"Head of Venture Acceleration, Program Manager"

Special Instructions to Applicants:

All interested applicants should attach a resume in the Supporting Documents section of the application, preferably in a PDF format to avoid any formatting issues.

About Rice:

Boasting a 300-acre tree-lined campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has a 6-to-1 undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio, and a residential college system, which supports students intellectually, emotionally and culturally through social events, intramural sports, student plays, lectures series, courses and student government. Developing close-knit, diverse college communities is a strong campus tradition, which is why Rice is highly ranked for best quality of life and best value among private universities.

Rice is also a wonderful place to work. Rice faculty, staff and students share values that are essential to our success as a healthy community. Those values guide our decisions and behaviors and shape Rice’s culture. They come through in the way we treat each other and the welcome we extend to our visitors. These values can be recalled simply by our name — RICE — Responsibility, Integrity, Community and Excellence.

Position Summary:

The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Lilie) is seeking a Program Manager to lead our Research Commercialization and Venture Acceleration programs. This is a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation and help Rice entrepreneurs bring their cutting-edge ideas to market. In this role, you will be responsible for identifying promising people, research, and companies from across the Rice University ecosystem, and building the immersive, experiential programs to catalyze their next great startup. You will work closely with student and faculty startup founders to help them accelerate their growth, secure funding, and achieve their goals while acting as connective tissue to the broader Texas and US startup ecosystems. In practice, this means you will facilitate mentorship and networking opportunities, you will develop and lead co-curricular and accelerator programs, and you will manage relationships with partners, sponsors, and key stakeholders to ensure that Lilie’s research commercialization and venture acceleration efforts are a success. Lilie is a small, ambitious team that works collaboratively to achieve amazing results, employing an iterative creation process where we share our work early and often. Lilie is the beating heart of entrepreneurship, innovation, venture capital, and research commercialization for the whole Rice University campus. Our Center combines over 50 for-credit, experiential courses every year with a suite of programs, resources, competitions, and accelerators to help entrepreneurs and innovators at every stage of their journey. Our mission is to serve Rice University students, faculty, and alumni from all majors and degree programs in helping them go from idea to real-world impact. We’ve been ranked as the #1 Graduate Entrepreneurship program in the country for the last 6 years in a row, but need your help to aim even higher in the future.

Ideal Candidate Statement:

The ideal candidate works collaboratively and has strong opinions that are adaptable to new information. The ideal candidate is a proactive communicator and service-oriented, through and through. The ideal candidate employs an iterative process for review of work to ensure our students receive information and experiences that are thoroughly vetted and something we are proud to stand behind.

Workplace Requirements:

Rice Business primarily delivers residential classes and activities taking place almost daily between 7 am and 10 pm. We value a highly collaborative and community-based culture, with expectations to provide in-person support and services to all members of our community. Remote work options are limited. Most employment activities are required to be performed in-person and on-campus. This in-person approach is central to the successful achievement of our research and academic missions.

This position is exclusively on-site, necessitating all duties to be performed in-person on campus Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm.

Hiring Range:

Commensurate based on education experience. Exempt (salaried) positions under FLSA are not eligible for overtime.

This is a two-year term-limited position with a possibility of an extension

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree
• Four or more (4+) years of entrepreneurship, program management and/or start-up experience
  In lieu of the experience requirement, additional related education, above and beyond what is required, may be substituted on an equivalent year-for-year basis.
• Skills:
  • Ability to develop complex and/or multiple program partnerships and funding sources
  • Ability to develop and initiate new strategies
  • Ability to work well under pressure and manage projects simultaneously
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team to meet expected deadlines, schedules, and goals
  • Adept at problem solving, creating contingency plans and handling issues when necessary
  • Excellent organizational and time management skills
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Excellent client service orientation
  • Ability to prioritize, take initiative, and ownership of projects
  • Ability to routinely and independently exercise sound judgment in making decisions

Preferences:

• Five or more (5+) years of entrepreneurship, program management experience
• A master's degree or Ph.D. in a business, science, or engineering-related field is preferred.
• Experience in research commercialization and related research commercialization funding mechanisms (venture capital, federal grants, etc.)
• Experience with startups and startup accelerator programs
• Experience engaging within and across a startup ecosystem
• Shares work early and often, valuing a process of iterative feedback to produce exceptional results

Essential Functions:

• Leads the development and implementation of major program(s)
• Collaborates with faculty and / or staff leadership to design programs and establish long range strategic and operational plans
• Identifies promising research and technology from across the Rice University ecosystem
• Oversees the operations, administration and evaluation of programs
• Identifies and implements program changes to ensure alignment with mission and program effectiveness
• Develops and implements strategies related to outreach, events, communications, development, partnerships and fundraising / funding
• Devises and manages financial and budgetary plans for the program(s), approves and monitors expenditures
• May teach a course, seminar or workshop
• Performs all other duties that assigned

Additional Functions

• Responsible for tracking and reporting on all program metrics and impact.
• Close collaboration with department heads, directors of research institutes and others to identify promising PhD and Post-Doc students at the Rice Schools of Engineering and the Natural Sciences
• You may support other Lilie programming and courses as the need arises