About VentureWell

VentureWell supports early-stage, socially beneficial science and technology innovators, their ventures, and the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems that are critical to their success.

Since our founding in 1995, we’ve funded and trained over 1,300 teams of science and technology inventors, and innovators, and nurtured thousands of their startups reaching millions of people in over 50 countries with groundbreaking technological advancements in fields such as biomedicine and healthcare, sustainable energy and materials, and solutions for low-resource settings.

Working at VentureWell

Our team-oriented culture is one of the things we’re most proud of. We take our core values seriously and integrate them into our work, operations, and decision-making. VentureWell provides exceptional benefits; highlights include:

1. All full-time employees receive four weeks of vacation time plus 12 paid holidays.
2. VentureWell offers an incredibly generous 403(b) matching program.
3. Our values drive our work and our culture:  We Collaborate for Impact, Live Innovation, Bring Integrity Always, Delivery Excellence, and Interact with Candor and Consideration.

About the Xcelerator Program

The Xcelerator Training Program provides training and coaching, specifically for Grand Challenges grantees from USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. These programs support grantees to advance their innovations along the product - market adoption pipeline. The program prepares innovators to address the complexities of implementing new technologies in the developing world, helping speed up the process by which their ideas are turned into products that can have a real impact and potentially save lives. The Xcelerator program’s success has created the need for an individual to join a small team and expand the program’s capabilities for online engagement, team support, and knowledge management.

About the role - Senior Program Officer for Global Health Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programs

The Xcelerator program has been running for over 5 years and as we look to continue its success we want to hire a strong leader to run this program in addition to other areas of growth for VentureWell. The Senior Program Officer will take over leadership of the Xcelerator program and support other new and existing VentureWell initiatives. This role reports to the VP, Programs, Laura Sampath.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Operational leadership for VentureWell’s Xcelerator program; manages program development, implementation and funder/partner relationships.
• Leads the program’s relationships with partners and funders; participates in the strategic development of VentureWell’s global early-stage innovator offerings.
• Proactively organizes and manages the production of program offerings including the development and sourcing of collateral, materials, vendors, and consultants.
• Leads the identification of, negotiation with and management of in-country partners and vendor resources for global program deployments.
• Identifies, proposes, and takes initiative to locate advisors, consultants, trainers, and coaches to support teams for webinar series; may also present content for webinars.
• Develops tools and processes to improve program operations and tracking of program impact.
• Serves as liaison with program participants for implementation of program offerings.
• Ensuring program stakeholders are appropriately engaged in our work.
• Communicating our stakeholder’s viewpoints, ideas, and analyses in compelling, articulate and creative ways.
• Manage staff assigned to the program

We’re looking for someone who is:

• Emotionally intelligent and able to build strong relationships that inspire openness and trust.
• Intellectually curious, insightful, and resourceful.
• Able to take initiative and drive work with moderate supervision and guidance.
• Intentional about creating order, ensuring deadlines are met, and planning ahead.
• A humble leader with strong managerial skills, with exceptional interpersonal skills and experience building strong professional relationships with diverse colleagues.
• An entrepreneur at heart; You may have started your own business before or have the business know-how that helped drive the growth and innovation to make a business work better. You have the ability to assess entrepreneur needs and recommend services to support them.

who brings…

• 8-15 years of relevant professional experience with a track record of effective partner/funder relationship management.
• Exemplary written and verbal communication skills.
• Exceptional analytical skills.
• Comfort with quantitative data, budgets, and financial information.
• A client approach to partner engagement and is comfortable endorsing multiple approaches to solving complex problems and shining a light on our partners’ successes.
• Experience living and/or working in a developing country in a global-health related field.
• A proactive, collaborative attitude.
• Familiarity, passion, and a demonstrated commitment to VentureWell’s mission and vision.

HOW WILL WE KNOW YOU’RE THE RIGHT PERSON FOR THE ROLE?

Please complete the following very simple application. Priority will be given to those applications submitted by Wednesday, March 28th; therefore we encourage you to submit yours soon! Candidates that meet the minimum experience will be invited to complete a set of short answer questions.   

If you have any questions about the role, please feel free to email abe.taleb@rework.jobs. We look forward to learning about you!

One Frequently Asked Question.

This job sounds perfect, but I have no plans to move to Hadley, MA, can I work remotely?

We have a strong preference for and will give priority to candidates who will work in our office. Working and living in the beautiful Pioneer Valley/Five College area in Western Massachusetts comes with many advantages:

• Lots of outdoor activities
• Affordable housing
• 2 Hours from Boston, 3 Hours from NYC
• Great Schools
• Cultural experiences connected to the Five College community