Director of Strategic Partnerships & Innovation

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 gmas21@bath.ac.uk or Richard Brooks, Director of HR, at rb936@bath.ac.uk. Please ensure you submit your application via our website. 

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