Director of Innovation Partnerships and Engagement

Job Summary

Job Description

This role serves as the connective tissue  between UATX’s Polaris program and the university’s Talent Network of founders, industry leaders, and investors. You will engage directly with students to translate their startups, research, and technical systems into tangible pathways like venture support and apprenticeships. By bringing market insights back to campus and collaborating with communications teams to showcase student breakthroughs, you ensure UATX work remains ambitious, relevant, and legible to the global innovation ecosystem.

Polaris Project

Polaris is UATX’s signature, four-year requirement where students identify a core problem and build a meaningful response, such as a startup, technical system, or research effort. Rather than a final capstone, it is an integrated, iterative process of intellectual ambition and practical execution that spans their entire undergraduate career.

Talent Network

The Talent Network is an active ecosystem of employers, founders, mentors, and investors. It creates direct pathways for students to access apprenticeships, venture support, and research collaborations. By providing a feedback loop from industry to campus, the network ensures student work remains relevant to the broader market.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary bridge between the Polaris program and the Talent Network, ensuring alignment between student work and external opportunity

• Help develop and maintain the talent network’s builders, inventors, operators, mentors, and practitioners), facilitating their connection to  labs and Polaris

• Build and manage external partnerships with individuals, companies, labs, institutions, and ecosystem organizations

• Translate student skills, projects, and professional goals into clear opportunity pathways, including venture support, apprenticeships, internships, and post-graduate roles

• Co-own Innovation Labs’ and Polaris communications and content strategy in partnership with the UATX Communications team and Innovation Labs Executive Director

• Support culture-building through events, programming, and community touchpoints that reinforce the Innovation Labs ethos

Qualifications

• Track record building high-trust relationships that lead to real programming and outcomes

• Culture builder: can create communities that people want to join

• Connector and relationship builder: enjoys bringing the right people together and developing meaningful partnerships

• Builder-adjacent: understands technical work sufficiently to engage with partners

• Experience in community engagement, employer relations, recruiting, and network development - ideally within technology or startup ecosystems

• Collaborative team player who works effectively across functions and builds strong internal partnerships