Associate Director of Program Operations

University of Washington•Seattle, WA

9h•$102,000 - $112,800

About The Position

For the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, this associate director (AD) will provide leadership, strategic planning, organization-building, and project management to ensure the successful planning, execution, and growth of three key program areas relating to life sciences and tech commercialization. First is the Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge (HIC), completing its 11th year. This challenge is a competition open to undergraduate and graduate students from UW and colleges and universities throughout the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, and engages the Seattle health innovation community as mentors, judges, and sponsors. The AD also develops and presents the Digital Health Innovation Workshop annually in fall quarter to support interdisciplinary, early ideation around this topic. The second key program is the ITHS/WRF Summer Commercialization Fellowship. UW graduate students working toward their MBA, master’s degree, or PhD are recruited to work on business assessments for promising technologies out of the research labs. The AD serves as both the Instructional and Operational Lead for this program. Third, this position oversees all aspects of the graduate Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate, MBA Entrepreneurship certificate, and is the point of contact for students in relevant student clubs within Foster (Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club, Venture Fellows, Foster MBA BizDev Consultants) and across UW (Science and Engineering Business Association, Nucleate). This includes managing relationships, programming, and advising for graduate students interested in entrepreneurship and the Buerk Center’s Fellowship programs. This position requires regular communication—and in many cases, the initial outreach—to key faculty members, deans, department chairs, and advisers in schools/colleges across the UW campus, specifically bioengineering, health sciences, global health, public policy, engineering, and others. Collaboration with UW CoMotion (technology licensing office) is also necessary on IP issues related to student startups and promoting supportive programming for nascent entrepreneurs. This work is essential to develop relationships to maintain awareness for the HIC as well as the ITHS/WRF Fellowship program within UW. The AD must also maintain extensive interaction and visibility within Washington's health innovation and entrepreneurial communities for recruiting judges and mentors as well as potential sponsors for the above programs. Entrepreneurship and innovation is a priority at the University of Washington, and the Buerk Center's mission is to integrate entrepreneurship into the fabric of the UW--and invest in those students who want to shape the future. A strong entrepreneurship center has three components: a broad curriculum in entrepreneurship and venture investing; numerous activities and competitions that get students off campus and out into the entrepreneurial community to gain real world experience; and a strong network of startup entrepreneurs, investors, industry experts, etc. to work with those students. We promote and develop an entrepreneurial environment that leads to the creation of startup companies. These companies raise funding, hire well-paid employees, and contribute to the state's economic development. Working with students lays the groundwork for future entrepreneurial endeavors who are likely to credit the UW with their successes.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in life sciences, engineering, business, or liberal arts, and five or more years of relevant experience in entrepreneurship center, entrepreneurial setting, or fundraising office.
Must have significant experience in event planning and budget coordination.
Affinity for working with students.
Exceptional communication skills, and the desire to work in an environment of self-starters.
Must be able to demonstrate ability to develop and maintain relationships with business and community health leaders, and the skills to independently plan, develop, manage, and grow high-quality programs.
Proficiency in MS Outlook, Word, Excel, and the aptitude to learn competition software programs.

Nice To Haves

Candidates with PhD in the health arena (domestic or global), biotech, or life sciences strongly preferred.
Candidates with experience in the health arena (domestic or global), biotech, life sciences, and/or technology commercialization strongly preferred.
Experience with fund-raising and donor cultivation.

Responsibilities

HEALTH INNOVATION CHALLENGE (55%) Planning and Execution: Manage an annual budget (approximately $300k), set fund-raising targets with Buerk director, and manage to expectations. Develop Challenge guidelines, objectives, work breakdown and timeline, eligibility criteria for student teams, and judging criteria for each stage of the event. Work with the center director to identify prospective sponsors and prepare sponsorship benefits materials. Identify potential granting organizations that would be appropriate for the HIC, and apply for funding when appropriate. Develop and maintain contact lists of potential judges and mentors, confirm judges for each round of the event, maintain communication with judges and sponsors. Network with the Northwest's health innovation community to determine trends, engage industry and government leaders, and promote the UW HIC to a broad audience. Manage the HIC web site and update content. Work with Buerk Center's marketing students and the Foster School’s Marcomm team to develop new content as needed, update sponsor logos, dates, and deliverables for the event. Work with class instructor to organize speakers for Health Innovation Practicum course in fall quarter. Engage high-level industry experts from around the Northwest to participate in class project reviews. Identify coaches, mentors, and advisors for student teams, matching technology or commercialization needs with industry expertise. Organize workshops, mentor “Office Hours,” and other events to prepare student teams for the Challenge. Oversee the student prototype funding process when it returns from hiatus, from applications to individual project budgets and final accounting from the student teams after the event.
HIC-Related Event Management: In conjunction with student staff and the Foster Fiscal team, oversee logistics for the final event, including room reservations, contracts, catering, equipment/supplies, student travel, prototype funding and prize payments to students. Manage the competition software and judging platforms in conjunction with the Dempsey Startup competition manager. In conjunction with the Foster School Marcomm team, oversee production of promotional materials, event invitations and programs, event visuals, sponsor materials, banners and posters, and PowerPoint presentations; identify and develop story ideas and marketing plans for the event with Buerk Center marketing students. Write regular, detailed emails to event participants, with information on deadlines and deliverables, logistics, and participation rules. Maintain excellent and detailed project records. Track student involvement year over year. Evaluate and implement program improvements. Train student assistants for event duties.
HIC-Related Outreach: Develop and implement a plan to create strong connections with the UW School of Medicine and other health-focused programs, departments, and schools across the UW campus. Develop and implement a plan to create strong connections with health-focused programs, departments, and schools at other HIC-eligible universities in the Pacific Northwest. Serve on UW health-focused boards and committees to provide expertise around cross-collaborative opportunities for health/bio/life science students through entrepreneurship that elevates their credibility, and that of the Buerk Center, within the life sciences community.
ITHS/WRF SUMMER FELLOWS COMMERCIALIZATION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM MANAGEMENT: (25%) Recruit core fellowship management team and advisors. Coordinate and lead planning meetings. Cultivate new Program Mentors who have the capability of supporting Fellows with knowledge of product development, entrepreneurship, qualifying for funding, developing intellectual property, meeting FDA requirements, and other areas of expertise. Work closely with counterpart in Population Health Initiative to develop annual summer program for both Fellowship cohorts (Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship in Pop Health; Buerk Center’s Commercialization Fellows). Serve as both faculty advisor and program manager for the program. Duties as program manager include coordinating and scheduling of the summer program, recruiting projects and students, and managing the application process with the Review Committee Duties as faculty advisor include direct instruction, guest speaker recruitment, and student advising and mentoring. Work with technology management departments at UW CoMotion, Seattle Children’s, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to funnel promising projects into the program. Contact individual managers, program leads, and key faculty to source potential projects. Vet projects with core management team to determine core projects to feature each year. Recruit students to the fellowship positions: Target business-trained or experienced MBA or other graduate students. Make in-person announcements, host informational sessions, and email notifications to clubs and key departmental contacts. Work with management team to find qualified students. Organize interview process and selection of fellows. Summer Fellow Curriculum: Assess, update, and create curriculum as needed. Assess projects and students each year to customize guest speakers for program. Teach tech commercialization units as needed (e.g., customer discovery, research best practices, etc.) Review and update timeline and due dates for deliverables. Schedule and lead regular check-in meetings with Fellows. Provide feedback and mentorship to Fellows to encourage productive progress, including facilitating connections to key contacts within the community for customer discovery. Event Management: Develop series of key presentations for the program, inviting relevant participants.
GRADUATE PROGRAMS: (15%) Serve as supplemental adviser to students in the Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate and MBA Entrepreneurship Certificate programs. Serve as faculty advisor to graduate students seeking Independent Study opportunities with UW researchers that focus on technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, and/or market research. Serve on the admission committee for the Angel Investing (ENTRE 579) class as well as on doctoral thesis committees as requested by entre-focused graduate students. Manage all aspects of the graduate-level Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate (TEC) program. Analyze efficiency of TEC program (opportunities, available classes, and quality of students), and propose updates and changes to Foster School’s Associate Dean for MBA and Foster Dean as necessary. Manage campus-wide graduate recruitment and admissions to the program. Manage all aspects of the certificate program including the oversight of student databases, evaluation of application, admission and registration processes, class registration, student completion and issuance of certificates. Primary liaison between non-business graduate students and the Foster School for admissions and registration issues. Advise current and prospective students on graduate-level ENTRE course offerings and requirements. - Represent the Buerk Center at various graduate student events as requested by graduate student groups. Hold regular info sessions to attract entrepreneurial graduate students to the center. Communicate the Buerk Center's outreach activities to students and departments on campus. Serve as liaison to the EVCC and SEBA graduate student clubs, including developing a relationship with each club's leadership team and organizing an annual lunch for club leadership teams to meet one another. Update the Buerk Center's website and print materials with current graduate curriculum information and create new content as needed.
OTHER DUTIES AS ASSIGNED: (5%) Planning and execution for major competition (Health Innovation Challenge) and summer fellowship program (ITHS/WRF Summer Commercialization Fellowship) budget management, marketing to faculty and students across the region, identifying sponsors, coaches and judges, event management. Responsible for graduate-level entrepreneurial-related programs, including certificate programs and fellowships for non-business majors.