Senior Manager, Innovation Partnerships

The Senior Manager, Innovation Partnerships—Clean Energy, Critical Minerals and Mining is a senior business development and partnership architecture role within Innovation UBC. The role focuses on clean energy, critical minerals and mining, and advances partnerships in other industries by drawing on research strengths across the University.

Reporting to the Associate Director, Innovation Partnerships, with dotted line reporting to the Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, Faculty of Applied Science, the incumbent initiates, develops, structures, negotiates within delegated authority, and advances high-value partnerships with industry, government, not-for-profit organizations, foundations, and other external partners.

The role is accountable for generating and advancing opportunities that convert UBC research strengths, innovation assets, talent, intellectual property, and facilities into strategically significant, externally funded collaborations that deliver measurable research, innovation, economic, environmental, health, and societal impact. This position is focused on complex and multi-faceted public-private partnership opportunities, including multi-party research consortia, anchor partner relationships, challenge-based initiatives, and major strategic alliances.

The Senior Manager applies scientific and/or technical fluency, business acumen, senior relationship management, opportunity qualification, and knowledge of sponsored research, technology transfer, commercialization, entrepreneurship, and public/private innovation funding models to create collaborations that are larger in scope, longer in duration, and more strategically important than incremental project-by-project research contracts.

The Senior Manager is expected to independently generate opportunities for review, lead assigned initiatives, and drive them to completion with regular progress check-ins and direction from the Associate Director. The Associate Director retains ultimate responsibility for partnership strategy, escalated negotiations, institutional commitments, and signing authority.

Organizational Status

Internal reports directly to the Associate Director, Innovation Partnerships, and has a dotted line reporting relationship to the Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, Faculty of Applied Science. Works with the Associate Dean to align relevant partnership opportunities with the Faculty’s research priorities and connect with its researchers, while maintaining a university wide partnership mandate across faculties, departments, research centres and campuses.

Works closely with Innovation UBC Sponsored Research, Technology Transfer, Entrepreneurship, and other Innovation UBC colleagues to ensure external partners receive coordinated and coherent outreach and responses. Engages with UBC faculty, research clusters, research centres, institutes, Deans, Associate Deans Research, VPRI Office colleagues, Development and Alumni Engagement, Government Relations, legal and contracting resources, finance and administrative units, and other UBC staff in partnership-facing roles.

May provide project direction and coordination to project managers, contractors, or other resources assigned to specific partnership initiatives. The role does not have overall responsibility for managing the Innovation Partnerships team.

Work Performed

• Strategy, Planning, and Opportunity Development: Contributes to the development and execution of Innovation UBC's partnerships strategy, annual work plan, and strategic opportunity pipeline. Independently identifies and generates new partnership opportunities for review, prioritization, and direction by the Associate Director.
• Business Development and Senior Relationship Management: Builds, deepens, and manages relationships with external partners capable of supporting major research and innovation collaborations with UBC. Leads partner discovery, outreach, needs assessment, opportunity framing, and early-stage business development activity for assigned strategic accounts and partnership opportunities.
• Consortium and Partnership Architecture: Designs and advances complex, multi-party, multi-year partnership structures, including research consortia, anchor industry partnerships, public-private initiatives, innovation hubs, challenge-based collaborations, and strategic alliances, within delegated authority and under the direction of the Associate Director.
• Researcher Liaison and Internal Coordination: Develops and maintains relationships with UBC researchers, research clusters, institutes, centres, and academic leaders whose work aligns with major external partnership opportunities.
• Portfolio Management, Metrics, and Reporting: Maintains accurate records of opportunities, contacts, engagement activities, pipeline stages, risks, next steps, and outcomes using the systems and reporting tools adopted by Innovation UBC.
• Outreach, Communications, and Representation: Represents Innovation UBC in meetings, conferences, sector forums, government and industry roundtables, and other venues related to university-industry-government collaboration and innovation, within delegated authority and in coordination with the Associate Director.

Minimum Qualifications

Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Minimum of nine years of related experience in a senior management position, or the equivalent combination of education and experience. Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own. Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Preferred Qualifications

Graduate degree in science, engineering, health, business, law, public policy, or another relevant field, or an equivalent professional designation. Proven track record creating or materially advancing complex, high-value, multi-party public-private partnerships, research consortia, strategic alliances, or innovation initiatives.

Experience working in or with a research-intensive university, research institute, technology company, government agency, industry consortium, or innovation organization. Working knowledge of sponsored research, research contracting, intellectual property, licensing, commercialization, entrepreneurship, public/private funding models, and the differences between research, philanthropy, sponsorship, procurement, and service activity.

Knowledge of clean energy, critical minerals and mining research and innovation ecosystems is an asset. Knowledge of other UBC priority research or innovation areas is also an asset, as the role supports strategic partnerships across the University and in other industries.