Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer

Purpose of Position

The University of Texas at Arlington is seeking a Chief Innovation Officer to provide strategic, operational, and external leadership for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology Development. The Chief Innovation Officer will lead UTA’s next-generation innovation and commercialization enterprise by developing entrepreneurial faculty, advancing UTA technologies toward market adoption, expanding student entrepreneurship, strengthening regional and industry partnerships, and building the systems necessary to convert research strength into societal, economic, and institutional impact.

The Chief Innovation Officer will be responsible for leading CETD’s integrated portfolio across technology commercialization, research translation, student entrepreneurship, faculty development, market intelligence, regional outreach, and proof-of-concept programming. The position will work closely with university leaders, industry partners, and regional innovation stakeholders. The role requires a leader who can operate at the intersection of university research, startup formation, intellectual property strategy, industry engagement, economic development, student entrepreneurship, and institutional change.

Essential Functions

• Leads CETD as UTA’s central engine for entrepreneurship, research translation, and technology commercialization.
• Partners with University leadership to align CETD programming with institutional priorities and advance regional economic and innovation opportunities.
• Provides executive leadership for UTA’s intellectual property, technology translation, licensing, startup formation, and commercialization portfolio.
• Oversees active licensing opportunity pipelines to ensure that UTA technologies are positioned for market adoption.
• Builds and leads a comprehensive faculty-engagement strategy designed to move researchers along a commercialization maturity continuum.
• Works with university leaders to identify emerging innovators and create structured engagement plans..
• Provides strategic oversight for CETD’s student entrepreneurship portfolio through integrated programming that is accessible, practical, experiential, and connected to broader innovation pipelines.
• Leads CETD’s community and regional outreach strategy to position UTA as an active hub in the DFW innovation ecosystem.
• Other duties as assigned.
  
  

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant field such as business, law, engineering, science, public policy, entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, economic development, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• Ten (10) years of professional experience in technology commercialization, innovation management, entrepreneurship, venture development, research translation, intellectual property strategy, startup formation, industry engagement, economic development, investment, government affairs, or related fields.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional work involving multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, ambiguous opportunities, and long commercialization timelines.
• Demonstrated ability to manage budgets, operational processes, performance metrics, reporting systems, teams, and strategic initiatives.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience serving in a senior leadership role in a university technology-transfer office, commercialization center, innovation office, venture studio, accelerator, economic development organization, investment organization, startup, corporate innovation group, or applied research enterprise.
• Experience as a founder, investor, operator, commercialization executive, licensing professional, entrepreneur in residence, executive in residence, or venture-development leader.
• Demonstrated record of licensing technologies, forming startups, negotiating industry partnerships, securing translational funding, raising investment capital, or moving university technologies toward market adoption.
• Demonstrated ability to represent an institution externally with credibility, professionalism, and strategic judgment, and to build durable partnerships.
  
  

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Ability to think strategically and operationally about innovation systems, university commercialization, faculty incentives, startup formation, investor engagement, student entrepreneurship, and regional economic development.
• Ability to assess research capabilities, technology maturity, market demand, intellectual property strength, team readiness, proof-of-concept needs, customer discovery evidence, and potential commercialization pathways.
• Ability to build trust with faculty while applying disciplined business judgment to technology prioritization, patent investment, licensing strategy, and portfolio management.
• Ability to communicate effectively with diverse audiences, including faculty researchers, students, senior administrators, legal counsel, business executives, investors, entrepreneurs, community leaders, and government stakeholders.
• Ability to lead a center that functions as both an internal university service organization and an external market-facing opportunity development platform.
  
  

Work Schedule

• Monday through Friday; 8:00am through 5:00pm
• 10% Travel.
• Requires occasional evening or weekend hours.
  
  

Benefits Information

Position is benefit eligible: Yes

We are proud to offer a comprehensive benefits package to our employees at the University.

https://www.uta.edu/hr/employee-benefits