Director of Strategy and Partnerships

Job Summary

The University of Colorado has engaged Opus Partners to support the recruitment of the Director of Strategy and Partnerships. The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics ( LASP ) at the University of Colorado Boulder invites nominations and applications for the position of Director of Strategy and Partnerships. The position provides a rare opportunity to help define the future of one of the world’s premier space research institutions.

The Director of Strategy and Partnerships is a senior leadership team role, reporting to LASP’s Director, that develops and executes LASP's strategic vision, cultivates the partnerships essential to advancing the lab's space science mission, and ensures competitive proposals are submitted for winning new grants and contracts that support the laboratory’s science and technology efforts. In collaboration with the Director of LASP and the executive team, this role represents LASP objectives, champions strategic positions for large missions and instrument lines, leads capture efforts, and oversees proposal activities across key partner relationships.

The Director of Strategy and Partnerships leads a team of proposal and capture managers to identify, formulate, and support research and technology in emerging opportunity areas spanning government, commercial, philanthropic, and international sectors. Their team also includes a committee of LASP professionals engaged part-time to support proposal opportunity dissemination and proposal internal support and review.

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.

Who We Are

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics ( LASP ) is one of the largest research institutes of CU Boulder, the #1 public university recipient of NASA research grants, and one of America’s leading aerospace universities. With a focus on solar, stellar, space plasma, atmospheric, and planetary sciences, LASP employs both experimental and theoretical approaches to answer key science questions. Since its inception in 1948, LASP has developed, operated, and analyzed the data from scientific instrumentation for solar science, earth atmospheric, planetary, deep-space, and Earth-orbiting spacecraft missions investigating the Sun, all eight planets, Pluto and beyond.

The progressive development of research capabilities and use of innovative technologies in pursuit of emerging research initiatives ensures a continued leadership role for LASP in today’s growing “new space” era. Since 2013, LASP has secured over $1.75B in grants and contracts. LASP has grown rapidly in the last decade, with expenditures that exceed well over $150M annually, secured through grants, contracts, and other funding vehicles.

Some 400 of LASP’s 600-person staff are technical staff and research scientists. The LASP community includes tenure/tenure-track faculty, approximately 110 student employees, 69 graduate students, and 10 postdocs.

An important element of LASP’s mission is to train the next generation of space scientists and engineers: through wide-ranging research and flight projects, LASP participates actively in the development of the future leaders of space research and is a leader in educating students with highly valued technical and scientific skills. Undergraduate and graduate student participation is integral to LASP’s R&D and operational success.

In this regard, LASP has been both a contributor to and beneficiary of the…