First Head of Data hire in a heavily regulated sector

Therapanacea

Founded in 2018, Therapanacea is a deeptech specialized in applying artificial intelligence to medical imaging. In 2021, the company experienced strong growth and doubled its team size, with people split across France, Greece, and the United States.

🧠 The Context

Within the Data team, three data scientists were already in place, in charge of collecting data and feeding the machine learning models. To take this team further, Therapanacea decided to hire its very first Head of Data.

📌 The Need

A hybrid profile, with a rare dual skill set:

• Strategic vision and the ability to structure a Data team, with a business-driven approach: knowing how to leverage data as a value-creation lever for the company, particularly around financial stakes.
• A solid technical foundation (machine learning, modeling) paired with a commercial posture, capable of building partnerships and representing the company externally.

A key role, in an ultra-competitive sector, with a broad scope.

🚀 How the search unfolded

We had to dig deep to truly understand the expectations behind the role — across technical, business, and human dimensions — while reaching out to many candidates who, on paper, looked like a fit.

But once in qualification, it quickly became clear that few really had the dual skill set we were looking for.

Many candidates were either very technical or product-oriented, but lacked the business vision required for this strategic role.

By the numbers:

• 3 candidates presented
• 2 shortlisted
• 1 hire

The selected candidate was submitted on October 12, 2023, met on October 16, the offer was made on November 20, and accepted on November 7.

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