Job Description

Executive Director, Accelerators (18 Month Term)

Alberta Innovates is seeking an Executive Director, Accelerators to be responsible for the development and execution of Alberta Scaleup and Growth Accelerator Investments policy and portfolio strategy.. The Executive Director, Accelerators creates, and implements the tactics and operations to support the realization of the broader scaleup and growth activities in the context of the Alberta Innovates integrated research and innovation system aligned with organizational strategic priorities and considering sector specific initiatives. This role is to guide, facilitate and increase the successful transition of commercial technology products and services to scaleup market, via the Accelerator vendors and working with the greater Alberta innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem, and driving business investment opportunities, contributing to a healthy technology and innovation ecosystem and building and leveraging strong stakeholder relations to enable the achievement of desired outcomes.

Are you our next Executive Director, Accelerators? You would be a good fit for this position if you:

• Enjoy leading collaborative relationships with external stakeholders and internal coworkers to support the Alberta entrepreneur ecosystem.
• Have the ability to pull together all the pieces of complex projects and drive them across the finish line towards impact.
• Have a respect for process to ensure scaleablilty of our impacts.

We are game changers

Alberta Innovates is a provincially funded corporation with a mandate to deliver 21st-century solutions for the most compelling challenges facing Albertans. We do this by building on our province\'s research and technology development strengths in the core sectors of health, environment, energy, food and fibre, and platforms such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and omics. We are working with our partners to diversify Alberta\'s economy, improve our environmental performance and enhance the well-being of Albertans through research and innovation.

Our subsidiary, InnoTech Alberta, offers a diversified range of scientific engineering and technological research and testing capabilities, and the facilities to support technology scale-up. Our multidisciplinary team has the depth of experience to work across all sectors, from energy to health to food and fibre. InnoTech Alberta offers you access to research talent, technical expertise, and unique facilities that can help accelerate technology development that serves both the private and public sector.

Intrigued? Here\'s some more information about the position:

The Executive Director, Accelerators oversees the development and delivery of short and long term startup and scale up investment plans and strategies, developing goals, aligning impact, delivering and implementing action plans and performance indicators, monitoring performance against plan and evaluating changing priorities, emerging issues and potential impacts to plan achievement and ensuring day-to-day operations and activities are effectively managed and performance targets are achieved.

• Ensures the delivery of Acceleration services and programs investments, identifying business investment opportunities, and developing program delivery plans and tactics to provide optimized impact towards overall corporate goals
• Facilitates the Request for proposal process, review and approval of Accelerator Service agreements, determining appropriate investment fund allocations for the steering committee and providing due diligence and support to assist businesses in local and international market access analysis and planning.
• Develops opportunities to increase ecosystem knowledge on Accelerator and Scaleup and Growth best practices with continued business development opportunities, continues research on Accelerator industry market intelligence and emerging trends, secures business/commercialization partnership commitments, and provides leadership in the development and execution of strategically based scaleup investment initiatives.
• Manages operational, capital and staff budgets and reporting activities, identifying budget requirements, preparing forecasts, explaining variances, authorizing expenditures within budget and approved limits, and ensuring the timely submission of required internal and external reports and financial documents
• Leads interaction with lead funding partners, develops and maintains relationships with internal stakeholders, peers and colleagues, external stakeholders, industry colleagues, government/educational institution representatives and business partners to identify network and engagement opportunities.
• Work closely with Alberta Innovates team and AI Communications colleagues to communicate the value and impacts of our investments internally and externally to AI

Qualifications:

• Bachelor\'s degree in Commerce, Business Administration, Science

• MBA or Master\'s degree in a business related program preferred
• 10 years broad based operational and business management experience

• Experience as an entrepreneur preferred
• At least 10 years progressive management experience at a senior leadership level
• Direct technology commercialization and technology industry investment experience
• Experience working in research and innovation ecosystems is considered an asset
• Strong experience and understanding of government programs and impact management
• Deep understanding of accelerator programs and tech business concepts
• Proven experience in emerging technology
• Ability to develop and maintain key and strategic stakeholder relationships and generate respect and trust from a diverse group of external stakeholders
• Strategic planning and priority management skills
• Purposeful Leadership and influencing skills
• Facilitation and Presentation skills
• Business management oversight and acumen; business case development skills
• People management, mentoring, coaching and career development skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

Why Alberta Innovates?

We offer our employees opportunities to work on projects that will expand their skill sets while witnessing the visible impacts of their efforts. We value the development of our employees and create opportunities for working in capacities that allow new skills to be learned. We know that the wellness of our team is the most important part of our business so we offer a strong benefits package and generous vacation and paid time off programs to promote work-life balance.

The final candidate will be required to undergo a security clearance. All interviewees must be able to meet the requirement specified in the Physical Demand Analysis. This document will be supplied during the interview process to the successful candidate. This competition will remain open until a successful candidate is found.

ALBERTA INNOVATES IS COMMITTED TO THE PRINCIPLE OF EQUITY IN EMPLOYMENT AND ENCOURAGES APPLICATIONS FROM ALL QUALIFIED INDIVIDUALS. WE WISH TO THANK ALL APPLICANTS FOR THEIR INTEREST. HOWEVER, ONLY THOSE INVITED FOR AN INTERVIEW WILL BE CONTACTED.

Alberta Innovates