Job Description

Job Description:

THIS IS A GRANT - FUNDED POSITION . CONTINUATION OF THIS POSITION IS DEPENDENT UPON CONTINUED GRANT FUNDING . This leadership position, acting in collaboration with and under the advisement of the Innovation Center director, identifies and captures new external stakeholder relationships, maintains and manages external stakeholder relationships, and ensures consistent connectivity with said stakeholders to benefit the quality of the Innovation Center's client-supporting activities. This position also provides holistic high-quality recruitment of clients and the management of strategic advisement and technical services/assistance to client companies, entrepreneurs, and faculty within the Southeast Ohio region. This position serves as the leading major component in providing direct business assistance as part of the team at the internationally recognized Ohio University Innovation Center, a university-affiliated technology business incubator. Among many other accolades, the Innovation Center was named the International Incubator of the Year for its efforts in supporting entrepreneurship and economic development.

1. High-Level Client Vetting & Assessment. From the initial inquiry of a company, through the evaluation of potential clients' applications to become a member of the Innovation Center, and through the full client engagement continuum, this position will engage with, analyze, and diagnose the needs of entrepreneurs and client companies on an on-going basis to achieve a deep understanding of each company's needs. This position also leads the recruitment, assessment, and business services onboarding of new client companies including management of new inquiry communication and guidance of inquiries through the established vetting process. This position assists entrepreneurs in the creation of viable, scalable, and sustainable businesses in the region by advising, directly managing (as needed temporarily to fill gaps in clients' business acumen), and facilitating access to relevant third-party connections – such as attorneys, mentors, consultants, investors, and business associations – all required to move companies through the early phases of the commercialization process.

2. External Stakeholder Engagement. In close collaboration with the Innovation Center director, this position will discover, develop, and maintain deep and consistent relationships with groups and entities, both external and internal to Ohio University, that benefit the Innovation Center's support of early-stage ventures. Such discovery and relationship building will include board representation on relevant partnering organizations; connectivity with Ohio University alumni/external-facing departments and staff to ensure awareness of the Innovation Center and to identify alumni talent that could be leveraged for mutually beneficial engagement with clients; connectivity with professional associations which add value to the Innovation Center's services to its clients; maintaining and building upon the Innovation Center's vast established network of vendors and third-party service providers relationships; maintaining and building upon relationships with peer organizations throughout the State and the tri-state region to the bolster Innovation Center's service to its clients; and building relationships with talent acquisition and lending/investing partners – including public and private entities – to enable the rapid placement of expertise and capital within Innovation Center client companies.

3. Client Executive Coaching. Providing curriculum development and delivery for start-up and early-stage companies on a variety of topics; assessing and assisting with customer validation; evaluating the market potential of early-stage businesses; developing initial business cases for early-stage businesses; assisting in the development of intellectual property strategy; establishing stage of commercialization for businesses and novel technologies; creating business plans, marketing plans, and strategic plans; developing financial strategy and projections; assisting with equity investment and debt funding presentation and generation; developing commercialization strategy and plans; assisting with product development; working with pre-seed, angel, and network funds to ready companies for investment; and, assisting with tracking client success metrics for grant reporting requirements.

4. Administrative Tasks. This position also includes limited Innovation Center administrative duties such as the management of a digital marketing campaign including analytics review and resulting strategy; data management of a third-party service provider roster; and the management of a comprehensive set of digital client toolkits and templates.

The Innovation Center team has intentional overlaps in roles and expertise to ensure a layered ability to serve clients. Although this position will not have any direct reports, it does, as the liaison of client needs, dictate and oversee the client-facing work of the Innovation Center director, assistant director for internal operations, internal operations coordinator, and lab director, as well as several student interns (5-10 per year) which fulfill experiential learning opportunities for client companies.

This position interfaces regularly with university and Innovation Center external partners, including public entities and legislators, investors, private partners, etc. This person in this position needs to have vast experience in interfacing with high-level corporate executives and academics, alike.

This executive-level work requires extreme diplomacy; the ability to engage with legislators and public agencies; the ability to competently and successfully articulate the Innovation Center's work and value both to prospective clients and prospective partners via presentations, network meetings, and organic conversations; and senior-level decision-making and discretion to ensure that the clients' needs are managed appropriately and timely while ensuring no breach of the Innovation Center's contracted service delivery to its clients, nor that of any Ohio University, State of Ohio, or grant funder contracted agreements.

The successful candidate will have an understanding of lean launch methodologies and commercialization stages. The ability to deftly navigate complex, confidential, and nuanced problems and guide others toward solutions is required. The highest level of professionalism and diplomacy to successfully manage hundreds of relationships with clients, staff, and professional colleagues both internal and external to the university is also required. This position must have difficult conversations and make highly impactful decisions that impact external partners and clients of the Innovation Center. The highest level of diplomacy, tact, attention to detail, and discretion are required.

Minimum Qualifications:

An MBA is required or an equivalent advanced degree will be considered. Further, at least 10 years of experience working within or in support of technology or technology-enabled companies is required. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are required. More than 8 years of management experience is also required.

Preferred Qualifications:

At least three years of directly related experience is preferred, either as a founder or C-Level executive, within a technology startup or in an executive coaching role within a technology business incubator.

Planning Unit: Vice President for Research

Department: Innovation Center

Applicants may contact this person if they have questions about this position: Stacy Strauss

Employment Type: full-time regular

Advertised Salary:

Budgeted salary range is $68,299 to $92,205 and is commensurate with candidate's experience and qualifications. The full salary range is $68,299 – $117,127. Employees also enjoy a generous benefits package including, but not limited to, medical, dental, vision, short term disability, life insurance, retirement benefits, educational benefits for themselves and qualified dependents, domestic partner benefits, parental leave, adoption benefits, paid time off, and access to professional development programs. More detailed plan information can be found at:

About Ohio University

Ohio University is home to one of the nation’s friendliest and most picturesque campuses. But more importantly, it’s where you can become part of a two-century tradition of excellence and embark upon a rewarding career that will make a real difference. From teaching and research to admissions, facilities maintenance, and residence life, our faculty and staff propel Ohio University’s mission of helping students become their best selves. OHIO offers competitive compensation and outstanding benefits. For a complete list of employment opportunities, please visit University is an equal access/equal opportunity affirmative action institution. For more information about Ohio University’s policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment, visit

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Job Tags

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