone and royalty structures, scenario analysis, and diligence support
- Build polished, executive-ready PowerPoint and Excel deliverables that translate complex analysis into a clear narrative for senior leadership and external stakeholders
- Partner cross-functionally with finance, commercial, and R&D stakeholders to ground analysis in operational reality and act as a key connection point in synthesizing information for leadership
- Build and maintain R&D and portfolio-level financial models that support program prioritization, resource allocation, and stage-gate investment decisions
- Produce portfolio reporting and analysis that gives leadership a clear view of program economics, risk-adjusted value, and trade-offs across the pipeline
Required Education & Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in a business, economics, life sciences, or quantitative field
- 3-7 years of experience, ideally beginning in life sciences or AgTech commercial consulting, with subsequent consulting or industry strategy/commercial analytics experience; investment banking or equity research backgrounds with a track record of building product- or revenue-level models will also be considered
- Demonstrated track record building product-level forecasts and financial models in Excel in a consulting environment
- Advanced proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint and comfort working with enterprise AI tools (e.g., Claude)
- Experience analyzing both primary and secondary data to generate business insights and recommendations
- Experience building program-, portfolio-, or deal-level financial models (NPV/rNPV, probability-weighted scenarios, milestone structures) to support investment or prioritization decisions
- Strong written and verbal communication; able to distill complex analysis into a clear recommendation for a senior audience
- Comfortable iterating quickly on feedback and holding work to a high standard without holding it too precious
- Able to work across functions to gather inputs, numbers, and assumptions from multiple teams and reconcile them into a single agreed-upon view
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience in agriculture, ag-tech, or crop/food value chains
- Exposure to pharma/life sciences data sources and market research methodologies
- Exposure to R&D portfolio management or stage-gate prioritization frameworks in a life sciences or ag R&D setting
- Experience supporting licensing, business development, or collaboration transactions
- Comprehensive Benefits Plan, including Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA, 401k, Life Insurance, Short-Term & Long-Term Disability, and more!
- Flexible PTO (use what you need, when you need it), in addition to company holidays.
- Casual work environment.
- Mission-driven organization focused on creating healthier fruits and veggies.
- A cutting-edge, driven community looking to lead the industry in innovation and nutrition.
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit and use hands to finger, handle or feel, and techniques that require fine motor skills and repetitive motions. The employee is occasionally required to stand and walk. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. The employee is regularly required to talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.
EEO Statement:
We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Pairwise we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
