Portland State University is Oregon’s most affordable public research university, located in the heart of one of America’s most dynamic cities. Our mission to “let knowledge serve the city” reflects our dedication to turning ideas into action — in Portland and around the world. The city is our campus, giving students unmatched access to career connections, a vibrant cultural scene and hands-on learning experiences with hundreds of community partners.

More than 20,000 students from all backgrounds bring diverse perspectives to our classrooms and campus life, from the tree-lined Park Blocks to the bustling Urban Plaza and state-of-the-art science labs. We are proud of our world-class faculty, groundbreaking research and international reputation for excellence in sustainability, community engagement and innovation.

Innovation and Intellectual Property is responsible for protecting and managing patentable and copyrighted works developed in the course of PSU research activities. We serve PSU faculty, students, and staff by promoting the use and increasing the impact of innovations developed in the course of research activities. By working with IIP, PSU innovators create lasting impacts on our world.

Position Summary

Working directly within the Innovation & Intellectual Property (IIP) office of Propel PSU, the incumbent will split their focus between proactive discovery harvesting (systematically mining university-wide awarded grant data and final reports to identify early-stage innovations, along with leveraging existing and curating new relationships with researchers across all colleges and centers at PSU to find new innovations and helping the innovators to disclose them when appropriate) and traditional technology transfer roles (including conducting high-intensity patentability/market analyses, managing intellectual property (IP) assets, and drafting/negotiating complex licensing and industry sponsored research agreements). The incumbent will also play an important role in programs associated with institutional innovation capacity building, prototyping and development of early-stage technologies. The incumbent will also deliver training and expertise on translation topics to faculty and graduate students, and externally to build streamlined, flexible partnership pipelines with industry and community networks to drive economic and societal impact.

Duties

Proactive Innovation Harvesting & Grant Mining

• Systematically mine university-wide awarded grant data, publications, and completed final grant reports to identify early-stage discoveries with high translational or commercial potential.
• Implement a rigorous, proactive scouting workflow. Conduct extensive, direct outreach across all PSU academic departments and colleges to build trust and surface disclosures before they are publicly published. Coordinate with the greater faculty support

IP Development, Patent Portfolio Management, & Licensing

• Manage the administrative and legal aspects of PSU’s physical science, engineering, software, and life science patent portfolios.
• Work with faculty inventors to evaluate discoveries, draft comprehensive intellectual property strategy plans, and manage patent prosecution timelines with external law firms. Draft, negotiate, and prepare high-value patent and copyright licenses, options, and commercialization agreements for the Director’s signature.

Invention Evaluation & Innovation Support Administration

• Deliver rigorous scientific, legal, and commercial evaluations for newly submitted invention disclosures, and support the deployment of PSU’s seed-funding.
• Conduct high-intensity patentability, market sizing, competitive landscape, and customer-discovery analyses on new disclosures. Coordinate regular, documented review meetings with select faculty and external partners. Assist in administering intake, review, milestone compliance, and tracking project progression for internally-funded projects.

Faculty Outreach, Training, & Mentorship

• Deliver education, training, and resources to faculty, postdocs, and graduate students to increase translational participation across the institution.
• Develop and deliver training workshops and seminars covering translation topics such as the benefits of research translation, patent basics, invention disclosure submissions, customer discovery, and industry partnering. Work alongside collaborative RGS staff to match early-career researchers with experienced innovation mentors and provide substantive advice on innovation disclosures and innovation development/support programs.

Formalized Partnership Pipelines & Non-License Agreements

• Draft and negotiate agreements that govern external research collaborations and university-industry interactions.
• Draft, negotiate, and process material transfer agreements (MTAs), non-disclosure agreements (NDAs/CDAs), and support the negotiation of intellectual property terms within Industry Sponsored Research Agreements (ISRAs). Deploy streamlined, flexible, and templated contract frameworks designed to minimize administrative friction and shorten the timeline from initial corporate contact to active collaboration.

Compliance, Intake, and Reporting

• Manage data integrity and meet reporting compliance standards for federal, state, and institutional stakeholders.
• Ensure all submitted invention disclosures meet federal reporting guidelines (such as iEdison and Bayh-Dole requirements) and internal standards. Monitor development progress and milestone compliance for existing startup licensees. Generate required metrics reports for federal and State agencies, university leadership, and the annual Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Licensing Survey.

Supervise Student & Program Interns

• Provide direct supervision to student workers and hands-on professional mentorship to graduate trainees.
• Independently supervise student assistants managing database inputs, website updates, and paper files. Act as an active mentor and supervisor for graduates participating in workshops and development programs hosted by PSU.