Director, Research Development Office

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Job Title:

Director, Research Development Office

Department:

ERIK | Research Development Office

The Director, Research Development Office (RDO) reports to the Associate Vice President for Strategic Research Development (AVP). The Director leads a team of Research Development professionals to craft and implement targeted federal agency, funding mechanism, and topical growth strategies aimed at growing and diversifying Ohio State’s federally funded research portfolio.

The Director oversees the development and implementation of programming within the Research Development team’s assigned portfolios and drives networking, outreach, and sponsor relationship management activities. Working closely with the AVP and Research Development team, the Director builds processes and skills for effective support of large-scale, complex proposal development, supports university-wide awareness and capacity-building programming, manages the university’s limited competition system, and spearheads on-going professional development for team members. The Director works with the AVP to guide development of university-level, cross-cutting strategic initiatives based on research data, university infrastructure, competitive analysis, and University priorities and has primary responsibility for implementing these initiatives across portfolio areas. The Director interacts with internal and external consultants and advisors as part of strategy development and implementation activities. The Director regularly interacts with and advises college and center-level research leadership, representing the team on behalf of the AVP, and providing proposal development support for select, large-scale projects, based on available team capacity. The Director identifies opportunities for growth and development within the team and broader division and participates in discussions to inform overall University strategic research vision. The Director leads recruiting and onboarding of new staff and manages all performance management activities for the team, including corrective action and employee labor relations issues, in partnership with ERIK leadership and Human Resources.

Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership to the Research Development team to craft and implement research growth and development initiatives as part of the Associate Vice President for Strategic Research Development's strategic vision.
• Supervise and guide development of Research Development staff.
• Represent Research Development on ERIK and university committees, represent the unit and university on external advisory boards and panels as requested, and perform other duties as assigned by the Associate Vice President for Strategic Research Development.

Required Qualifications:

• Advanced degree.
• 10 years of relevant work experience.  
• Experience working on proposal development with a range of federal research sponsor agencies and programs.
• Demonstrated experience working with multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and/or convergence science teams on large-scale, national leadership level proposals.

Desired Qualifications:

• 15 or more years of relevant work experience, including a minimum of 5 years of supervisory experience with evidence of progressive responsibility, and a minimum of 5 years of experience working in a university research setting or in a position that required significant interaction with university researchers.
• Familiarity with fe