Program Officer
About The Role:
VentureWell is growing and is seeking a Program Officer who is interested in working with emerging programmatic opportunities in the healthcare field, with a focus on the development of new breakthrough capabilities, technologies, systems, and platforms to accelerate innovation in health and medicine. We value staff members who are curious, committed to environmental sustainability, and have experience (either through work or personal life) working with marginalized groups affected by racism, sexism, or classism.
VentureWell serves as the Consortium Management Firm for the ARPA-H Investor Catalyst Hub, a groundbreaking health innovation network. The Investor Catalyst Hub scales health research and venture investment ecosystem capabilities, disrupts traditional care models, creates new delivery pathways, and helps performers bring game-changing solutions to market to solve big problems in health. Specifically, our role in this collaboration includes (1) working to successfully execute projects as designed, (2) partnering with program leads to create, design, and implement new projects and ideas, and (3) engaging network and partners tailored to support program development goals and needs.
VentureWell has an exciting opportunity to hire a new Program Officer to join our ARPA-H Program team. The ideal candidate has experience and/or training in healthcare commercialization and medical technologies or related fields, with exceptional project and program management skills and thrives in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
The Program Officer can be remote or based out of our Cambridge office.
Responsibilities:
Project Delivery (75% of time)
- Act independently as program liaison with the partner organizations in the ARPA-H program; tactfully deliver timely information between partner organizations and staff; represent organization and program interests during meetings, events, and conversations with partners, consultants, and vendors.
- Translate high-level proposals and awards into tangible and practical work plans.
- Provide high-quality technical assistance for program initiatives, including desk research, project documentation, tool/template/report creation.
- Manage activities, contracts, and sub-contracts to ensure compliance with award deliverables, rules, and obligations.
- Leverage healthcare commercialization or medical technology domain experience to coordinate and implement new and existing program offerings with guidance from manager, including continually learning from evaluation findings to recommend program improvements and implementing process improvements while systems are “in motion.”
- Work within defined program direction with funders and partners for successful program implementation, including creative problem-solving and customer service approach to deliver on funder and partner needs within time and budget constraints.
- Prepare and synthesize written material for proposals and reports to funder.
- Design, plan, and facilitate effective meetings.
Project Management (15% of time)
- Provide operational support to programs through work plan management, meeting notes, action item tracking, project documentation, and overall project coordination.
- Actively participate in internal collaboration and communication to ensure program success through use of project management tools and practices.
- Act as a problem solver, identifying internal inefficiencies and pain points and communicate them to relevant partner teams; partner with relevant teams on problem-solving; operationalizing system improvements on a proactive and reactive basis.
- Ensure logistics required for successful program implementation are planned and executed in a manner that delivers excellence.
Relationship Management (10% of time)
- Play a support role in the fundraising, branding, promotion, and marketing of programs. Prepare and synthesize written material for proposals and reports to funders.
- Serve as a liaison between multiple VentureWell departments, modeling the Core Values while navigating fast-paced work in the midst of multiple, vying priorities.
- Source and manage professional services consultants and vendors assigned to the program.
What You Bring:
- BS/BA required
- Minimum 3 years related experience including project management or program administration, with domain experience in fields related to VentureWell program areas, specifically with training or experience in healthcare commercialization, medtech, or related fields
- Prior experience supporting innovative health technologies from the lab to the market and working with a number of different partners and institutions (research, academic, industry, regulatory, etc.) as part of a network/consortium strongly preferred to set this position up for success
- Demonstrated history of success using project management skills, including ability to meet deadlines and coordinate multiple tasks with a wide range of stakeholders
- Highly adaptable and comfortable working with a degree of ambiguity
- Ability to communicate clearly and effectively across multiple content areas and stakeholder groups, both internally and externally
- Outstanding written and oral communication skills with an ability to articulate and synthesize information in a compelling, organized manner
- Ability to extract key information and data to recommend solutions
- Ability to understand and apply appropriate tools and technologies used in the workplace; ease with adapting new technologies as needed
- High degree of digital fluency using cloud-based office tools such as GSuite, CRMs, team collaboration tools, and other web-based applications; ability to incorporate these tools into day-to-day work
- Ability to travel approximately 10% time
- Ability to align to East Coast business hours to accommodate funder's workday
Across the Board, VentureWell Staff:
- Are able to succeed and thrive in an environment with competing and changing priorities and tight deadlines
- Have track records of and ability to build solid collaborative working relationships, and are proven team players who enjoy a “customer service” orientation to collaboration
- Are committed to embedding equity in our internal practices and culture and in our programs in order to live and achieve our mission
- Bring openness and engagement to personal, professional, and organization-wide learning on race, class, gender, justice, and equity
- Are curious and committed to issues of environmental sustainability
- Are self-starters with excellent attention to detail and a commitment to delivering high-quality work
- Are active learners who independently learn new tools and work processes quickly
- Have excellent written and oral communication skills
Our Benefits*:
- An attractive and equitable compensation package, including:
- a salary range of $70-80K commensurate with experience and internal equity
- 403 (b) with 200% match up to a maximum contribution from VentureWell of 10% when the employee puts it 5% (eligible after one year of service for the match)
- Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
- $1,000 home office stipend upon hire
- A true focus on work-life balance with work weeks that reflect that
- It’s our aim for our employees in this position to not work more than a 40-hour workweek
- 20 paid vacation days
- 12 paid holidays
- 12 paid wellness days
*Benefits are reviewed each fiscal year and may be subject to change.
What We Offer:
- A culture where people work intentionally and collaboratively in pursuit of our mission
- Values we believe in
- A commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
About VentureWell:
VentureWell supports the cultivation of an emerging generation of science and technology inventors and the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems that are critical to their success. Since its founding in 1995, VentureWell has funded or trained over 17,000 science and technology inventors and innovators, resulting in the emergence of over 4,700 ventures with groundbreaking technological advancements in fields like biomedicine and healthcare, sustainable energy and materials, and solutions for low-resource settings. The startups they have supported have raised subsequent funds totaling more than 6.3 billion and are reaching millions of people in 55 countries.
Visit venturewell.org to learn more.
