Director of Residency Programs - The Open Accelerator

Red Hat • Boston, MA

15d

About The Position

Red Hat is hiring a Director of Residency Programs to be the primary architect and orchestrator of the startup experience within The Open Accelerator. The Open Accelerator is a Massachusetts AI Hub, Red Hat, and IBM initiative dedicated to supporting and nurturing Massachusetts AI startups to rapidly bring innovation to enterprise-ready deployment. Our impact is delivered through two distinct yet synergistic spheres: a broad outbound community activation strategy and a high-touch, selective residency program. While our outbound work focuses on catalyzing the entire Massachusetts innovation landscape, our residency provides a chosen cohort of ventures with intensive mentorship, technical architectural guidance, and strategic funding to accelerate their path to enterprise-readiness. As Director of Residency Programs, you will be responsible for the end-to-end lifecycle of the residency curriculum—from initial architectural design, to on-the-ground implementation and constant iterative improvement. This role ensures that the residency remains a world-class environment where the most promising Massachusetts AI startups receive the clarity, structure, and mentoring needed to emerge as enterprise-ready game changers. You will own the standard of excellence for the program, ensuring every cohort session is refined based on real-world feedback and the evolving needs of the AI community. This is a dual-natured role that requires significant professional gravitas: part Curriculum Designer, where you synthesize expert knowledge into actionable learning paths, and part Program Director, where you lead the cohort on-site and ensure every interaction delivers measurable value. Success in this role depends on your ability to actively engage with a vast network of internal stakeholders across Red Hat and IBM, as well as external collaborators in the innovation community, to solicit feedback on curriculum design and secure high-level support for execution. You will serve as a high-stakes bridge, translating the technical depth of Red Hat/IBM and the strategic insights of the broader community into direct mentorship and support that meets the immediate needs of resident startups. The quality of the cohort experience is a primary driver of The Open Accelerator’s credibility. The Director must ensure a transformative and seamless journey for every founder, as the caliber of this experience directly reflects the prestige and commitment of Red Hat, IBM, and the Massachusetts AI Hub. Delivering a world-class residency environment is a strategic imperative; the experience must be deeply authentic to the mission of The Open Accelerator, serving as a distinct and recognizable standard for how we accelerate AI innovation.

Requirements

• Experience: 10+ years of experience in technical program leadership, with a track record of working with software companies across various lifecycle stages.
• Operational Excellence: Demonstrated ability to manage complex, multi-stakeholder programs with high attention to detail and on-site logistical requirements.
• AI Fluency & Technical Literacy: High proficiency in Generative AI tools and a strong foundational understanding of AI/ML trends to credibly guide technical founders.
• Collaborative Leadership: Ability to command the respect of C-suite executives, high-level engineers, and first-time founders alike.
• Communication: Exceptional presentation and facilitation skills; comfort "hosting" the room and leading interactive group sessions.
• Mindset: Deeply empathetic toward the founder journey, highly organized, and thrive in an "all-hands-on-deck" environment.

Responsibilities

• Curriculum Architecture & Strategy Design the Roadmap: Define and maintain the comprehensive Residency curriculum, focusing on product-market fit for enterprise AI, technical scaling, security/compliance, and go-to-market strategies.
• Continuous Evolution: Iteratively update the curriculum based on cohort feedback and the rapidly shifting AI landscape (e.g., LLM operations, data privacy, and ethical AI).
• Milestone Definition: Establish a clear structure and provide the technical and business clarity required for startups to navigate the program and soar toward enterprise-ready deployment.
• Orchestrate Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): Identify and recruit internal technical leaders from Red Hat and IBM, as well as external industry veterans, to lead workshops and deep-dive sessions.
• Collaborative Design: Work with external innovation partners (VCs, academic leaders, and successful founders) to ensure the curriculum remains grounded in real-world startup challenges.
• Briefing & Alignment: Ensure all guest speakers and mentors are properly briefed on the specific needs of the current cohort to maximize the relevance of their sessions.
• Physical Presence: Lead the day-to-state operations at the residency site during active cohort cycles, serving as the primary point of contact for founders.
• Event Management: Plan and execute all residency-specific programming, ranging from recurring cohort huddles and check-ins to structured mentoring and technical architectural reviews, speaker series, and pitch rehearsals.
• Mentorship Matching: Facilitate the high-touch matching process between resident founders and mentors, ensuring a consistent cadence of meaningful 1:1 interaction.
• Cohort Culture & Alumni Community: Foster a collaborative, high-performance community within the residency space where founders serve as a support system for one another. You will extend this impact by building and maintaining a vibrant alumni network, ensuring the community remains a source of value for founders long after the residency concludes.
• Internal Alignment: Coordinate closely with The Open Accelerator team to ensure that sourcing efforts are aligned with the curriculum's strengths.
• Investor Relations: Work with the investor network to prepare startups for Demo Day and private matching sessions, ensuring they can articulate their "enterprise-ready" value proposition.
• Enterprise Customer community : Connect founders and enterprise customers to share insights regarding enterprise needs and requirements as well as give founders a platform to early engage with potential deployment partners.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible Spending Account - healthcare and dependent care
• Health Savings Account - high deductible medical plan
• Retirement 401(k) with employer match
• Paid time off and holidays
• Paid parental leave plans for all new parents
• Leave benefits including disability, paid family medical leave, and paid military leave
• Additional benefits including employee stock purchase plan, family planning reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, transportation expense account, employee assistance program, and more!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed