Innovation Specialist

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Job Profile

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Department

Compensation Range

The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge qualifications and experience for the the normal course employees will be hired transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.

Posting End Date

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

This position is expected to be filled by promotion/reassignment and is included here to inform you of its vacancy at the University.

This position is a 0.5 FTE part-time ongoing position.

At UBC we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research innovation and learning for all faculty staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Summary

The School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME) is a partnership between the Faculties of Medicine and Applied Science. The SBME is a nucleus for education and training research and innovation in biomedical engineering; creating new knowledge new academic and training programs and fostering translation and innovation. The need to enable venture creation during the challenging inflection point where innovations are translated from academic labs into companies is being increasingly acknowledged. Recognizing this need a key strategic priority for the SBME is to foster and support an entrepreneurial culture of invention incubation interaction and partnership with Innovation UBC SBME Innovates was established in 2019 as UBCs wet-lab incubator space that offers laboratory space equipment access building services operational and partnerships support at a stage when innovators grapple with scarce access to funding resources. The overarching long-term goal of SBME Innovates is to bring a steady influx of ventures with ambitious disruptive ideas that need critical support at the translation stage to get off the ground and help them to successfully transition into their own space with a sustainable path forward.

SBME Innovates

Four UBC spin-off companies are currently housed within SBME Innovates. This current pilot phase paves the way for a significant expansion in 2026. We envision a significant expansion of SBME Innovates within its current location to accommodate 10-12 ventures at a time. Part of this expansion will entail expanding SBMEs incubation efforts to accommodate ventures in the imaging & computational biology and human interfacing devices research themes of the School. This may be done through SBMEs expanded footprint and/or via partnerships with other UBC units.

Summary of Requirements

The SBME Innovation Specialist will work specifically with members of the School (faculty postdoctoral fellows students and staff) to:

• inspire an entrepreneurial mindset;

• identify potential startup opportunities;

• shepherd startup opportunities towards and through Innovation UBCs venture building resources.

The SBME Innovation Specialist brings industry-specific knowledge experience and networks works directly with SBME ventures/founders as they drive towards their commercial milestones. The SBME Innovation Specialist will lead the operations implementation partnership building and long-term financial sustainability planning for SBME Innovates and will grow SBMEs culture of innovation and commercialization through various education and engagement initiatives as well as support programs for SBME researchers.

Organizational Status
The SBME Innovation Specialist reports to the Strategic Partnerships Manager.

Work Performed

• Works closely with leadership at the SBME leverages entrepreneurship expertise to lead the day-to-day operations (in collaboration with SBMEs Building Team) planning and growth of the SBME Innovates SBMEs in-house wet-lab venture incubator facility.

• Implementation of a commercialization pipeline for the SBME including education initiatives and support from the early stages of research to technology spin-off and venture incubation.

• Develops and implements a long-term financial sustainability strategy for SBME Innovates and grows partnerships to enable this strategy.

• Identifies prospects seeks out and secure sponsors for SBME Innovates through mutually beneficial partnerships.

• Proactively seeks to identify SBME research and technologies with potential for future company creation and support faculty members and research trainees with these goals.

• Acts as the point person for resident and prospective ventures mentors and partners.

• Liaises with internal (prospective ventures UBC Treasury Innovation UBC VPRI) and external (venture capital firms industry partners sponsors other incubators and entrepreneurship enablers) stakeholders on all matters pertaining to SBME Innovates and commercialization training initiatives for the SBME.

• Develops and delivers programs that expose SBME researchers to leading practices and strategies in entrepreneurship company creation commercialization and other forms of knowledge translation including leading the commercialization stream of SBME Propels and entrepreneurship-themed sessions within and outside of major events (e.g. SBMEs Annual Symposium).

• Leads the commercialization subcommittee of SBMEs Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) including managing membership leading quarterly meetings and reporting back to the main IAC in collaboration with SBMEs Strategic Partnerships Manager.

• Creates maintains and/or grows strong mutually beneficial partnerships with external entrepreneurship enablers (e.g. venture capital firms other incubators accelerator and mentorship programs like Creative Destruction Labs and adMare and UBCs Sauder School of Business) supporters (e.g. IP law firms) sponsors and funders (e.g. MITACS industry partners government) to enhance SBME Innovates and to foster a culture of commercialization within the School.

• Tracks appropriate metrics under this portfolio providing summarized data at SBME leadership meetings as required as well as to semi-annual reports.

• In collaboration with SBMEs Communications Team seeks out opportunities to highlight SBMEs innovation success stories to disseminate to a broad audience.

• Inspires an entrepreneurial mindset by organizing and participating in relevant community events.

• Shepherds SBME ventures towards venture building resources and nominating SBME entrepreneurs and ventures for relevant awards programs and other sources of funding and public relations opportunities.

• Connects SBME Ventures to non-dilutive and dilutive funding opportunities and networking opportunities.

• Carries out other related duties as required.

Consequence of Error/Judgement
This role has a significant client-facing component both internally and externally. The Innovation Specialist will be an ambassador for the School of Biomedical Engineering. The position is responsible for recommendations and decisions that can affect the economic viability and effectiveness of a range of partnership initiatives. Poor judgement or decision making can cause a reputational risk for the University and may result in lost opportunities for researchers students staff and partners.

Supervision Received
The candidate reports to the Strategic Partnerships Manager and works closely with other School leadership. Must be highly self-directed take initiative and work independently within policies and procedure. Work is reviewed by the Manager and SBMEs Director of Partnerships & Community Engagement.

Supervision Given
At this time there are no planned positions that will report to the candidate.

Minimum Qualifications
Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Minimum of four years of related experience with at least two years of experience in business analysis or project management or the equivalent combination of education and experience.

- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives including perspectives in conflict with ones own

- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing ones own awareness knowledge and skills related to equity diversity and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• Post-graduate degree in molecular biology microbiology biochemical engineering biomedical engineering bioengineering or similar is considered an asset.

• Excellent interpersonal skills and cross-cultural sensitivity.

• Relevant experience working with scientists and administrators in an advanced research environment and direct professional experience in business development in the life sciences sector.

• Outstanding ability to speak and write clearly and persuasively.

• Demonstrated success in creating and supporting multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral teams and facilitating connections.

• Ability to be highly self-directed taking initiative and working independently under the general direction.

• Ability to actively listen to partners and faculty identify areas of common interest and to create a compelling case for partnering with the SBME.

• Exceptional organizational skills and ability to engage with and motivate a broad range of stakeholders.

• Excellent analytical skills and ability to solve problems in a creative and efficient manner are essential.

• Demonstrated experience in identifying and cultivating funded partnerships with academic and corporate organizations.

• Significant experience in business development marketing strategic planning or management consulting with proven success in revenue generation is an asset.

• Ability to exercise tact and discretion when handling sensitive and/or confidential matters.

• Ability to travel to partners in the local ecosystem and to attend local and international conferences and events.

• Experience mentoring advising and working with startup ventures in the industry.