Job Purpose:
To emerge TTU as a leading university for collaborative-interdisciplinary-innovative-creative-entrepreneur culture driven research and development in engineering and solving societal and industry problems of critical importance to Workforce and Economic Development of the Region and the State of Tennessee.
Tennessee Tech is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.
Essential Functions:
The Vice-President is responsible for enhancing the overall research stature of Tennessee Tech University and assisting the institution in fulfilling its mission to provide a strong and vibrant capacity for research, innovation, and economic development in the state of Tennessee and the Nation. This position carries administrative responsibility for a wide range of research programs and policies in cooperation with other University bodies; an important aspect of which is the College of Graduate Studies. This individual will play a major role in building relationships with government, industry, and community agencies to increase research funding and research opportunities for faculty and the University. Excellent communication and leadership skills, fostering an environment favorable to research and scholarly work; they must possess the ability to encourage research by the faculty members in Agriculture and Human Ecology, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies, Library Sciences, and Nursing.
This position is responsible for the stimulation, promotion, and coordination of faculty-led research, scholarship, and creativity across all disciplines ranging from single PI projects to large multidisciplinary teams. Familiarity and experience with research administration, including both pre-award and post-award; they will also have experience in research compliance and security, the management of shared resources and facilities, and overseeing intellectual property and technology transfer. They will have demonstrated success in executive leadership responsibilities, including the development of long-term strategic plans, prioritization of resources, as well as collaboration and consensus building from diverse groups when making strategic decisions. Finally, a successful candidate will possess a strong record of budgeting and fiduciary accountability, an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit, and a commitment to promoting diversity across all levels. It is also essential that they have the ability to interact effectively with academic colleagues, governance bodies, research agencies, business leaders, government, and the community.
Minimum Qualifications:
An earned doctorate from an accredited university. Demonstrated success fostering a culture of research, scholarship, and/or creativity amongst faculty, staff, students. Demonstrated success in securing and managing grants and contracts. Experience promoting and developing research and scholarship across all disciplines. Experience fostering relationships among internal and external stakeholders. Record of progressively increasing levels of administrative responsibilities. Excellent communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications:
Familiarity and experience with Pre-award grant administration (e.g. proposal development, budget development, proposal submission, award negotiation, acceptance). Familiarity with and ability to facilitate post-award grant administration (e.g. sub awards, financial compliance, facilities management, indirect funds distribution, project reporting, no-cost extensions, project close-outs). Familiarity and experience with Research Compliance (e.g. IRB, IACUC, biosafety, RCR). Familiarity and experience with managing shared resources, facilities, and infrastructure. Familiarity and experience with interacting with federal representatives and garnering resources. Familiarity and experience with intellectual property, technology development and transfer. Familiarity and experience with Security Issues (e.g. export control, ITAR). Strong personal record of research and scholarly activities, including individual and team activities. Familiarity with and appreciation of a faculty member’s roles and responsibilities in teaching, research, and service. Strong personal record of advising undergraduate and graduate student researcher. Experience serving as an advisor for doctoral students. Demonstrated executive leadership skills including long-term visionary leadership and strategic thinking. Experience in delegation of appropriate responsibilities and accountability for decisions and actions. Ability to make difficult decisions in a timely manner to promote university performance. Strong record of budgeting, fiduciary accountability, transparency, and acumen necessary to facilitate the allocation of resources with strategic goals. Demonstrated success using collaboration and consensus building from diverse groups in making strategic decisions. Excellent interpersonal skills. Demonstrated commitment to promoting diversity at all levels. Demonstrated innovative and entrepreneurial spirit. Commitment to community engagement and outreach. Demonstrated success facilitating multi-disciplinary research teams.
Special Instructions to Applicants:
Applicants are required to electronically upload a letter of application, CV, copy of transcripts (official transcripts required upon hire), and complete contact information for three references. References will be contacted at a later date. Submission of materials is the applicant’s responsibility. Applications without all required materials are incomplete and will not be considered.
