• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35 hrs/wk
• Salary Range: Commensurate with Experience 

Position Summary

The Deputy Director of Industry Relations is a full-time position, reporting directly to the Director of Industry Relations. The Deputy Directors will be senior members of the Industry Relations Group (IRG) initiative at Columbia, a newly established team focused on developing significant, lasting, and often multi-disciplinary collaborative partnerships on the cutting edge of university innovation and scholarship.

As part of the IRG team, each of the Deputy Directors will manage a portfolio of individual Schools (or Centers) at Columbia as internal clients for IRG initiatives.

 The Deputy Directors??? responsibilities may include:

•  Serve as the primary liaison to Deans and other leadership at their internal client(s)
• Alongside the Director, act as concierge to the key industry accounts that partner with their internal client(s)
• Advise their internal client(s)??? faculty and administrative leadership and assist them in developing a School-wide industry relations strategy (e.g. develop protocols for industry engagement and partnerships, codify standards for non-traditional agreements, provide educational services for faculty pursuit of industry sponsorship of research)
• Create connections and partnership opportunities between their internal client(s) and the other Schools and Centers, in pursuit of strategic university-wide industry relationships
• Stay abreast of industry trends and developments as relevant to the subject matter area(s) they cover
• Integrate information about the internal client(s)??? strategy and tactics into the broader IRG information set and strategy
• Other responsibilities as required by the Director

As a whole, the IRG is tasked with launching and leading Columbia???s centrally-based university-wide industry relations efforts, in support of and in collaboration with the existing industry relations teams and initiatives at the Schools and Centers.

Responsibilities

Example IRG initiatives may include:

• Streamline industry-university connections; serve as concierge for high-priority industry agreements
• Identify opportunities for internal collaboration in pursuit of major industry partnerships and coordinate the joint strategy
• Brief and assist Columbia leadership (Deans, Center Directors, and Department Chairs) on critical meetings with senior industry executives, and in many cases serve as Columbia???s representative for those discussions
• Create and maintain strategic partnerships and high-level contacts with internal and external stakeholders
• Develop infrastructure, processes, reports, presentations and other materials to support a newly centralized function
• Partner with subject matter experts and stakeholders in the creation of industry affiliate programs around specific research areas
• Increase utilization of Columbia???s core facilities by industry
• Create and host high profile events, panels, and advisory councils of interest to industry
• Other initiatives TBD

Oversight and Support:

The Deputy Directors will report directly to the Director of Industry Relations, who reports to the Executive Steering Committee for Industry Relations (including the Provost and Deans of the various Schools and Centers) as well as the Executive Director of Columbia Technology Ventures. 

The Deputy Director of Industry Relations ideally will have relevant subject-matter experience in at least one of the scientific or applied disciplines represented at Columbia (such as biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, data science, insurance, software, materials science, public health, etc.), whether via an industry background, academic background, or otherwise.

The Industry Relations team will work closely with many departments and schools across Columbia, and will be housed within Columbia Technology Ventures (CTV). CTV is the technology transfer office for Columbia University and a central location for many of the technology development initiatives, entrepreneurial activities, external industry collaborations, and commercially-oriented multidisciplinary technology innovations across the university.  CTV???s core mission is to facilitate the transfer of inventions from academic research labs to the market for the benefit of society on a local, national, and global basis. Each year, CTV manages more than 350 invention disclosures, 100 license deals, and 20 new IP-backed start-ups, involving over 750 inventors across Columbia's campuses. CTV currently has over 1200 patent assets available for licensing, across research fields such as bio, IT, clean tech, devices, big data, nanotechnology, materials science, and more. CTV will provide many supporting resources to ensure the Industry Relations team is as successful as possible.

The Industry Relations team is also supported by an advisory council of 4 ??? 7 senior executives from industry, to help achieve IRG???s objectives. The team will also have support from many resources at CTV, including the Business Development team, the Lab-to-Market Accelerator Network, CTV Marketing, and our Executive Assistants.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor???s degree required.
• Five years of relevant experience required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience or education in a relevant discipline (e.g., life sciences, public health, engineering) strongly preferred.
• Experience working with or on behalf of an industry organization in a relevant role (research sponsorship, partnership management, etc.) strongly preferred; comparable experience from another perspective (e.g., government, non-profit research organization) will also be favorably considered.

Strong candidates will be able to:

• Build relationships of trust with senior university and industry executives.
• Independently and proactively manage both internal (academic) and external (industry) clients.
• Communicate efficiently with a diverse set of stakeholders and manage their needs effectively.
• Understand and appreciate the different cultures and priorities of academic institutions, investors, and industry.
• Multi-task effectively and efficiently and track projects over time at varying degrees of detail.
• Work in a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Adapt to evolving priorities as necessary to serve internal client needs. 

Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

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