Open Rank – Basic Science Research Faculty – Founding Director, Institute for Digital Healthcare

The University of Houston's Tillman J Fertitta Family College of Medicine (UHCOM) at the University of Houston announces a non-tenure track, Open Rank, Basic Science Research Faculty, Founding Director, Institute for Digital Healthcare Transformation.

The Founding Director of the newly established Institute for Digital Healthcare Transformation. Backed by significant philanthropic support and robust operating investment by the University of Houston, the Founding Director will lead a university-wide institute to advance digital innovations that measurably improve health outcomes – with a dedicated focus on underserved populations – through interdisciplinary research, community engagement, and translation to practice and market. The Founding Director will be steering the Institute from its high-impact launch to long-term institutional sustainability.

The University of Houston is situated in one of the nation's leading biomedical innovation hubs, home to over 1,100 life sciences and biotech companies and the world's largest medical center, with a thriving venture capital ecosystem that has seen life sciences funding surge 937% over the past five years—creating exceptional opportunities for health innovation partnerships, deployment, and impact.

The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university with an ambitious agenda to expand nationally competitive research and deepen partnerships and impact. The Director will be a central leader in strengthening UH’s health-related research portfolio and advancing translation and commercialization pathways aligned with UH’s research and innovation priorities.

The Institute will develop and deploy digital health modalities, devices, and algorithms that solve real-world healthcare challenges, with particular emphasis on:

• Social determinants of health and community-prioritized solutions.
• Rural health access and scalable care delivery models.
• Aging, cognition, and dementia-related challenges.
• A robust data strategy (data access, harmonization, governance, and analytics) to enable impactful research at scale.

This is an Open-Rank Basic Science Research Faculty position. Salary and rank commensurate with experience.

This position will be Full Time at 1.0 FTE

Responsibilities

Key responsibilities:

• Lead launch and growth of a university-wide institute with clear research, translation, and impact priorities.
• Build a high-performance culture that enables collaboration across colleges (e.g., health disciplines, engineering, natural sciences, business, education, law, architecture, among others).
• Catalyze interdisciplinary teams and large, multi-investigator proposals; strengthen the institute's role in expanding health-related research expenditures.
• Cultivate federal, state, foundation, and industry support consistently with UH's research growth priorities.
• Coordinate with and report to university research leadership.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Ph.D., M.D., or equivalent degree with a distinguished record of scholarship and leadership appropriate for a senior academic appointment.
• Demonstrated success leading or coordinating interdisciplinary research programs and competing for external funding.
• A proven track record of translating research into practice and/or commercialization, including building partnerships with industry, health systems, or community organizations. A commitment to accelerating research growth and driving technology transfer is essential to this role.
• Strong leadership, communication, and coalition-building skills across diverse disciplines and stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications:

• History of directing centers/institutes and administering research cores or major programs with measurable outcomes.
• Experience launching translational initiatives (e.g., venture studio, incubator/accelerator partnerships, product development pipelines).
• Expertise in digital health domains such as AI/ML for healthcare, devices/sensors, remote monitoring, clinical workflow integration, implementation science, health equity/community-based participatory research, or health data systems.
• Experience with data governance and large-scale partnerships, including clinical, payer, or population datasets.

Required Attachments by Candidate:

• CV
• A letter of interest addressing relevant experience in interdisciplinary research leadership and digital health translation.
• Contact information of three references through the University of Houston's Human Resources job portal or Letters of recommendation.