Academic Program Manager

University of California, San Francisco•San Francisco, CA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

This role involves managing a significant, independent academic or research program, formulating program strategies and goals, and directing the program budget and related resources. The position requires independent management and technical direction for a complex, high-visibility academic or research program. The Director will develop long-term vision, goals, policies, and procedures, manage ongoing operations, and oversee a substantial operational budget. Responsibilities include recruiting industry leaders for partnerships, developing a membership program for industry partners, and overseeing all strategic elements of program administration through subordinate Academic Program Management Officers. The role utilizes highly specialized expertise in research or academic concepts and objectives. Reporting to the QBI Director, the Director, QBI-Oncology and Development Strategy establishes, directs, and sustains QBI's oncology research and partnership enterprise. This involves setting strategy, methods, and resources for institutional objectives, formulating program policy, priorities, and operating standards for the oncology portfolio. Key accountabilities include strategic direction, financial sustainability, personnel management, and external partnerships. The Director will secure multi-year funding from various sources, negotiate industry-sponsored research agreements and collaborations, and recruit, supervise, and develop scientific and program staff. The role also involves managing the program budget and allocating resources across a multi-project portfolio. The Director acts as QBI’s principal representative and senior relationship leader with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, foundation, governmental, and commercial entities in oncology. This involves evaluating opportunities, setting partnership priorities, and making recommendations on portfolio direction and resource allocation, exercising significant judgment in scientific strategy, financial investment, institutional priorities, and external relationships. The Director advises QBI executive leadership on oncology portfolio strategy, investment, and growth, and represents QBI in strategic partnership discussions with significant financial, scientific, and reputational considerations. The ultimate goal is to build a durable, high-impact oncology enterprise that advances QBI’s scientific mission, expands external partnerships and funding, and creates opportunities for translational research and development.

Requirements

Expertise in proteomics, network biology, or related quantitative approaches to therapeutic discovery.
Demonstrated experience directing research programs and establishing scientific and strategic direction independently.
Demonstrated experience in commercial or investment assessment of biomedical assets, including scientific diligence, competitive landscape analysis, and evaluation of therapeutic programs for partnership or investment potential.
Demonstrated experience managing relationships with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or investment organizations at the executive level.
Demonstrated success securing research funding from competitive philanthropic, federal, or industry sources.
Experience supervising staff and managing program budgets.
Advanced knowledge of oncology therapeutic development, including target discovery, translational research, and the drug development pathway.
Advanced negotiation, consensus-building, and executive communication skills, including ability to represent complex science to commercial and philanthropic audiences.
Minimum of six years related experience.
Minimum of five years project lead, supervisory, or management experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience negotiating industry research agreements or licensing transactions; familiarity with technology transfer and company formation.
Demonstrated success establishing a research program, function, or organization from inception.

Responsibilities

Manages the design and development of major research or academic program components and oversees execution of funded programs.
Identifies and develops continuance of funding from multiple external sources.
Establishes QBI-Oncology as a program; directs its scientific strategy, operational execution, and long-term sustainability.
Formulates program policy, portfolio priorities, and evaluation standards; determines which projects advance, continue, or conclude.
Defines priority areas for oncology research and translation, including cancer signaling, systems biology, protein interaction networks, therapeutic resistance, and precision oncology.
Originates new research directions and scientific programs within the oncology portfolio, developing the scientific hypotheses and translational rationale that define them.
Directs the scientific execution of the research portfolio, setting experimental and analytical strategy and reviewing scientific output across projects.
Chairs the QBI-Oncology steering committee; reports portfolio performance to QBI executive leadership quarterly.
Holds accountability for program milestone delivery; resolves scientific, operational, and partnership barriers to execution.
Advises the QBI Director and executive team on resource allocation, and institutional partnership strategy.
Cultivates relationships across UCSF departments and institutes, the UC system, and the Bay Area technology and entrepreneurial ecosystem to advance QBI-Oncology's scientific and commercial objectives.
Develops and executes strategic plan for financing program activities and ensuring ongoing sustainability of program.
Manages team to direct the program's development strategy and holds primary accountability for growing its funding base at multi-million-dollar scale.
Cultivates and stewards relationships with philanthropic funders and foundation principals; develops and submits major proposals.
Originates and negotiates industry-sponsored research agreements and multi-year collaborations, in coordination with UCSF Innovation Ventures and the Office of Technology Management, and advances them through applicable University approval and execution processes.
Serves as scientific and business lead on oncology industry partnerships, including agreement scoping, milestone definition, budget negotiation, and partner management.
Ensures through subordinates that the technical scope, cost structure, and reporting obligations of all program agreements are maintained; serves as the program lead for translating agreement requirements into program strategy.
Assesses program resource needs and funding gaps, and advises the QBI Director on investment priorities and long-term financial planning to support program strategy and sustainability.
Ensures through subordinates varied and competing requirements associated with managing an innovative program in a university and / or government environment.
Recruits, hires, supervises, and develops 2–4 scientific and program staff; determines staffing strategy and conducts performance management.
Directs the research of program scientists, setting project priorities, reviewing data and interpretation, and determining scientific next steps.
Directs cross-functional teams spanning faculty investigators, research staff, computational biologists, proteomics scientists, clinicians, grants administrators, development officers, and innovation staff.
Advises the QBI Director on program budget planning and resource needs, providing recommendations regarding the allocation of resources across projects, core facility utilization, personnel, and external advisory and vendor relationships.
Directs cross-functional teams spanning faculty investigators, research staff, computational biologists, clinicians, grants administrators, and innovation staff.
Provides leadership oversight of staff interfaces with contract research organizations, academic partners, and federal and philanthropic agencies.
Establishes program operating infrastructure and an external advisory board of 3–5 senior scientific and industry advisors.
Plans, directs and controls program budget(s) and manages financial, HR, technical and other supporting resources.
Directs the program's assessment function, evaluating research assets for translational and commercial potential against the external oncology landscape.
Determines go/no-go criteria and directs strategy on target selection, indication prioritization, and resistance biology.
Develops and recommends intellectual property strategy for program-derived assets in coordination with the Office of Technology Management, including disclosure review and licensing assessment.
Advances assets toward commercialization pathways, including licensing and company formation, with UCSF Innovation Ventures and other entities.
Directs scientific communications and external positioning that establish QBI-Oncology's institutional visibility with academic, industry, and philanthropic audiences.