Director of Innovation Services - KUCTC

Supports all of KU including the KU Medical Center in Kansas City. The KU Center for Technology Commercialization (KUCTC) seeks to manage discoveries and innovations arising from KU research so that they may have greater impact, benefit the public, and promote economic development. Reporting to the Executive Director of KUCTC, this role is a senior member of KUCTC working alongside the KUCTC licensing team and in collaboration with other KU units to grow the innovation and commercialization pipelines resulting from research for KU.

Responsibilities

• Innovation Scouting – Works with academic and clinical researchers to raise Intellectual Property (IP) awareness, foster innovation, and identify discoveries, inventions, and other innovations with commercial potential for disclosure to KUCTC. Develops and executes outreach strategies to increase engagement with KUCTC and disclosure of new inventions across KU campuses and disciplines.
• Training/Education – Leads collaboration with other KU innovation ecosystem partners (e.g., School of Business, Research Administration, Office of Economic Development, KU Innovation Park) to create and deliver formalized IP, technology transfer, and entrepreneurial training programs to university research communities.
• Pipeline Building – Cultivates a pipeline of prospective projects for internal KU innovation and commercialization programming as well as specific external opportunities.
• Gap Fund – Assists in seeking resources to support the creation of a “gap” or other early innovation funds at KU to support pre-license validation, POC, prototyping, or technology maturation efforts. Leads KUCTC efforts to engage with external opportunities for gap funding.
• Collaboration & Connections – Works collaboratively with KUCTC’s licensing team, KU Innovation Park partners, university I-Corp team, and others within the KU innovation ecosystem to achieve impact from technology transfer, commercialization, and new venture creation activities.
• Track – Serves as a consistent resource and point of contact within the University for KU startup companies. Maintains metrics regarding KU startups (e.g., investments, follow-on funding, employment numbers, location). In collaboration with KU Innovation Park, works to connect KU startups to partners and resources to aid their growth and development.
• Consultation & Navigation – Serves as an early point of contact for researchers, providing guidance and assistance as they explore technology transfer, commercialization, entrepreneurship, and new venture creation. Acts as a valued resource for researchers regarding University policies and practices related to new venture creation. Serves as a connector to supporting resources within and external to KU.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study.
• Work Experience: Four (4) years of experience in a position that required knowledge of technology transfer, intellectual property, university research environments, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems, startup formation, SBIR/STTR funding, innovation programming, research administration, and higher education organizational structures. Education may be substituted for experience on a year-for-year basis.

Qualifications

• Preferred Work Experience:
  • Prior experience working in higher ed or university research.
  • Prior experience in licensing IP, technology transfer, or new venture creation.
  • Prior experience delivering workshops, presenting commercialization concepts, developing outreach materials, building collaborative relationships.
• Skills:
  • Communication
  • Presentations
  • Customer service
  • Innovation
  • Intellectual Property
  • Technology transfer
  • Collaboration

Benefits

• Coverage begins on day one for health, dental, and vision insurance, including health expense accounts with generous employer contributions if the employee participates in a qualifying health plan.
• Employer-paid life insurance and long-term disability insurance.
• Various additional voluntary insurance plans available.
• Paid time off, including vacation and sick leave, begins accruing upon hire, plus ten paid holidays.
• One paid discretionary day after six months of employment.
• Paid time off for bereavement, jury duty, military service, and parental leave after 12 months of employment.
• Retirement program with a generous employer contribution and additional voluntary retirement programs (457 or 403b).

Pay

The pay range for this position is determined by our compensation program using market data and salary benchmarking. A combination of factors is considered in making compensation decisions, including education, experience, qualifications relative to the requirements of the position, and funding. The starting pay range will be the minimum to midpoint of the posted range, taking into account the combination of factors listed above.

• Pay Range: $122,121.00 - $195,394.00
• Minimum: $122,121.00
• Midpoint: $158,760.00
• Maximum: $195,394.00

Schedule

• Employee Type: Regular
• Time Type: Full time
• Rate Type: Salary

Work Location: Lawrence, KS or Kansas City, KS (with collaboration across KU campus locations).