TMC ACT Entrepreneur in Residence

THE ORGANIZATION

TMC Innovation (TMCi) is a flagship initiative of Texas Medical Center (TMC) that acts as a gateway to the facilities, resources, and network of the world’s largest medical center. TMC Innovation includes TMCi Accelerator for health technologies, TMCi Accelerator for cancer therapeutics, TMCi Biodesign, TMCi Coworking spaces, and our resident corporate partnerships with Johnson & Johnson Innovation and ABB Robotics for Healthcare.
Designed to provide a comprehensive suite of services, TMC Innovation includes programming to meet the needs of disruptive healthcare startups at every stage, from ideation to commercialization.

TMC ACT

The Texas Medical Center (TMC), in collaboration with the Gulf Coast Consortia for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (GCC) and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB), was selected for a $5M grant from The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) for a cancer therapeutics program. This accelerator is specifically designed for individuals, or early-stage startups, that are focused on developing novel cancer therapeutics.

The program, called TMC ACT (Accelerating Cancer Therapeutics), is a comprehensive nine-month program designed to enhance biotech entrepreneurship training and comprehensive drug development programs in Texas. It will simultaneously provide Texas researchers and startup companies with integrated training, resources, and mentoring in order to help advance innovative cancer therapy discoveries into clinical trials, ultimately leading to new approaches and therapies to treat and/or cure cancer patients.

This program was built upon the successful TMC Innovation Healthtech Accelerator, the Gulf Coast Consortia's (GCC) network of Texas cancer researchers and research cores, and an experienced mentor community.

POSITION OVERVIEW
TMC is currently seeking an ambitious Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) to support and promote TMC Innovation’s efforts through the ACT program. ACT is designed for individual academic investigators or early-stage startups that are focused on developing novel cancer therapeutics. This comprehensive nine-month accelerator program is focused on enhancing biotech entrepreneurship training and accelerating the participants’ progression to their next major milestone. The EIR will work with participating companies throughout this program, equipped at helping them navigate the path of drug development and the structuring of their businesses to be positioned for success. The companies are all early stage but at varying stages and areas of clinical focus. The EIR will support 20+ projects per year as well as former program participants. The EIR role is designed for these individuals to leave TMC to become an executive of a project in the TMC Innovation cancer therapeutics community.

The ACT EIR will work in a team environment to set goals, determine actions to achieve these goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. The individual will be challenged to support the translation of early stage life science innovations into commercially successful products and companies. Through our work with the TMC member institutions, individual investigators, early stage biotechnology companies, entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and strategic corporate partnerships, TMC Innovation is at the center of an exploding life science community in Houston.

Ideal candidates exhibit the following qualities:

• Enthusiasm and energy;
• Humble, servant leadership;
• Inquisitive and creative mind;
• Thrive on complex challenges;
• Ability to turn the conceptual into the tangible and actionable;
• Strong self-confidence with no ego;
• Looking for more than a job, but a purpose;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to persuasively sell ideas;
• Intellectual agility;
• Willingness to make difficult recommendations and decisions;
• Team first mentality;
• Independent thinking and data-driven decision-making;
• Strong interest in healthcare and entrepreneurship

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Enable the launch of companies developing novel cancer therapeutics
• Scout and recruit early-stage drug development investigators and companies that would be suitable for ACT program.
• Evaluate the commercialization potential of programs applying to the accelerator.
• Mentor ACT participants in developing their roadmap for product and company development.
• Assist ACT participants in achieving short-term milestones and setting the course for those more long-term goals.
• Participate in the recruiting and supporting of a TMC ACT advisor network comprised of subject matter experts who will support the program and participating companies.
• Participate in annual progress reports as dictated by the grant-awardee Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

• During your EIR term, you will be expected to disclose any business affiliations, commitments, or other employment opportunities you may have or may develop with other companies, academic institutions or other organizations.

KEY SELECTION AND SUCCESS FACTORS

Work Experience:

• 5-10 years of cumulative experience in early-stage oncology therapeutic development, entrepreneurship, and or commercialization
• Demonstrated commitment to community with lecturing and/or mentoring experience preferred
• History of consultation, collaboration or employment with healthcare start-ups

Education/Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in life science-related field
• Demonstrated interest and passion in entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation in the life sciences
• Excellent communication, presentation, organization, and interpersonal skills
• Strong analytic capabilities and experience with a variety of analytic techniques
• Sees projects through to completion with the ability to meet deadlines
• Adept in taking direction and actively soliciting feedback
• Thrives under pressure with the capacity to handle and balance conflicting requests
• Acute attention to accuracy and detail in all aspects of responsibilities
• Highly proficient in Microsoft suite of programs

• Ability to influence work in a highly entrepreneurial environment and comfort with ambiguity

Texas Medical Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability or Veteran status. If you require assistance or reasonable accommodation in the application process, please contact Human Resources at (713) 797-0100 or talent@tmc.edu.