Sr. Technology Licensing Officer
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, materials science, and more.
CTV has extensive experience launching and supporting 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 programs that 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.
CTV is advertising for a Senior Technology Licensing Officer (TLO) for our life sciences and biomedical engineering departments. The Senior TLO will be responsible for Technology Evaluation and Development, Strategic Outreach and Marketing and Deal execution. The Senior TLO will report directly to CTV’s Senior Director, Commercialization & Licensing.
Responsibilities
Technology Evaluation and Development
The Senior TLO will:
- develop relationships within the Columbia University research community for purposes of identifying Intellectual Property (IP), evaluating its patentability and commercial/licensing potential.
- be heavily involved in the process of working directly with principal investigators, patent counsel, and other parties to develop appropriate commercialization and patent prosecution strategies to protect the IP.
- recommend projects for further investment from the CTV validation fund, as appropriate.
Strategic Outreach and Marketing
Working with the broader CTV licensing team, the Senior TLO will:
- implement a range of marketing and market research activities, including identifying potential licensees and potential industrial research partners interested in collaborations with Columbia researchers and materials.
- develop and execute commercialization strategies.
Deal execution
The Senior TLO will:
- take full responsibility for the negotiation and execution of sponsored research agreements and licensing agreements with industry partners and university start-ups related to their technology portfolio, with input and supervision from the CTV Senior Director, Commercialization & Licensing.
Minimum Qualifications
- BA and advanced degree required.
- 10+ years related experience or a combination of education and directly related experience required.
Preferred Qualifications
Strongly Preferred
- Relevant experience in technology management / licensing / marketing, venture capital, and/ or business development, negotiation.
- Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills, including both oral and written communication skills.
- Comfort with intellectual property and related business practices.
- A collaborative team player with a sense of humor and a calm demeanor.
- Highly organized, ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and drive them to completion.
