Director of Strategic Partnerships & Innovation (FM11683)

Job title Director of Strategic Partnerships & Innovation

Department Vice-Chancellor's Office

Grade Competitive Package

Contract Type Full Time, Open Ended

Placed on Thursday 09 May 2024

Closing date Wednesday 29 May 2024

Interview date Wednesday 19 June 2024

Reference FM11683

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We have an exciting opportunity for a Director of Strategic Partnerships and Innovation to join the Chief Operating Officer's team.

The University of Bath is a very successful HE institution, having achieved a strong position in its first 50 years. We are ambitious and recognise that to grow our impact and influence, regionally, nationally and internationally, we need to build on our existing campus base into new and exciting areas. Such initiatives will need a commercial expertise alongside empathy with the purpose of an academic institution. An ability to lead the development of new opportunities which will benefit the University community, coupled with the experience of delivering mutually beneficial partnerships.

About the role

This is a new role within the University, providing an opportunity to develop and deliver the enterprise and innovation strategy.

The key areas of responsibility will include:

Development of commercial strategies and business propositions to grow and develop the University's profile and reputation through ‘external' commercial developments

To work closely with, and integrate all aspects of University operation essential to delivery of these business propositions

Engaging with external stakeholders necessary to facilitate the development and delivery of proposals

To ensure that all objectives of the proposals are met and benefits realised

Develop and implement risk management and governance structures to provide assurance on new developments

Identify potential new business development opportunities

There is real potential to build on the strong foundation of some of our academic ventures (IAAPS, iCAST) as well as developing our impact in the city and region through our innovation and enterprise activities.

This is a full time position, offered on an open ended basis.

About you

Our ideal candidate will have a combination of a keen commercial sense, based on experience in building beneficial partnerships, coupled with a good understanding of the importance of the public mission of a University. Your career may have been in the commercial sector, or perhaps in one of the many public sector institutions or arms-length bodies which deliver public good on a commercial basis.

Ideally you would have experience of working in or with Universities to deliver commercial projects. Some of these initiatives will involve property deals, some the development of joint ventures. Our ideal candidate will have experience in both of these fields.

You will be able to pull together teams from across an organisation, integrating internal and outsourced functions. You will be able to influence effectively at Board level, through making a strong business case, to individual members of staff, leading change effectively.

Further information

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Dr Ghazwa Alwani- Starr, Chief Operating Officer, at [email protected] or Richard Brooks, Director of HR, at [email protected]. Please ensure you submit your application via our website.

What we can offer you:

a very generous employer contributory pension scheme

generous annual leave allowance with an additional 5 discretionary days so that you can enjoy a positive work life balance

we are a family-friendly University and with an increasingly agile workforce, are open to flexible working arrangements

an excellent reward package that recognises the talents of our diverse workforce

a wide range of personal and professional development opportunities

a number of support options available for new and existing staff to help with the cost of some immigration expenses which you may be eligible for: Relocation allowance, Visa Reimbursement, Interest-Free Loan.

Find out more about our benefits.

We consider ourselves to be an inclusive university, where difference is celebrated, respected and encouraged. We have an excellent international reputation with staff from over 60 different nations and have made a positive commitment towards gender equality and intersectionality receiving a Silver Athena SWAN award. We truly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our employees and students, so we encourage applications from all genders, backgrounds, and communities, particularly from under-represented groups, and value the positive impact that will have on our teams.

We are very proud to be an autism friendly university and are an accredited Disability Confident Leader; committed to building disability confidence and supporting disabled staff.

Find out from our staff what makes the University of Bath a great place to work. Follow us @UniofBath and @UniofBathJobs on Twitter for more information.

Further details:

Job Description & Person Specification

Terms of Employment

We are constantly seeking to reduce the unconscious bias that enters any assessment process, with the goal of creating an inclusive and equal assessment process. To support this, personal details will be removed from application forms at the initial shortlisting stage.