Early Stage Ventures, Program Manager

Special Instructions to Applicants : In PDF form , applicants should attach a resume and cover letter in the Supporting Documents section of the application.

About Rice

Boasting a 300-acre tree-lined campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has a 6-to-1 undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio and a residential college system, which supports students intellectually, emotionally, and culturally through social events, intramural sports, student plays, lecture series, courses, and student government. Developing close-knit, diverse college communities is a strong campus tradition, which is why Rice is highly ranked for best quality of life and best value among private universities.

Rice is also a wonderful place to work. Rice faculty, staff, and students share values that are essential to our success as a healthy community. Those values guide our decisions and behaviors and shape Rice’s culture. They come through in how we treat each other and the welcome we extend to our visitors. These values can be recalled simply by our name — RICE — Responsibility, Integrity, Community, and Excellence.

Position Summary

The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Lilie) is seeking a Program Manager to lead our Early Stage venture programs. This is a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation and help Rice entrepreneurs take their first steps towards bringing their ideas to life. In this role, you will serve as the first point of contact for many of the students interested in entrepreneurship at Rice. You will work closely with students to understand their passions and help them make tangible, real-world progress towards realizing their dream. In practice, this means you will facilitate mentorship and networking opportunities, develop and lead co-curricular and accelerator programs, and manage relationships with partners, sponsors, and key stakeholders to ensure that Lilie’s early stage recruitment and venture acceleration efforts are a success. Lilie is a small, ambitious team that works collaboratively to achieve amazing results, employing an iterative creation process where we share our work early and often.

Lilie is the beating heart of entrepreneurship, innovation, venture capital, and research commercialization for the whole Rice University campus. Our Center combines over 50 for-credit, experiential courses every year with a suite of programs, resources, competitions, and accelerators to help entrepreneurs and innovators at every stage of their journey. Our mission is to serve Rice University students, faculty, and alumni from all majors and degree programs in helping them go from idea to real-world impact. We’ve been ranked as the #1 Graduate Entrepreneurship program in the country for the last 6 years in a row, but need your help to aim even higher in the future.

The ideal candidate works collaboratively and has strong opinions that are adaptable to new information. The ideal candidate is a proactive communicator and service-oriented, through and through.

Workplace Requirements

Rice Business primarily delivers residential classes and activities taking place almost daily between 7 am and 10 pm. We value a highly collaborative and community-based culture, with expectations to provide in-person support and services to all members of our community. Remote work options are limited. Most employment activities are required to be performed in person and on campus. This in-person approach is central to the successful achievement of our research and academic missions. Per Rice policy 440 , work arrangements may be subject to change.

This position is exclusively on-site, necessitating all duties to be performed in-person on campus Monday through Friday, from 9 am – 5 pm.

Hiring Range

This is a full-time, benefits-eligible position, and the salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications. *Exempt (salaried) positions under FLSA are not eligible for overtime.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree
• 4 years of entrepreneurship, program management, and/or start-up experience
  • In lieu of the experience requirement, additional related education, above and beyond what is required, may be substituted on an equivalent year-for-year basis.

Skills :

• Ability to develop complex and/or multiple program partnerships and funding sources
• Ability to develop and initiate new strategies
• Ability to work well under pressure and manage projects simultaneously
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team to meet expected deadlines, schedules, and goals
• Adept at problem solving, creating contingency plans, and handling issues when necessary
• Excellent organizational and time management skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent client service orientation
• Ability to prioritize, take initiative, and ownership of projects
• Ability to routinely and independently exercise sound judgment in making decisions

Preferences

• 5 years of entrepreneurship, program management experience
• A master's degree or Ph.D. in a business, science, or engineering-related field is preferred.
• Experience developing programming and resources targeted at first-time entrepreneurs and/or business owners
• Experience with startups and startup accelerator programs
• Experience engaging within and across a startup ecosystem
• Shares work early and often, valuing a process of iterative feedback to produce exceptional results

Essential Functions

• Leads the development and implementation of major program(s)
• Collaborates with faculty and/or staff leadership to design programs and establish long range strategic and operational plans
• Identifies and develops promising early-stage ventures from the Rice entrepreneurial ecosystem
• Oversees the operations, administration, and evaluation of programs
• Identifies and implements program changes to ensure alignment with mission and program effectiveness
• Launch and lead ESHIP - a 2-week residential program for high school entrepreneurs
• Develops and implements strategies related to outreach, events, communications, development, partnerships and fundraising / funding
• Devises and manages financial and budgetary plans for the program(s), approves and monitors expenditures
• May teach a course, seminar, or workshop
• Performs all other duties as assigned

Additional Functions

• Responsible for tracking and reporting on all program metrics and impact.
• You may support other Lilie programming and courses as the need arises

Rice University HR | Benefits: https://knowledgecafe.rice.edu/benefits

Rice Mission and Values: Mission and Values | Rice University

Rice University is committed to ensuring Equal Employment Opportunity and welcoming the fullness of diversity into our candidate pools. Rice considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status. Rice also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified persons with disabilities. If an applicant requires a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process, please contact Rice University’s Disability Resource Center at 713-348-5841 or adarice@rice.edu for support.

If you have any additional questions, please email us at jobs@rice.edu . Thank you for your interest in employment with Rice University.