Director - Research Partnership: Engineering Focus

About the Opportunity

Northeastern University’s Roux Institute is designed as an engine of innovation, talent-building, and economic growth for Portland, Maine, and northern New England. Partnerships set our model of graduate education and research apart. In partnership with industry, academia, government, and community organizations, we are creating programs that are preparing the workforce to stay agile and thrive in a competitive landscape powered by artificial intelligence. We are nurturing an environment for high-impact research and innovation in computer and data science, digital engineering, the advanced life sciences and medicine, and other tech fields. And we are helping entrepreneurs launch businesses focused on and powered by technology. Together, we envision an “innovation corridor” that in the coming years will stretch from Boston to Portland and beyond.

Position Description

The Roux Institute is hiring a Director of Research Partnership, to generate new partnerships to drive the ambitious growth plans of our research enterprise. The successful candidate will be enthusiastic about developing partnerships to achieve the mission of the Roux Institute. They will possess the ability to set a vision for each partnership and to see that vision through to contract execution.

This role will join a team that works to fund the institute’s research enterprise to advance the success of our partners, the regional economy, and society. This is accomplished by identifying -corporate, academic, government, philanthropic, and non-profit strategic research partners, developing progressively rich relationships targeted at mutual positive return on investment, and closing collaborative partnership agreements. It is expected that the research will be performed at the Roux Institute in Portland, ME, and/or within the partner company if located in (or relocated to) Maine. This team supports the strategic goals of the world-class researcher directors that lead the research enterprise at the Roux Institute.

This role will specifically focus on building the research enterprise connected to the Director of Engineering Research and University Labs that are expanding their research footprint in Portland, such as the Experiential Robotics Institute, the Network Sciences Institute, and the Wireless Institute of Things Institute, among others. Given the highly interdisciplinary nature of the Roux Institute research efforts in which partnerships are developed will also cut across other research verticals including Life Sciences and Medicine, Human Data Interaction, and the Institute for Experiential AI.

This is a strategic business development role where you will hunt for and build relationships with strategic partners from Maine, New England, nationally and internationally to bridge the gap between higher education and the corporate world and bring research through to translation. This will also include building partnerships with industry to support targeted and comprehensive federal grant opportunities. Your role is to uncover business problems associated with strategic plans of partners and design and co-create solutions with faculty at Northeastern University.

This role combines the dynamic “we will learn as we go” nature of a young organization – our research enterprise is essentially in its third year – with the institutional power and backing of Northeastern University. You will constantly be able to learn and grow your own knowledge and expertise, while delivering results that increase research funding and contribute to the innovation and long-term economic development of Maine and the region.

The overarching responsibilities of this position include:

• Driving revenue for the research enterprise
• Conduct effective marketing, engagement & outreach efforts, driven by Northeastern research strengths and plans.
• Understand the specific research goals of the Roux Institute, faculty, and Partner Organizations, at a level of depth that uncovers new collaboration opportunities.
• Support the development and execution of proposals to and agreements with partners
• Success in this role will be measured by research revenue to the Roux Institute, growth in the percentage of industry funded research, and the quality and longevity of the research partnerships

Qualifications

Essential Experience & Education:

· 10+ years’ experience in business development, consulting, strategic program management or related field

Familiarity working with executives within varying types and sizes of organizations

· Experience and comfort working in a matrixed organization and with people across reporting structures

· Exceptional written and verbal communication skills

· Excep