Senior Program Officer

About The Role:

VentureWell is growing, and has an exciting opportunity to hire a new Senior Program Officer (SPO) to work with existing and new programs. If you are someone with at least seven years of highly related experience, including project management, relationship building, and networking in communities of entrepreneurs, this may be a great role for you. Candidates must bring domain experience in fields related to VentureWell program areas, such as: climate tech, blue economy, climate resilience, energy, entrepreneurship, startup acceleration or incubation, or in a startup. We also seek staff who bring experience (work or lived) with groups identifying as marginalized by racism, sexism, or classism.

SPO: The ideal candidate for this role has experience running programs for early-stage entrepreneurs and has lived experience as an innovator, entrepreneur, or early-stage investor. The person in this role will take a programmatic leadership position in our suite of accelerator programs serving student and first-time founders. This person joins our Ventures Program team with a high proportion of time spent on our climate tech and other related accelerator programs, with about 35% travel as global public health guidelines allow.   

Responsibilities:

Entrepreneurship Program Management and Delivery (45% of time)

• Oversee the planning, development, and execution of VentureWell’s climatetech accelerator programs.
• Leverage subject matter expertise in innovation and entrepreneurship to help early-stage entrepreneurs grow their ventures and become investment- and partner-ready.
• Lead internal team on recruitment, review, and selection of entrepreneurs and serve as primary point of contact for program participants through the program offerings.
• Effectively participate in internal collaboration and communication to ensure program success through use of project management tools and practices including project kick-off and ongoing project management.
• Work across programs to align training and opportunities with the organization’s venture pipeline development strategy and provide support to other programs as needed.
• Source and manage instructors, mentors, partners, and consultants assigned to the program.
• Provide guidance to cross-organizational colleagues partnering on programs to collaborate for excellent program delivery and tracking.
• Work closely with the Data Intelligence team to ensure relevant assessment metrics are used for evaluating workshops and documenting learning, knowledge, and impact.
• Set and oversee program budgets and delivery programs within budget constraints. Manage activities, contracts, and sub-contracts to ensure compliance with award deliverables, rules and obligations.
• Support ecosystem strengthening and value-added activities that further goals related to developing ventures, such as making connections and referrals and sourcing new relationships that could be valuable to our community.
• Ensure logistics required for successful program implementation including materials, vendors, and contractors, are planned and executed in a manner that delivers excellence and compliance with budget and finance policies.
• Ensure seamless meeting setup on-the-fly during an event, whether in person or virtual, and providing on-the-ground support of activities and events during in-person program execution
• Lead documentation and tracking efforts for supporting ventures and innovators post-program, including fundraising needs and connections required. 

Relationship Management (25% of time)

• Act as a connector among program stakeholders including innovators, entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors related to resources, capital, connections, and ecosystem support and maintain a database of stakeholders and documentation.
• Develop lasting relationships with the entrepreneurs from the VentureWell programs, connect them to resources, help them navigate venture development, and keep tabs on their success. 
• Develop and cultivate relationships to support organizational venture development goals, including maintaining a network of high-quality and aligned mentors and instructors for the ESI Portfolio.
• Translate high-level proposals and awards into tangible and practical workplans.
• Seek new funding opportunities and develop new programming for VentureWell and contribute leadership to global strategy development, working closely with the Growth Strategy and Development Team and Program staff. 
• Play a leadership role in the fundraising, branding, promotion, and marketing of programs as well as the reporting of program outcomes. Prepare and synthesize written material for proposals and reports to funders.
• Develop and culti