Business Development Operations & Market Research Analyst

• 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: $75,000 - $80,000

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 Technology Ventures is seeking a Business Development Operations & Market Research Analyst to drive strategic intelligence, AI tool integration, and database management in support of Business Development initiatives and office-wide process improvements. Working closely with the Business Development Officer and Portfolio Manager, this role focuses on the proactive matchmaking of university innovations to external funding and licensing opportunities.

Responsibilities

AI & Data Infrastructure Integration

• Lead the design and deployment of AI-driven workflow, including customized LLMs and automated data extraction pipelines, for the Business Development (BD) and Lab-to-Market (L2M) team to optimize matchmaking between Columbia University’s technology portfolio and external industry partners. Improve existing Columbia Technology Ventures (CTV) AI capabilities within the existing Columbia IT and AI infrastructure and develop new and improved AI tools that further empower the BD team to accelerate team operations with greater targeting accuracy. This effort leverages both internal and external-facing data to primarily service BD/L2M activities that support office-wide licensing and commercialization efforts.

Market Intelligence & Trend Analysis

• Monitor and analyze capital flow, venture funding, and market trends across life sciences and physical sciences sectors to inform the CTV BD/L2M team’s commercialization strategies, and the licensing efforts of the CTV office. Leverage AI and build  automated workflows to continuously gather, synthesize, and distribute actionable market intelligence to the BD/L2M team. Determine reliable and actionable public sources of funding data that influence academic tech transfer operations. Align with licensing priorities to identify, track, and attend targeted local networking events and conferences to formalize external investor/industry relationships.

Relationship & Database Management

• Build and maintain an active, high-fidelity contact database of active/up-to-date industry and VC connections, ensuring the BD/L2M team is equipped to introduce licensable technologies to the correct stakeholders in real-time. Organize existing external contacts and develop automated tools to facilitate both historical and new lead tracking.

Venture Mapping & Peer Benchmarking

• Actively identify and track venture capital firms, corporate partners, and startups investing in technologies aligned with Columbia's research outputs. Work with supervisors and the BD/L2M team to implement best practices emerging from peer institutions / tech transfer offices.

Portfolio Strategy

• With guidance from the supervisor, organize and analyze CTV's internal portfolio data, providing actionable insights that allow the Licensing team to be highly targeted in their outreach and licensing efforts. Generate actionable insights by building dynamic tools that merge internal licensing data with external metrics.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and/or equivalent minimum 2-3 years of related experience in Computer Science, Data Science, Bioinformatics, Bioengineering, or a closely related analytical field required.
• Hands-on experience leveraging data analytics, CRM platforms, and AI/LLM tools to automate workflows, synthesize large datasets, and extract actionable business intelligence.
• Proven ability to apply artificial intelligence solutions (e.g., prompt engineering, custom AI agents, or workflow automation) to solve operational challenges.
• Exceptional organizational skills with the ability to manage complex, detail-oriented tasks in a high-volume, dynamic environment.
• Experience working both independently and in a team-oriented, collaborative environment is essential.

Preferred Qualifications

• Foundational knowledge or academic coursework in Biology, Life Sciences, Bioengineering, or a closely related scientific field to assist in contextualizing biotech and physical science innovations.
• A basic understanding of the life sciences and physical sciences venture capital landscape, biopharma and industry dynamics, and the academic technology transfer lifecycle.
• Prior experience with Salesforce preferred.
• Excels at building relationships and networking.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

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