Research Development Director Position Description

The Director of the Research Development Office (RDO) reports to the Associate ViceChancellor for Research Capacity Building (AVC-RCB). The Director leads a team of Research Development professionals to craft and implement targeted implementation plan for addressing large federal agency funding mechanisms, and topical growth strategies aimed at growing and diversifying UW–Madison’s federally funded research
portfolio.

The Director draws on UW–Madison’s partnership with Lewis-Burke to inform campus strategy with federal landscape insights, helping ensure that research development work aligns with national funding trends and agency priorities.

The Director oversees the development and implementation of programming within the Research Development team’s assigned portfolios and drives networking, outreach, and sponsor relationship management activities. Working closely with the AVC-RCB and Research Development team, the Director strengthens and standardizes best practices and tools for effective support of large-scale, complex proposal development, supports UW–Madison-wide awareness and capacity-building programming and continues on-
going professional development for team members. The Director works with the AVC-RCB to guide development of UW–Madison-level, cross-cutting strategic initiatives based on research data, UW–Madison infrastructure, competitive analysis, and University priorities and has primary responsibility for implementing these initiatives across portfolio areas.

The Director regularly interacts with and may advise college and center-level research leadership, representing the team on behalf of the AVC-RCB and providing proposal development support for select, large-scale projects, based on available team capacity. The Director identifies opportunities for growth and development within the team and broader division and participates in discussions to inform overall University strategic research vision. The Director leads recruiting and onboarding of new staff and manages all performance management activities for the team, including corrective action and employee labor relations issues, in partnership with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research – Human Resources (OVCR-HR).

Responsibilities:

75% Provide leadership to the Research Development team to craft and implement research growth and development initiatives as part of the AVC-RCB’s strategic vision:

• Leads a team of Research Development professionals to craft and implements strategies within their assigned portfolios to grow and diversify UW–Madison’s federally supported research portfolio. This includes portfolio-specific strategies related to targeted federal agency, funding mechanism, and topical growth strategies.
• Guides the Research Development team to implement networking, outreach, and sponsor relationship management activities to achieve strategic goals, including, but not limited to, such things as hosting or visiting with federal sponsors, delivering opportunity briefings, issuing calls for ideas, and conducting awareness-building activities on campus.
• Guides the Research Development team to implement research leadership training program for UW researchers in collaboration with other existing programs on campus and by bringing external partners where applicable.
• Utilize internal and external research data, knowledge of federal funding trends and priorities, and knowledge of UW–Madison research assets to inform development and implementation of targeted UW–Madison-wide research growth initiatives.
• Identifies best practice to guide the team members on utilizing processes and skills for effective support of large-scale, complex proposal development, working with faculty teams, and tracking and measuring RDO productivity.
• Recommend areas for process and practice improvement and work with AVC-RCB to implement change.
• Strengthen processes and skills for effective support of large-scale, complex proposal development, support UW–Madison-wide awareness and capacity-building programming in pursuit of UW–Madison-wide growth and
  diversification goals.
• Work with the AVC-RCB and UW–Madison-level research leaders to inform and implement cross-cutting strategic initiatives. This includes portfolio-specific strategies related to specific funding mechanisms and research topics.
• Work with AVC-RCB to ensure user-friendly access to internal and external data required to support portfolio growth strategies, and proposal teams working with Research Development on large-scale, complex, leadership-level proposals.

 

15% Supervise and guide development of Research Development staff

• Supervise and manage the day-to-day activities of Research Development team members, including handling decision-making regarding the distribution of assignments and the tracking/evaluation of their productivity.
• Ensure knowledge sharing and transfer across team members to enhance team understanding of areas of strength and emerging opportunity across campus as well as broaden competency with varied federal sponsors.
• Continue professional development for individual contributors and broader team-building activities.
• Identify opportunities for growth and development within the structure and participate in discussions that inform overall University strategic research vision.
• Lead recruiting and onboarding of new staff.
• Manage all performance management activities for the team, including corrective action and employee labor relations issues, in partnership with OVCR-HR.

 

10%: Representation and Service

• Represents Research Development on university committees, represents the unit and UW–Madison on external advisory boards and panels as requested, and performs other duties as assigned by the AVC-RCB.

 

Required Qualifications:

• Advanced degree.
• 10 years of relevant work experience.
• Experience working on research strategy and proposal development with a range of federal research sponsor agencies and programs.
• Demonstrated experience working with multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and/or convergence science teams on large-scale, national leadership level proposals.

 

Desired Qualifications:

• 15 or more years of relevant work experience, including a minimum of 5 years of supervisory experience with evidence of progressive responsibility, and a minimum of 5 years of experience working in a university research setting or in a position that required significant interaction with university researchers.
• Familiarity with federal research data including NSF HERD Survey.
• Knowledge of health, defense and/or space-related federal research environment.