L2M Outreach & Engagement Lead

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35 hrs/wk
• Standard Work Schedule:
• Building:
• Salary Range: $90,000 - $110,000

Position Summary

Columbia Technology Ventures 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 400 invention disclosures, 100 license deals, and 20 - 30 new IP-backed startups, involving over 750 inventors across Columbia's campuses. CTV currently has over 1,500 patent assets available for licensing, across research fields such as bio, IT, clean tech, devices, big data, nanotechnology, materials science, and more.   

CTV has extensive experience founding and supporting technology initiatives to enable promising technologies to accelerate across the “valley of death” and reach the market as quickly and successfully as possible. Many of these initiatives are explicitly multi-institutional, requiring extensive collaboration with our peer universities and their tech transfer offices. A few of the organizations CTV has been instrumental in establishing are the PowerBridgeNY clean energy proof-of-concept center, the NYC Media Lab, and the Columbia Biomedical Technology Accelerator (Columbia BiomedX), formally the Columbia-Coulter Translational Research Partnership. In addition, Translational Therapeutics (TRx) Resource was launched in 2016, in collaboration with the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and The Clinical Trials Office, to advance novel therapeutics from the lab towards the path of commercialization and clinical implementation.

CTV’s efforts are backed by 45 full-time staff and an additional 30+ graduate student interns (CTV Fellows), providing broad support to the Columbia community and other stakeholders with marketing, legal (patents, contracts, etc.), business start-up help, and administrative tasks. CTV also runs an Executive-in-Residence program, which brings seasoned industry executives, serial entrepreneurs, and investors to campus to support faculty and student entrepreneurial activities. 

Columbia, along with some of its NYC peer universities, run a number of accelerators, proof-of-concept, and entrepreneur matching programs. The goal of all of these programs is to support the commercialization of early-stage scientific inventions emerging from the university research labs, by providing the right balance of proof-of-concept funding, entrepreneurial training, mentorship, connection to talent, access to venture capital for startups, and training in industry dynamics across a variety of industry verticals including medical devices, therapeutics, media, and cleantech, among others. While new programs are being added to the CTV repertoire over time, the L2M Outreach & Engagement Lead will be initially expected to provide a leadership role supporting and coordinating across the various programs managed by Columbia Lab to Market Accelerator Network as well as CTV’s Engagement and Outreach Strategy including programming for Faculty.

Columbia Technology Ventures is seeking an enthusiastic L2M Outreach & Engagement Lead to collaborate with the Director of BD and L2M accelerators and the business development team to centralize CTV’s resources for new venture creation, early stage commercialization and training/education for translationally oriented faculty and students. Must be exceptionally detail-oriented and able to work with a wide range of internal and external constituents, with different priorities and objectives, to achieve goals. Previous experience organizing & managing events, seminars, and conferences related to commercialization and entrepreneurship is preferred.  

The L2M Outreach & Engagement Lead will report directly to and receive assignments from the Director of Business Development and Lab to Market Accelerators and will also work with the Executive Director, as well as with other areas within CTV & Columbia University.

Responsibilities

In consultation with the Director of BD and L2M Accelerators and the various leads for accelerator programs and Columbia Departments/Centers:

Strategic planning

• Collaborates with the Director of BD and L2M Accelerators to develop and execute the short-, medium-, and long- term strategy for CTV’s Accelerators and Education/Training programming for entrepreneurial faculty and students.
• Facilitates conversations with potential external partners discussing collaboration opportunities and program structure.
• Presents cumulative accelerator metrics to CTV leadership to craft long-term vision for L2M network.
• Provides L2M strategic vision guiding new program creation and support for existing programs.
• Strategic oversight and coordination of CTV’s Entrepreneurship and Commercialization resources, ensuring that resources fit faculty needs and Market interests.
• Oversee CTV’s Faculty Outreach and Engagement Strategy.
• Meet with faculty interested in commercialization and work with the Licensing officers, business development team and industry experts to develop a path to market for projects moving towards new venture creation.

Bootcamp and Programmatic Responsibilities

• Coordinates and oversees all logistical aspects of training bootcamps support and prompt responding to inquiries coming directly from accelerator administrators.
• Lead development and implementation of CTV’s Innovation To Impact Seminar Series including identifying topics, speakers and coordinating event.
• Manages the bootcamp component of various L2M programs, including supports the application review platform, organizes and promotes outreach to speakers, creation of pitch deck templates, creation of session marketing materials, and organizes webinars, posting bootcamp session social media across accelerators.
• Manages office hour engagements (coordination, strategy, marketing, etc.) with industry experts across physical and life science focus areas.
• Develops, markets, and executes programming to supplement L2M accelerators and provides support to alumni teams across the L2M network.
• Designs and manages planning and on-site logistics of events related to L2M activities including seminars, bootcamp sessions, fireside chats showcases, and panel discussions on topics related to innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, etc. This includes managing the virtual space and/or ensuring the room and A/V are setup (if in person), event registration, invitations, videography (if applicable), run of show process flow and development, relevant handouts and signage, and working with administrative staff to organize any catering needs.

Resource Coordination and Marketing

• Facilitates communication and resource sharing across industries and accelerators (bootcamps, best practices, etc.).
• Organizes cohort application materials, statistics, and outward facing marketing collateral across L2M programs.
• Designs and implements internal and external marketing of various items including calls for proposals, grants, success stories, stats and other elements using a variety of channels including web, infographics, and email.
• Builds and maintains an engaged network of L2M program alumni by connecting them to a larger network of conferences, programs and events, highlighting graduate success stories, facilitating opportunities for alumni to engage with current programs/cohorts, and demo days/showcases of successful projects that are incorporated, etc.
• Interacts with existing and prospective mentors/general entrepreneurship community to discuss opportunities for involvement with L2M programs.
• Designs and distributes Request for Proposals/Call for Applications across L2M verticals.
• Serves as main point of contact for questions related to accelerator focus area, timeline, expectations, structure, etc.

L2M Student Venture Associates

Drives hiring, onboarding, and management of a team of Columbia students to support the Lab to Market and Business Development team and ongoing L2M core administrative projects.

Minimum Qualifications

Applicant MUST meet these minimum qualifications to be considered.

• Bachelor's degree and 3 - 5 years equivalent related experience.
• Excellent writing skills, with passion for science and technology, and familiarity and comfort with technical/scientific language.
• Previous experience organizing events, seminars, conferences.
• Previous experience with operations, project or program management.
• Exceptional organizational skills and high attention to detail. Must demonstrate the ability to multi‐task and be responsive to the needs of multiple internal and external constituents.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (MA, PhD).
• Experience in start up or new innovation driven organization.
• Motivation and willingness to collaborate across Columbia departments.
• Experience with content management and social media platforms (website/blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, YouTube, Hootsuite, Mailchimp, Drupal).
• Previous database management experience preferred.
• Able to exercise mature judgment, discretion, and tact, referring questions and issues, as appropriate.
• Willing and able to adhere to and uphold University policies and standard operating practices of the Office.
• Extremely trustworthy and able to work independently.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.