Senior Manager, Innovation Partnerships—Defense, Cybersecurity and Dual Use Technologies

University of British Columbia · Vancouver · CA$10,460–CA$15,676/month (stated in the posting)

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

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 Senior Manager, Innovation Partnerships—Defense, Cybersecurity and Dual Use Technologies is a senior business development and partnership architecture role within Innovation UBC. The role focuses on defense, cybersecurity and dual use technologies, 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.
• Identifies areas where UBC research strengths, facilities, intellectual property, entrepreneurial capacity, and student talent can be combined into compelling value propositions for external partners.
• Undertakes proactive external market discovery and environmental scanning to identify major industry needs, government priorities, funding opportunities, consortia models, and public/private innovation programs beyond recurring transactional mechanisms.
• Develops opportunity briefs, partner value propositions, prospect strategies, and internal decision materials for high-potential strategic initiatives.
• Assesses and prioritizes opportunities based on strategic alignment, partner readiness, potential funding scale, UBC research fit, complexity, risk, reputational value, likelihood of execution, and long-term impact.
• Provides recommendations to the Associate Director on opportunity prioritization, partner engagement strategies, risk considerations, and next steps.
• Maintains awareness of national and international innovation trends, major funding programs, sector roadmaps, policy priorities, and emerging research partnership models relevant to UBC.

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.
• Acts as a trusted intermediary between external partners and UBC researchers by translating industry, government, and not-for-profit needs into researchable problems and by translating UBC research capabilities into clear partner value propositions.
• Develops and maintains account plans, relationship maps, opportunity roadmaps, and renewal or expansion strategies for anchor partners and consortium participants.
• Prepares and delivers presentations, pitches, briefing notes, concept papers, and partner-facing materials that support strategic partnership development.
• Drives assigned partnership initiatives toward completion, coordinating internal and external contributors, maintaining momentum, managing timelines, and providing regular progress updates to the Associate Director.
• Coordinates with Development and Alumni Engagement on corporate and foundation opportunities that may include philanthropic, sponsorship, research, or blended funding components.
• Coordinates with Government Relations and relevant academic and administrative units when opportunities involve government policy priorities, public funding, or public-sector partners.
• Escalates difficult partner negotiations, complex conflicts, unresolved internal issues, or matters involving significant institutional risk to the Associate Director.

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.
• Brings together UBC researchers across faculties, departments, research centres, and campuses to form credible, interdisciplinary teams around major external opportunities.
• Works with researchers and partners to define partnership scope, strategic objectives, work packages, governance models, membership models, funding structures, milestones, deliverables, decision rights, and partner benefits.
• Identifies and integrates appropriate provincial, federal, international, philanthropic, and partner co-investment programs to improve the value proposition and increase the scale of collaboration.
• Coordinates the development of letters of intent, concept notes, non-confidential summaries, term sheets, memoranda of understanding, consortium proposals, and other materials required to move opportunities from concept to execution.
• Negotiates partnership terms within delegated authority and in accordance with UBC policy, established practice, and direction from the Associate Director and responsible institutional offices.
• Works closely with Sponsored Research, Technology Transfer, legal and contracting resources, finance, and other responsible offices to support the structuring, negotiation, and execution of complex agreements, including multi-party and public-private arrangements.
• Provides recommendations on partnership strategy and business terms, while ensuring that institutional approvals, signing authority, legal review, research administration, and compliance requirements are handled through the appropriate UBC processes.
• Supports transition from opportunity development to implementation by helping establish launch plans, governance meetings, partner onboarding, reporting expectations, and internal handoffs.

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.
• Facilitates dialogue among principal investigators, academic units, Innovation UBC teams, and external partners to identify areas of mutual interest and to build partnership concepts that are academically credible and externally compelling.
• Connects UBC researchers and partners with appropriate Innovation UBC, VPRI, Development and Alumni Engagement, Government Relations, and administrative resources.
• Supports UBC researchers in understanding partner expectations, partnership models, funding program requirements, proposal strategies, intellectual property considerations, commercialization pathways, and governance requirements for major collaborations.
• Develops and delivers workshops, briefings, or other educational activities that improve researcher readiness for strategic external partnerships.
• Applies a triage approach to ensure opportunities are directed to the right UBC pathway. Opportunities that are primarily transactional, community-engaged, philanthropic, educational, or advisory in nature are referred or co-managed with the appropriate UBC unit unless they form part of a strategic research partnership or consortium opportunity.
• Works within UBC policies and procedures and coordinates with relevant offices on matters such as confidentiality, intellectual property, conflict of interest, research ethics, Indigenous engagement, data governance, export controls, financial administration, and contracting.

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.
• Develops and monitors portfolio metrics in collaboration with the Associate Director, including net-new sponsored research funding, value and stage of qualified pipeline, number and value of strategic partnership proposals, partner engagement, partner satisfaction, consortium renewals, and long-term research and innovation outcomes.
• Prepares regular pipeline reports, opportunity updates, risk assessments, and decision materials for the Associate Director, Innovation UBC leadership, and advisory bodies as required.
• Conducts post-opportunity reviews to identify lessons learned from successful and unsuccessful pursuits and to improve partnership development practices.
• Contributes to annual planning, performance evaluation, and continuous improvement of the Innovation Partnerships operating model.

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.
• Works with Innovation UBC and VPRI communications colleagues to identify partnership success stories and to support communications that highlight UBC research impact and partner value.
• Builds and maintains relationships with relevant associations, alliances, funders, innovation networks, and peer institutions to strengthen UBC's visibility and partnership pipeline.
• Promotes awareness within UBC of strategic partnership opportunities, public/private funding programs, and best practices in large-scale external collaboration.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

The Senior Manager operates in a highly visible, externally facing role with significant financial, reputational, operational, and strategic consequences for UBC. Errors in judgement may result in lost funding opportunities, weakened relationships with strategic partners, reputational damage, unrealistic expectations, delays in major proposals or agreements, or exposure to legal, intellectual property, confidentiality, compliance, financial, or conflict-of-interest risk. The role requires a high degree of independence, discretion, diplomacy, critical thinking, negotiation acumen, and the ability to manage complexity without creating commitments beyond delegated authority. The incumbent is expected to recognize and escalate high-risk, precedent-setting, or highly complex matters to the Associate Director and to the appropriate institutional offices.

Supervision Received

Works with a high degree of independence under the general direction of the Associate Director, Innovation Partnerships. Through the dotted line reporting relationship to the Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, Faculty of Applied Science, receives input on Faculty research priorities, researcher engagement and relevant partnership opportunities. The Associate Director establishes strategic direction, priorities, performance objectives and key metrics through annual planning, in consultation with the Associate Dean as appropriate, and reviews them regularly. The incumbent is expected to exercise independent judgement in opportunity qualification, relationship development, internal coordination, and escalation of risks or institutional issues.

Supervision Given

No direct ongoing staff supervision is assumed at the time of posting, unless assigned. The Senior Manager may provide functional leadership to cross-functional project teams, working groups, students, interns, coordinators, external consultants, or temporary project resources. The position mentors colleagues and provides guidance to researchers and internal stakeholders on partnership development practices.

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.
• Experience with Canadian and international innovation funding programs, including the ability to identify, interpret, and align opportunities with partner and researcher interests.
• Strong business development, negotiation, account management, proposal development, financial modelling, budgeting, and project management skills.
• Ability to engage credibly with senior executives, government officials, funders, faculty members, research leaders, entrepreneurs, legal and contracting professionals, and administrative stakeholders.
• Ability to synthesize complex scientific, technical, commercial, policy, and institutional information into clear and persuasive written and oral communications.
• Demonstrated success building interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral teams and facilitating work among stakeholders with different goals, cultures, timeframes, and decision processes.
• Exceptional judgement, discretion, diplomacy, resilience, and ability to work in ambiguous, fast -moving environments.
• Experience using CRM, pipeline management, reporting, or other tools to track business development activity and partnership outcomes.
• Knowledge of defense, cybersecurity and dual use technologies 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.

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