Director of Residency Programs - The Open Accelerator

Red River•Boston, MA

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!

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