Hiring: UCF Innovation District Program Manager

Company Name: UCF Office of Partnerships & Innovation, UCF Business Incubation System Innovation Districts

Company Website: www.ucf.edu/partnerships  and www.incubator.ucf.edu  

Hours per week: Full Time

Wage (hourly or weekly wage range): $85,000 + Benefits

Overview:

Through the UCF Business Incubation System, UCF has a 20+ year history of successfully supporting early stage entrepreneurial companies and enabling them to successfully grow into thriving, financially stable companies.  To strengthen that support, and more strategically help accelerate the growth of key industry and technology clusters in the region, several UCF Innovation Districts have been created anchored around UCF campuses, UCF business incubators and existing or emerging clusters of key industry sectors.  Enhanced programming, additional partnerships and refined operations are being developed to provide stronger support to early stage, high growth companies in the innovation districts and to create synergistic collaboration across the districts.

General Job Description:

The UCF Business Incubation System is seeking a Program Manager to support two important programs for our Innovation District Incubators, Mentorship and First Customer. The Program Manager will report to both the Incubation System Director of Program and Operations and Director of Strategy and Partnership. The Mentor program pairs business, industry, and subject matter experts with UCF Innovation District Incubation clients. The First Customer program connects Incubator companies with large enterprises for potential pilot projects and contracts. The Program Manger will rotate their presence between the Innovation District Incubators in Research Park, Downtown, and Lake Nona as well as being active in the community.

Duties:

• Help identify and recruit mentors for companies in our 3 Innovation Districts from across the community, including UCF alumni.
• Manage the pairing of mentors with Incubator companies, and track activity between the mentor and the company.
• Work with Incubator clients to create target lists of large enterprises for projects and contracts.
• Conduct outreach to larger enterprises, both locally and nationally, to ascertain company needs and potential matches with Incubator clients,
• Create and manage status reports for both programs for Incubation management.

Skills/Qualifications:

• Self starter with ability to operate independently, while also thriving in a collaborative and entrepreneurial environment.
• Have 3-5 years experience with initiatives requiring community outreach and connectivity.
• Experience working with both early stage companies and larger enterprises.

For more information, contact Rob Panepinto at rob.panepinto@ucf.edu or Carol Ann Logue at carolann.dykeslogue@ucf.edu