Head of Venture Acceleration, Program Manager

Rice University

11d•Onsite

About The Position

The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Lilie) is seeking a Program Manager to lead our Research Commercialization and Venture Acceleration programs. This is a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation and help Rice entrepreneurs bring their cutting-edge ideas to market. In this role, you will be responsible for identifying promising people, research, and companies from across the Rice University ecosystem, and building the immersive, experiential programs to catalyze their next great startup. You will work closely with student and faculty startup founders to help them accelerate their growth, secure funding, and achieve their goals while acting as connective tissue to the broader Texas and US startup ecosystems. In practice, this means you will facilitate mentorship and networking opportunities, you will develop and lead co-curricular and accelerator programs, and you will manage relationships with partners, sponsors, and key stakeholders to ensure that Lilie’s research commercialization and venture acceleration efforts are a success. Lilie is a small, ambitious team that works collaboratively to achieve amazing results, employing an iterative creation process where we share our work early and often. Lilie is the beating heart of entrepreneurship, innovation, venture capital, and research commercialization for the whole Rice University campus. Our Center combines over 50 for-credit, experiential courses every year with a suite of programs, resources, competitions, and accelerators to help entrepreneurs and innovators at every stage of their journey. Our mission is to serve Rice University students, faculty, and alumni from all majors and degree programs in helping them go from idea to real-world impact. We’ve been ranked as the #1 Graduate Entrepreneurship program in the country for the last 6 years in a row, but need your help to aim even higher in the future.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree
Four or more (4+) years of entrepreneurship, program management and/or start-up experience
Ability to develop complex and/or multiple program partnerships and funding sources
Ability to develop and initiate new strategies
Ability to work well under pressure and manage projects simultaneously
Ability to work independently and as part of a team to meet expected deadlines, schedules, and goals
Adept at problem solving, creating contingency plans and handling issues when necessary
Excellent organizational and time management skills
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Excellent client service orientation
Ability to prioritize, take initiative, and ownership of projects
Ability to routinely and independently exercise sound judgment in making decisions

Nice To Haves

Five or more (5+) years of entrepreneurship, program management experience
A master's degree or Ph.D. in a business, science, or engineering-related field is preferred.
Experience in research commercialization and related research commercialization funding mechanisms (venture capital, federal grants, etc.)
Experience with startups and startup accelerator programs
Experience engaging within and across a startup ecosystem
Shares work early and often, valuing a process of iterative feedback to produce exceptional results

Responsibilities

Leads the development and implementation of major program(s)
Collaborates with faculty and / or staff leadership to design programs and establish long range strategic and operational plans
Identifies promising research and technology from across the Rice University ecosystem
Oversees the operations, administration and evaluation of programs
Identifies and implements program changes to ensure alignment with mission and program effectiveness
Develops and implements strategies related to outreach, events, communications, development, partnerships and fundraising / funding
Devises and manages financial and budgetary plans for the program(s), approves and monitors expenditures
May teach a course, seminar or workshop
Performs all other duties that assigned
Responsible for tracking and reporting on all program metrics and impact.
Close collaboration with department heads, directors of research institutes and others to identify promising PhD and Post-Doc students at the Rice Schools of Engineering and the Natural Sciences
You may support other Lilie programming and courses as the need arises