Director, New Ventures Jobs

The New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) is seeking a Director of New Ventures (the Director) to accelerate the development of NJIT new ventures directly connected to the NJIT commercialization pipeline via intellectual property (IP) licenses and/or equity investment. Additionally, the Director will have an externally facing role of representing NJII and NJIT entrepreneurship to our strategic partners on campus and at the city, state, and national levels.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Accelerate NJIT-Connected Companies

Lead the startup acceleration programming for new ventures at the later stages of the NJIT commercialization pipeline, including (but not limited to) companies that have received seed funding from the NJIT Venture Fund and NJIT seed grant programs. Programming will include – at a minimum – mentorship, investor connections, and topic specific seminars and/or curriculum.

Steward and Support Entrepreneurship at NJIT

Organize appropriate programming and events to expand entrepreneurship to NJIT-connected communities. Cultivate a digital hub (newsletter, web content, etc.) of NJIT entrepreneurship information and campus activities as well as a physical hub anchored at Venture Link: NJIT’s tech venture incubator. This includes the requirement of being on-site at Venture Link a minimum of 3 days per week, dependent on event schedule and other factors. Support NJIT (internal) entrepreneurship stakeholders as needed.

Community Engagement & Ecosystem Building:

Represent NJII & NJIT Entrepreneurship to Newark and the broader NJ Technology Ecosystem at speaking engagements, networking events, and community forums.

Commercialization Core Team

While this role focuses on new venture acceleration, the Director of New Ventures will also support NJIT inventors at the early stages of commercialization through the creation of commercialization plans, development of strategic relationships, and market intelligence.

Strategic Transformation

In partnership with Division leadership, the Director will leverage experiential learning to inform future expansion and modification of entrepreneurship programming.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education/Degree: Bachelor’s degree(Required) // Graduate degree in related field (preferred)

Experience: 5 years' experience with accelerator or incubator operations, entrepreneurial programming, or startup experience.

Knowledge/Skills Required

• Comfortable in diverse and inclusive environments, being capable and willing to act from a just and equitable foundation.
• Comfortable with deep technical subject matter expertise, emblematic of the NJIT research and patent portfolio
• Exceedingly strong oral and written communication
• Ability to act tactically with a strategic vision; execute on a program portfolio anchored by a set of division level KPIs
• Experience with startups and startup accelerators
• Strong technical generalist
• Proven success in articulating path-to-market strategies for early-stage startup companies