Innovation Hub Program Navigator

Proposed Start Date

Proposed Start Date 12/01/2026

Classification Title

Classification Title Field, Research, and Outreach Services

Rank

Rank N
- No Rank

Working Title

Working Title Innovation Hub Program Navigator

Department

Position Number

Position Number D93501

Representation

Representation AU - AAUP

Renewable

Renewable Renewable

End date, if applicable

End date, if applicable 06/30/2027

Position FTE

Position FTE Variable between .5 and 1.0 FTE, starting at 1.0 FTE

Tenure Status F
- Fixed Term

Portland State University is Oregon’s most affordable public research university, located in the heart of one of America’s most dynamic cities. Our mission to “let knowledge serve the city” reflects our dedication to turning ideas into action — in Portland and around the world. The city is our campus, giving students unmatched access to career connections, a vibrant cultural scene and hands‑on learning experiences with hundreds of community partners.

More than 20,000 students from all backgrounds bring diverse perspectives to our classrooms and campus life, from the tree‑lined Park Blocks to the bustling Urban Plaza and state‑of‑the‑art science labs. We are proud of our world‑class faculty, groundbreaking research and international reputation for excellence in sustainability, community engagement and innovation.

Portland State University facilitates and hosts the Metro Region Innovation Hub (the Hub), which launched in Summer 2024. Funded by Business Oregon and other community partners, the Hub serves the tri‑county Metro area and provides regional entrepreneurs from all sectors, backgrounds, and business stages with accessible paths to all existing regional resources in networking, coaching, education, and capital access in order to foster and grow innovation‑based businesses.

An invisible driver of success for many entrepreneurial ecosystems is local connectors who know what resources are available and the criteria for accessing them, and who regularly talk to entrepreneurs and provide intros to access those resources. For many communities, however, there are too few of those people, disparities in who can access those people (e.g. in terms of race and gender), and the labor for people who take on those roles is often informal and uncompensated.

The Hub directly invests in that driver with a closely coordinated team of visible and knowledgeable Navigators that any entrepreneur can easily and equitably access.

The Hub Navigators will fill this role for the Hub. Navigators will, at a high level, acquire and maintain relationships with and knowledge of regional ecosystem resources and providers, meet and assess the needs of individuals and small companies in the region, refer or case‑manage those entrepreneurs to regional resources and providers, and follow up with these engagements to ensure and “map” out what is most effective.

They will also drive resource deployment in other Hub programs by uncovering emergent needs among entrepreneurs in the region.

Navigators should be familiar with the Hub’s service priorities for both innovation‑based, traded sector businesses and for equity and accessibility for communities who may not have known about or taken advantage of regional resources. Navigators should have excellent cross‑cultural communication competence.

Navigators serve as leaders and experts for the Hub programs, managing unique and challenging issues that have significant impact on the Hub and the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem. They may lead other employees and students in executing these programs. Their work will be guided by overall objectives but may have minimal day‑to‑day supervision, and they will need to make…