Chief Research Officer Jobs

CHIEF RESEARCH OFFICER

About the Position

The MSI STEM Research Development Consortium (MSRDC) is seeking a Chief Research Officer (CRO) to develop a high quality and successful research enterprise of over 75 minority-serving institutions, 15 majority or nonprofit research institutes, 60 private industry partners, and a host of government scientists, engineers, and program managers.The chief research officer is responsible for designing and implementing programs, methods, tools, platforms, practices, and other activities to engage the consortium membership of university administrators, faculty researchers and collaborative partners in the conduct of basic, applied and advanced research in a variety of technical disciplines in support of the consortium’s federal sponsors and customers.The role supports the MSRDC business plan/strategy to create well-formed technical solution teams and Communities of Practice among consortium members and collaborative partners that generate and deliver impactful, innovative solutions.

About MSRDC

The MSI STEM Research & Development Consortium (MSRDC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization chartered in the District of Columbia in 2015, works to promote and engage its constituency of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) of Higher Education in the conduct of federally funded, mission-critical research.The Consortium creates a teaming environment for its members and collaborative partners to promote innovation and technology leadership through a combination of basic, applied, and/or advanced technology development research to pioneer groundbreaking solutions that drive innovation forward.

Minority-serving institutions have historically accounted for about 5% of the expenditures of all federally awarded research dollars, which makes them “non-traditional contractors.”(HBCUs account for only about 1%.)MSRDC uses a Cooperative/Other Transactions Agreement for Research to facilitate the award of research contracts (rather than grants) to its member universities and has existing funding relationships with the Departments of Defense, Army, Navy, Air Force, Homeland Security, State, Energy, NASA, FEMA, Coast Guard, and a growing list of Federal agencies engaged in science and engineering research.

The vision of the MSI STEM Research Development Consortium (MSRDC) focuses on the following three pillars, which are Engaging Diverse Talent; Promoting Innovation; and Engineering Futures.

The following are the overarching, key responsibilities of the senior director as well as specific performance expectations based upon the three pillars of the MSRDC vision statement.Other duties may be assigned as necessary to fulfill the goals and objectives as outlined herein.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Create processes and forums to identify research priorities and capability gaps of current and potential government research agency sponsors and communicate to consortium members and collaborative partners.
• Oversee and direct the cultivation, development, implementation, and growth of all research development activities to advance MSRDC’s impact and mission.
• Cultivate and promote the evolving MSRDC brand and achievements to relevant communities to expand membership engagement and organization profile.
• Coordinate meetings with MSRDC technical and scientific advisors to facilitate technical information sharing.
• Develop and implement an action plan for creating/upgrading research-related processes, workflows, and infrastructure that enable the identification and development of technically capable and competitive teams to secure federal research funding.
• Educate members regarding techniques in marketing innovative research ideas and navigating the federal research procurement process.
• Develop and engage in relationship building activities with existing and potential sponsors to acquire resources in support of the MSRDC mission, including funded research awards, technical information sharing, public and private partnerships, etc.
• Represent the consortium at symposia, conferences, and other relevant industry meetings.
• Identify sustainable funding streams and business models to fund the research development program and related activities.
• Demonstrated commitment to the valuesand mission of MSRDC
• Collaborate with business development colleagues to support research award renewals and other revenue generation.
• Identify potential financial and operational issues related to research development and provide analysis of alternative courses of action.
• Develop training modules and other outreach and development approaches to members pursuing government sponsored research projects.
• Facilitate collaborations between consortium members and partners, private industry and government research personnel that yield innovative science and technical solutions.
• Establish evidence-based methodologies for engaging and advancing minority serving institutions’ (MSIs) full participation in federally funded, mission-critical research.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to convey technical information to a wide array of technical and non-technical audiences
• Ph.D in science, engineering, technical, or other discipline germane to managing research activities
• Extensive experience with MS Office applications, project management software(s), and financial/budgeting software(s)
• Demonstrated understanding of relevant federal regulations in government research contracting
• Working knowledge of program planning, organizational structure, GovCon market research, budgeting, project/program management, and administrative operations
• 8 years of progressive STEM/technical leadership experience in academia, nonprofit government, and/or private industry settings

We are an EOE.