Associate Licensing Manager

Associate Licensing Manager for Physical Sciences

Venture Partners CU Boulder is excited to announce an opening for a collaborative team member with a passion for innovation. The Associate Licensing Manager for Physical Sciences is responsible for managing innovations and their intellectual property (IP) from world leading scientists and engineers, and is a central figure in the CU Boulder entrepreneurial ecosystem. The contributions of the Associate Licensing Manager are integral to Venture Partners' mission to translate research innovation into positive social and economic impact.

The Associate Licensing Manager catalyzes the commercialization of research innovations. To promote successful commercialization, the Associate Licensing Manager uses an entrepreneurial approach and skills to guide the inventors through entrepreneur education and funding resources, as well as building a startup or industry partnerships. The Associate Licensing Manager has the confidence and interpersonal skills necessary to connect with senior level faculty, administration, and industry partner executives, and the ability to build relationships within the campus and ecosystem.

The Associate Licensing Manager uses best practices to ensure IP strategy and related transactions meet high quality of professional criteria including all pertinent policies, regulations, and laws associated with the management of IP.

The Associate Licensing Manager will report to the Assistant Director of Licensing at Venture Partners.

CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

CU Boulder is one of 34 U.S. public research institutions belonging to the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU)—and the only member in the Rocky Mountain region. Our goal is to directly benefit the world through collaborative research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Boulder has been ranked by Forbes as the best city in America in which to start a business, and as the top city in America by Bloomberg's Brain Concentration Index.

Venture Partners is the commercialization arm for CU Boulder and a recognized national leader in translating university research into market-ready solutions and products. CU Boulder has spun out 11 unicorns—a startup valued at $1 billion or more while still privately held—including Infleqtion, Forge Nano, Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Amgen and Soma Logic. In fiscal year 2024, CU Boulder launched more startups based on university intellectual property than any other U.S. campus that year.

In addition to holding the No. 1 spot for that year, the achievement also placed CU Boulder No. 2 for the most startups launched in a single year by a U.S. campus.

Licensing

• Manage a portfolio of inventions in various areas of engineering and physical sciences.
• Build strong relationships with faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral inventors.
• Solicit and assess early inventions, including analysis of the potential value proposition, intellectual property (IP), and technology readiness.
• Implement IP strategies for the protection, prosecution, and enforcement of patent and other IP rights within a portfolio.
• Liaise with and advise the CU Boulder contracts and grants unit to ensure IP strategies align with IP terms in sponsored research contracts.
• Interface closely with Venture Partners' team members and resources for advancing innovations, including participation in our various startup development programming.
• Prioritize portfolio assets and make optimal referrals to resources for inventor education, mentorship, funding, licensee identification, and startup formation.
• Provide portfolio expertise for ecosystem partners such as accelerators, incubators, and investors.
• Draft, negotiate, and manage a variety of IP agreements, including options, licenses, and joint-owner management plans.

Programs & Support

• Support…