Operations and Project Manager

Location: Remote, London, Ontario

Position Type: Full-time, temporary contract of 14 months with a target start date of October, 2024

Hiring Range: $72,600-90,800. 

Application Deadline: 14 August 2024, at 11:59PM.

About Ivey Business School:

Ivey Business School acknowledges and respects the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lunaapéewak, and Attawandaron peoples, where Western University and Ivey Business School are located. This land continues to be home to diverse Indigenous peoples, whom we recognize as contemporary stewards of the land and vital contributors of the community.

Ivey Business School (www.ivey.ca) at Western University (www.uwo.ca) is Canada’s leading provider of real-world, case-based business education. Drawing on extensive research and business experience, Ivey’s faculty provides the best classroom experience, equipping students with the knowledge, skills, and capabilities they need to confidently take on today’s leadership challenges and opportunities through Case-Method Learning. Ivey offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, as well as Executive Education at campuses in London, Toronto, and Hong Kong.

Businesses are facing more frequent, more disruptive, and more interconnected crises than ever before. Most innovators are told to move fast and break things. But when everything is changing so quickly, this can be costly to the business, impact society, and harm the planet. 

At Innovation North, we believe there is a better way. Founded in 2019 by Dr. Tima Bansal, one of the world’s top cited scholars in Business and Management, Innovation North is a community of researchers that works with practitioners to tackle complex systems challenges. We use the Compass to guide our journey – a tool that was co-created with the community of practice over the past five years.

Position Overview:

The Operations and Project Manager believes that organizations can create products and services that create a more prosperous, resilient, and sustainable future. They are excited about tackling complex problems with business leaders and management researchers using a systems thinking approach. The individual values new ideas and wants to be part of a team that will mobilize those ideas to create real change where business, academia, government, and civil society come together to create a global social movement. 

The individual is innovative and creative and likes to work with others who want to create something new and powerful together. They are an exceptional communicator, converting complex ideas into simple, powerful messages. The incumbent is comfortable speaking with diverse people from students to senior executives to researchers. They are also an exceptional administrator, so they can execute on events and tasks and ensure that projects are completed on time, on budget, and with impeccable quality. The Operations and Project Manager is also entrepreneurial, so they are able to see opportunities and are comfortable with filling in white space with new ideas that will contribute to Innovation North’s success. 

The individual will oversee Innovation North’s day-to-day operations as it transitions from a 5-year Lab to an ongoing research-practice initiative at Ivey. They will ultimately be responsible for 3 key activities: developing a pipeline of project work, launching a new working group program, and scaling a student competition related to systems thinking.

Responsibilities:

Project Management 

• Develop relationships with business leaders to generate new partnership and project opportunities (generating about $300,000 annually) which apply Innovation North’s Compass to tackle complex challenges.
• Launch and oversee a new working group program (generating about $200,000 annually), which will bring together a consortium of organizations to tackle a challenge of mutual interest.

• Oversee all aspects of projects and working groups from start to finish, including proposal development, contracting, setting milestones, managing communications with team members (e.g. faculty, postdoctoral and doctoral students, researchers and contractors), and delivering interim and final outputs to clients. Ensure they continue to move on-time and remain on-budget from start to finish.

Operations Management 

• Responsible for an annual budget of approximately $600,000, ensuring budgetary integrity for Innovation North. Manage all finance-related tasks for Innovation North, including submitting invoices to Finance, reconciling monthly Visa expenses, reviewing expense reports, and overseeing accounts to ensure that expenses do not exceed funds available.
• Manage all contracts related to the hiring of vendors and subcontractors, including asking for quotes, setting up purchase orders in Mustang Market, and working with Finance to pay vendors.
• Procure and maintain all electronic support systems, including, a CMS (Wordpress), project management (Basecamp), communications (Outlook, Zoom, Teams), file-sharing/storage (Dropbox, SharePoint), idea generation and sharing (Miro), and research management (Zotero, MaxQDA, DocuSign, Calendly). Assesses new software needs in collaboration with Ivey IT.
• Oversee ethics process for all participants involved in research projects and ensure Western Research has all necessary study documentation.

Partner Management

• Communicate regularly with partners, often senior executives, through personal emails/LinkedIn, meetings, and in-person at workshops, conferences, and events. Regularly solicits feedback to ensure a high-level of connection and retention.
• Manage Innovation North’s online presence, including a website and social media (LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram), sharing relevant content that increases brand awareness and public engagement.
• Prepare annual stewardships reports to funding partners, including SSHRC, Mitacs, and corporate foundations. 

People Management

• Motivate and lead a high-performing team of researchers and operations staff that have goals and accountabilities clearly aligned with Innovation North’s strategy.
• Oversee Project Management Specialist, Research Associates, and Innovation North-related workload of postdoctoral and doctoral researchers, including monitoring capacity, assigning projects/tasks, and contributing to or completing performance evaluations.
• Oversee all Innovation North-related employment contracts, supporting hiring and onboarding as needed.

Qualifications: 

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in a discipline related to business or sustainability 
• Project management and client communications experience, ideally with business audiences 
• Administration and operations experience, ideally within an academic setting

Skills & Abilities 

• Passion and genuine interest in sustainability in all dimensions (environmental, social, economic)
• Knowledge of business, sustainability and systems thinking 
• Strong project management experience, including managing people and large budgets
• Record of accomplishment in account management, business development and fundraising
• Entrepreneurial orientation, self-starting, opportunity seeking, and good intuition and creativity to generate and screen new ideas. 
• Detailed understanding of business and academia; ability to understand the value of intangible and conceptual products to institutional partners
• Strong people skills and high emotional intelligence: the ability to listen, dialogue, learn, and adapt
• Strong ability to self-organize and prioritize tasks, and know when to consult the principal investigator when uncertain
• Exceptional communications skills, written and oral for business concepts
• Professional demeanour
• Strong attention to detail
• High-energy

What We Offer:

• A bright, inclusive, and modern eco-friendly working environment
• Flexible or hybrid work plans for many roles
• A collaborative and engaging work culture
• Opportunity to join a community of people-focused professionals
• Market competitive compensation 
• Benefits package with employer-paid premiums
• Enhanced mental health benefits coverage and resources
• 15 days per year vacation plus 2 paid Ivey Personal Days
• Paid time off during the School’s December holiday closure
• Numerous campus-wide arts, culture, and sport events
• Employee Assistance Program with family coverage

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Ivey

Ivey Business School is committed to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Please explore Ivey’s EDI homepage for more information on Ivey's commitment to EDI, to read about Ivey’s progress in the EDI Update, and to meet Ivey’s EDI Advisory Council members.

Ivey Business School invites applications from all qualified individuals. Ivey is committed to employment equity and diversity in the workplace, and welcomes applications from women, members of racialized groups/visible minorities, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, persons of any sexual orientation, and persons of any gender identity or gender expression.

Accommodation
Prior to the next step in the recruiting process, we welcome you to inform us confidentially if you may require any accommodations in order to participate fully in our recruitment experience. Please contact us at hr@ivey.ca to notify us of any needs related to completing the job application, and/or throughout the recruitment process.

Application:

If you're excited about joining Canada's leading business school and meet the qualifications, please submit your resume and cover letter via the Ivey Careers page by the application deadline.

*Please note only selected candidates will be contacted.


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