Partnership Development Manager

**Classification & Regular Hours**:
Hours per Week: 35

Salary Grade: 16

**About Western**:
**About Us**:
The office of the Vice-President (Research) fosters a culture of research excellence by promoting a globally minded approach to curiosity, discovery, creative activity, and innovation. The Vice-President (Research) also provides strategic leadership of Western Research, which allocates resources, aligns strategies, and provides services and programs to ensure Western is a leading research-intensive university. Together, they advance collaborative and cross
- disciplinary scholarship, connect Western’s work to community, implement inclusivity initiatives, and recognize and celebrate research successes.

**Responsibilities**:
Reporting to the Director, Strategic Partnerships, the Partnership Development Manager will lead, develop and implement plans and strategies related to the operations of key research partnership initiatives at Western University. The role will proactively seek out and encourage the development of meaningful research partnerships and collaborations between the university and external stakeholders. This position will work with key Western, regional and national leaders to facilitate interactions across the university, drawing linkages between synergistic initiatives. The role will establish and maintain relationships and opportunities with government, industrial and not-for-profit organizations to develop research partnerships. Working closely with Western's researchers, its local affiliates, and other national and international peer institutions, this role will help initiate research projects, by identifying resources and expertise and serving as a liaison between stakeholders and researchers, with the goal of facilitating the success of research proposals, reinforcing and advancing the reputation of Western locally, nationally and internationally, as well as, increasing research and partnership revenues.

**Qualifications**:

- Education:
- Master’s Degree in a related field
- Background in health sciences-related field; or imaging; or neuroscience preferred
- Project Management certificate or completion of courses would be an asset
- Experience:
- 5 years’ experience leading large complex projects and working with major government research programs and/or experience in an academic research administration environment or related field
- Experience preparing government infrastructure proposals
- Experience in a complex organization with responsibility for managing community, not
- for-profit and industrial partnerships- Experience in an academic institution preferred
- Experience in health sciences
- related field would be an asset- Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:
- Ability to identify, develop and steward partnerships both internal and external to the university
- In-depth knowledge of the regulations and guidelines governing research in an academic environment
- In-depth knowledge of best practices for reviewing and writing grant proposals and of Canadian peer-review granting systems, processes and procedures
- Familiarity with intellectual property management, including copyrights and patents
- Ability to research new avenues of funding from federal granting agencies, industry and other funding sources
- Ability to collaborate across internal and external boundaries to meet common objectives, improve outcomes and support work beyond one's own unit
- Ability to maintain and develop an effective network of contacts that provide information regarding emergent opportunities and best practices
- Compelling and persuasive communication skills to engage individuals and teams inside and outside the University
- Ability to make decisions and recommendations that are clearly linked to Western’s strategy and goals
- Ability to establish and build strong relationships with senior leaders, academic and administrative staff, as well as community members
- Verbal and written communication skills with an emphasis on proposal development and delivering presentations
- Ability to deal confidentially with information that has financial, political, regulatory and reputational implications
- Intermediate computer skills in Microsoft Office Suite
- Project management skills to align projects with strategic goals and operational objectives
- Ability to evaluate issues, recognize potential problems and take action to proactively resolve issues

**Western Values Diversity**:
**Please Note**:
We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those chosen for an interview will be contacted.