Manager, Alliance Management PICI (Tech Professional II)

Job Title: Manager, Alliance Management PICI (Tech Professional II) 

Company: Cornell University

Location: Flexible, office located in New York City

The Organization:

From the laboratory bench to manufacture and from cultural evolution to concepts in sustainability, Cornell University researchers and scholars are translating discovery into meaningful, measurable impact that is changing the world for the better.

Cornell University is an innovative Ivy League university and a great place to work. Its inclusive community of scholars, students and staff impart an uncommon sense of larger purpose and contribute creative ideas to further the university's mission of teaching, discovery and engagement. With the main campus located in Ithaca, NY, Cornell's far-flung global presence includes the medical college's campuses on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Doha, Qatar, as well as the Cornell Tech campus located on Roosevelt Island in the heart of New York City. The Manager, Alliance Management PICI will be located at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

The Research Division The Research Division, headed by the Vice President for Research and Innovation, enables and advances the university’s research priorities as well as research activities of Cornell colleges, schools, and research centers, institutes, and laboratories. This conglomeration of university administration, research services, and the advancement of academia is at the intersection that connects Cornell’s Extreme Talent, Radical Collaboration, and Results that Matter.

What is the Center for Technology Licensing? The Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) is one of Cornell University's technology transfer offices and is responsible for protecting and commercializing Cornell technologies from Cornell's Weill Cornell Medicine and Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) campuses. CTL at WCM is an integral part of the newly launched WCM Enterprise Innovation, a fully integrated organization whose mission is to accelerate the best of biomedical innovation to market and translate groundbreaking research into revolutionary care through collaborations and alliances. WCM Enterprise Innovation provides end-to-end support to plant, cultivate, protect, and partner innovative technologies developed by faculty and trainees at WCM and WCM-Q.

For more information about the Center of Technology Licensing, please visit: www.ctl.cornell.edu

For more information about Weill Cornell Medicine Enterprise Innovation and CTL at WCM, please visit: https://innovation.weill.cornell.edu/

THE OPPORTUNITY: The Manager, Alliance Management PICI will be a mid-career professional who will join CTL’s business development and licensing team in New York City to work closely with faculty, student and staff members participating in the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy @ Weill Cornell Medicine (PICI@WCM) alliance. The Manager, Alliance Management will have primary responsibility for managing complex intellectual property and technology transfer tasks for the PICI@WCM alliance including being a key liaison between Enterprise Innovation, PICI@WCM’s members and their research teams and other academic institutions involved in the PICI consortium, and PICI. Key duties will include ensuring compliance with all intellectual property aspects of the alliance agreement and negotiating permitted third party agreements to support the PICI@WCM researcher's laboratories. The position is contingent on PICI funding.

PICI’s mission is to accelerate the development of breakthrough immune therapies to turn all cancers into curable diseases. PICI supports selected renowned institutions and outstanding investigators from additional institutions who have made seminal contributions to the field of immuno-oncology. Well over 400 people are currently PICI-affiliated, including program and administrative staff at PICI and at affilated research institutions. PICI takes on high-risk, high-reward research projects to advance immunotherapy and help patients.

Responsibilities:

Serve as the primary liaison to manage all intellectual property matters pertaining to the PICI@WCM consortium:

• Provide education, guidance, and advice to all faculty and trainees considering participation or actively participatining in PICI@WCM funded programs on the terms and obligations of PICI partcipation including being responsible for all onboarding activities, such as (i) detailed review of all pre-existing contractual obligations to ensure there are no contractual encumbrances to preclude participation in PICI@WCM, and (ii) review of all existing background IP.

• Review all future external party funding/collaboration, material transfer, and foundation grant agreements for active PICI@WCM participants to ensure no contractual encumbrances to preclude entering such external party agreement and promptly resolving any identified encumbrances in accordance with PICI contractual obligations

• Participate in internal PICI@WCM research and clinical development meetings with member researchers and project members to help identify new intellectual property, keep abreast of arising research, and fulfill contractual obligations to PICI.

• Track and timely fulfill all reporting and disclosure obligations to PICI and documenting related action items and approvals.

• Liase regularly with other internal WCM teams including OSRA, General Counsel, and Research Compliance to ensure compliance with PICI terms and conditions. Responsible for developing SOPs for onboarding, tracking, and managing the PICI@WCM relationship across all internal WCM teams to enable “real-time monitoring” of the PICI@WCM relationship using existing resources (Box, Teams, Airtable, internal databases etc) or identifying needed tools.

• Integrate and closely collaborate with the Enterprise Innovation BD&L team on all matters pertaining to IP strategy and commercialization of PICI-related intellectual property to ensure seamless management and execution on agreed upon strategies and communicate with PICI to document related action items and approvals.

• Lead engagement with PICI around matters pertaining to intellectual property and commercialization including preparing agendas and meeting minutes, coordinating and scheduling steering committee and ad-hoc meetings, and documentating related action items and approvals

Required Experience:

• 3-5 years of experience successfully managing large complex early-stage research alliances.

• Proven ability to interact with a wide range of people in a professional and ethical manner, including faculty, students, business development professionals, and lawyers with an emphasis on conflict identification and resolution and navigating challenging conversations with transparency and a solution-orientated mindset.

• Excellent communication skills - listening, presenting, and writing – with proven sensitivity and ability to manage confidential information. 

• Excellent organizational and project management skills

• Demonstrated ability to understand complex intellectual property transactions including collaboration agreements, funding agreements, material transfer agreements, identify potential contractual conflicts between overlapping agreements and resolve through creative negotiation.

• Ability to work in a highly matrixed and complex organization with multiple stakeholders, align interests between stakeholders, and influence across company lines

• Ability to cultivate and develop inclusive and equitable working relationships with students, faculty, staff, and community members. 

Qualifications:

• A graduate degree in life sciences, molecular biology, biochemistry, protein chemistry and/or cell biology or healthcare fields.

Interested candidates should apply via the Cornell Careers website at: https://cornell.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/CornellCareerPage/job/NYC-Weill-Cornell-Medical-College/Manager--Alliance-Management-PICI_WDR-00040568-1 Please include a cover letter being sure to highlight skill sets that exemplify your ability to manage complex research alliances.

Direct Posting Inquiries to: Lisa Placanica, Senior Managing Director, CTL@WCM, email: lmp26@cornell.edu