The Director of Strategic Initiatives reports to the QBI Director. This position oversees strategy and key relationships for the institute along with the Director and helps to develop, and contribute to, the overall mission of our scientific collaborations and programs.
A major focus of the role is to create an institutional environment that enables the QBI to catalyze advances in scientific discovery and therapeutics. This position works closely with the Director of Science, Portfolio & Strategy and senior stakeholders to identify priorities and develop strategies to actualize the mission of the QBI. Success will require working collaboratively with faculty, relevant departments and leadership across UCSF, and strategic partners in private industry and government.
The candidate serves as key strategist with the Director of the QBI in initiating and developing new strategic direction, long- and short-range plans and innovative initiatives and fostering new collaborations in academia and industry. The candidate has a high-level authority to make official commitments and to broadly represent the Director's interests across the organization. May manage and administer independent program(s), typically with organization-wide impact such as the QBI Scholarship for Women from Developing Nations & LMICs in Biosciences, Sabbatical exchanges with collaborating institutions and inter-UC campus initiatives. Uses advanced concepts, scientific expertise (that can be applied to disease agnostic approaches), and organizational objectives to resolve highly complex issues, which require analysis of unique issues/ problems without precedent and/ or structure.
The candidate can become an advisor for the Director of the QBI for scientific endeavors. This role can take a lead in engaging with a world-leading academic/industry concept being formed at QBI to establish a substantive partnership that will better position QBI to more effectively and efficiently translate scientific discoveries into therapeutics that improve lives.
Process. The candidate will help develop processes for internal communications and decision-making. This includes optimizing meeting schedules, determining owners for key initiatives, and reducing organizational bottlenecks by helping the Director delegate decision-making responsibility to the appropriate teams. They will also be responsible for collating and producing board meeting slides, setting agendas for key meetings, and helping institute quarterly and yearly planning processes across the organization.
People. The candidate will meet regularly with interdisciplinary team members throughout the QBI to discuss headwinds, tailwinds, and hot topics. They will look out for issues and inefficiencies and systemic problems and surface them to relevant people in the organization. They will also find areas that are working particularly well, and help determine how to further enable that success and/or spread learnings to other relevant parts of the organization.
The unique skill set of the candidate, which includes scientific expertise, will enable them to bridge an understanding of scientific priorities with operational capabilities to inform strategic management decisions. Additionally, the candidate will take on responsibilities that help ensure the cohesive functioning of the QBI by organizing regular meetings and engaging in frequent communication with key personnel. The candidate will attend multiple meetings with the Director on site, domestically and internationally, and serve as the liaison to the QBI and Krogan lab scientific teams by maintaining a close rapport with the QBI Scientific Congress, which evaluates potential projects for implementation.
The role will require consolidating substantial financial resources and identifying outside sources of support represents one of the top priorities for the QBI and the candidate will help to engage donors and collaborators.
This position requires discretion and independent judgment as well as working autonomously. He/she will need to possess excellent communication skills, both verbal and written. The candidate must have the ability to work as a reliable and flexible member of a team handling multiple responsibilities in a very fast paced environment of shifting priorities. Must be an energetic team player with a "can do" attitude.
***NOTE: This is a one year Contract Full-Time
The final salary and offer components are subject to additional approvals based on UC policy.
Your placement within the salary range is dependent on a number of factors including your work experience and internal equity within this position classification at UCSF. For positions that are represented by a labor union, placement within the salary range will be guided by the rules in the collective bargaining agreement.
The salary range for this position is $155,500 - $244,400 (Annual Rate).
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and high-quality patient care. It is the only UC campus in the 10-campus system dedicated exclusively to the health sciences.