Job Description

Nature creates highly adaptable and efficient biological systems. The goal of the Biological Design Center (BDC) at Boston University is to unlock these design principles and reengineer them for applications in human health and the environment. To achieve this goal, the BDC brings together disparate research areas — including biology, engineering, physics, chemistry, and medicine — to create disruptive ideas and biomedical technologies, drawing in scientists from industry and academia to tinker, invent, and discover under the Center's auspices.

The Center is home to 21 core faculty and more than 150 researchers and trainees, spanning departments of engineering, sciences, computing, and medicine, and occupying three floors of the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering. The BDC's deeply collaborative investigators advance cutting-edge research through federal, foundation, and industry support, and anchor two field-defining graduate training programs: the NIH T32 in Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology (SB2) and the NSF NRT in Biological Feedback Control.

The Executive Director leads the day-to-day operation of the BDC — driving the strategic, communications, and operational aspects of the Center's activities and programs, both facilitating the Center's growth and promoting its science on the global platform.

Specific responsibilities include:

1.Overseeing the Center's Operations and Shared Research Infrastructure: The BDC's operations include purchasing and managing shared equipment, planning equipment maintenance and selective upgrades, overseeing the Center's facilities and resources, interfacing with other University offices and groups, implementing standard operating procedures, and maintaining a safe and positive environment at the Center.

2.Supporting the Center's Scientific and Training Programs: the BDC is home to a number of prestigious scientific training programs — including the NIH T32 SB2 program and the NSF NRT in Biological Feedback Control — for which seminars, workshops, training and professional development opportunities, symposia, and requests for applications, among other things, will need to be managed. The Executive Director also organizes the Center's annual symposium and seminar series and, where necessary, develops and implements new objectives and opportunities for training within the Center.

3.Managing the Center's Public Relations, Communications, and Marketing: this includes the Center's social media communications, website content, marketing and public relations programs and communications, and where necessary, interfacing with University Marketing & Communications offices.

4.Maintaining Oversight on and Managing the Center's Finances and Budget: this includes reporting on the Center's finances, assisting with annual reviews and reports, development and management of budgets and projections, and overseeing invoicing, disbursements, payroll, purchase orders, accounts receivables and/or payables.

5.Supervising the Center's Administrative Staff: this includes regular meetings, creating constructive, efficient and positive workplace practices, and delegation of the Center's administrative tasks.

6.Coordinating and Writing Multi-PI/Institution Grants: this involves supporting multi-PI and multi-institution grant efforts that advance the scientific goals of the BDC, including identifying faculty and institutions, and coordinating, writing, and submitting grant proposals to funding agencies.

Required Skills

Required Qualifications:

A PhD in biology, physical sciences, biomedical engineering, or a related field. 

At least 3 years of related work experience post-graduation (such as in scientific administration, outreach, program management, or communications). Postdoctoral training is not required.

Demonstrated experience taking primary responsibility for a program, initiative, or operation from planning through execution — for example, running a training program, a seminar or symposium series, laboratory or core facility operations, or a comparable organizational unit.

Strong communication skills, with demonstrated ability to convey scientific and organizational information effectively.

Strong organizational skills and the ability to create structure and mechanisms around new programs and activities.

Experience contributing to grant proposals or comparable complex, multi-author scientific documents.

Ability to work with a diverse group of scientists, administrators, trainees, and staff members, and to navigate interpersonal relationships.

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience in an academic research center, institute, or core facility environment. Familiarity with shared research infrastructure, scientific equipment purchasing, or core facility operations. Experience coordinating multi-PI or multi-institutional grants, particularly training grants or center grants. Experience communicating science to both scientific and general audiences.

To Apply

Please submit a CV and a single PDF containing a brief cover letter and one writing sample of your own authorship — for example, a grant section, program or annual report, newsletter piece, or article written for a scientific or general audience (2–5 pages). Co-authored work is acceptable; please indicate which portions are yours.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

Job Tags

Full time, For contractors, Traineeship, Work experience placement

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