University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn’s distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning.

Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities. With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title

Director D

Job Profile Title

Director D

Job Description Summary 

Penn Health-Tech (PHT) is a campus-wide initiative at the University of Pennsylvania created with the mission to increase the invention, development, testing, and translation of new health related technologies to improve patient care and quality of life.  A second mission for the PHT is to build expertise across the University in biomedical device development, starting with areas of  existing strength and then developing this presence broadly. Penn has world-class physicians, surgeons, nurses, engineers, designers, and students working on healthcare’s front lines, with deep expertise and unique insights into new breakthrough opportunities. There is alignment among interdisciplinary University leaders that turning more of these ideas into high-impact outcomes is a priority, with the potential to make a meaningful difference in healthcare and quality of life.

Job Description 

Duties The Executive Director (ED) will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of PHT. The ED will work with faculty, students, administration, counterparts at other universities, vendors, and representatives from industry to advance the PHT ecosystem and its output. The ED’s primary role will be to implement the vision of the Director of PHT and PHT’s executive committee. The ED will report to the Center Director.

Specific duties include:

1. Work with the executive committee to refine and implement the strategic vision, annual plans, and to track metrics of success
2. Coordinate and manage PHT activities a. Plan and implement PHT events. b. Oversee PHT’s web presence c. Supervise PHT administrative, web, database, and collaborative staff to advance the mission. A central part of the PHT mission is to build capability/capacity for health tech innovation by identifying and organizing internal resources – e.g., cataloguing expertise of professors interested in this work - and implementing new ones - e.g., student teams, etc.) d. Manage seed grant competitions, leading communications, application vetting, and award selection e. Keep data on active programs and work closely with the Project Managers to understand and guide each project through the development pipeline, and to facilitate project success.
3. Build relationships across campus and the region to drive engagement in PHT activities; to streamline collaboration, translation, and when appropriate, commercialization. a. Reduce barriers to collaboration and create pathways to facilitate innovation, collaboration, clinical translation, and refer to/ work with PCI to enable commercialization, when appropriate b. Facilitate assembling teams to respond to project requests and needs, and coordinate/ supervise PHT-collaborating project managers. c. Interact with industry partners, vendors, the venture community, and government officials, alongside PHT’s faculty directors, to raise funds and expand PHT and the region’s Health-tech ecosystem
4. Collaborate with PHT’s educational programs across schools, Penn Medicine, and CHOP

Qualifications

1. An undergraduate degree in a health science, engineering, or business discipline and 7-10 year's of experience. Graduate training to the Masters, PhD or a terminal professional degree and 5 to 7 years of experience preferred.
2. At least 5 years experience in a supervisory/ management position, preferably in academia or industry
3. At least 3 years of experience in Bio-science or technology, preferably with translation to health care applications.
4. Experience with industry translation, either through invention, startup companies, in academia, government, a regulatory or industry position.
5. The successful candidate should thoroughly understand what is required to move new technologies through the innovation pipeline from idea generation through clinical translation and commercialization.
6. The ED should have experience and a working understanding of university conflict of interest, animal welfare, human subjects regulations/policies, both their intent and implementation.
7. The ED will have excellent problem-solving, interpersonal communication and cooperation skills.

Job Location - City, State

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Department / School

Perelman School of Medicine

Pay Range

$88,861.00 - $168,837.00

Affirmative Action Statement 
Penn adheres to a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected class.

Special Requirements  
Background check required after a conditional job offer is made. Consideration of the background check will be tailored to the requirements of the job.