The Senior Technology Licensing & Commercialization Manager is a key member of UNH Innovation who advances University of New Hampshire research, inventions, and intellectual property toward practical use and public impact. The position independently manages a portfolio of university technologies from invention disclosure through commercial assessment, intellectual property strategy, market engagement, licensing, startup formation, and post-transaction stewardship.
Working closely with faculty inventors, researchers, entrepreneurs, companies, investors, patent counsel, and university partners, the Senior Manager creates and executes commercialization opportunities. The role requires an entrepreneurial, proactive approach: identifying prospective partners, developing relationships, structuring transactions, and moving opportunities toward market adoption rather than relying primarily on inbound interest.
The Senior Manager operates with substantial independence while partnering with the Director of Technology Transfer on portfolio priorities, complex or high-risk matters, major corporate relationships, and high-value negotiations. The position is intended to be commercially focused, with administrative work supporting, rather than displacing, licensing and business-development activity.
The Senior Manager will directly report to the Director of Technology Transfer at UNH Innovation.
Duties and ResponsibilitiesTechnology Assessment and Commercialization Strategy
- Evaluate invention disclosures for commercial potential, market need, competitive position, technical maturity, intellectual property considerations, development requirements, and feasible commercialization pathways.
- Conduct or oversee market, industry, customer, competitor, and patent-landscape research; synthesize findings into clear, actionable recommendations.
- Develop commercialization assessments, strategies, milestones, and resource recommendations for technologies being considered for intellectual property protection or further investment.
- Identify opportunities suited to licensing, startup formation, sponsored research, translational funding, industry collaboration, or other pathways to impact.
- Regularly review assigned technologies and recommend active commercialization, further development, licensing outreach, partnering, maintenance, or discontinuation based on evidence and portfolio priorities.
Licensing, Transactions, and Intellectual Property Strategy
- Lead or materially support the negotiation and execution of technology licenses, options, amendments, material transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements, inter-institutional arrangements, and other commercialization-related transactions, as assigned.
- Develop deal structures that appropriately balance university and inventor interests, licensee needs, market realities, diligence expectations, risk, and long-term commercialization potential.
- Work with the Director, outside patent counsel, inventors, and internal stakeholders on patent filing, prosecution, maintenance, and foreign-filing strategy.
- Coordinate internal review and approvals with legal counsel, research administration, finance, compliance, and other stakeholders; maintain clear decision records and transaction documentation.
- Monitor licensee performance, reporting, milestones, diligence, sublicensing, financial obligations, and other material contractual requirements; identify and resolve issues or escalate them appropriately.
- Manage external counsel and service-provider relationships for assigned matters, including clear instructions, budget awareness, deadlines, and strategic alignment.
- Escalate significant, precedent-setting, high-risk, or unusually complex matters to the Director while independently resolving routine portfolio decisions.
Industry Engagement and Business Development
- Proactively identify, prioritize, and cultivate prospective licensees, strategic partners, entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and commercialization collaborators.
- Develop target-company lists and tailored outreach plans for high-priority technologies; conduct direct outreach and sustain disciplined follow-up.
- Prepare nonconfidential summaries, presentations, opportunity briefs, and other commercialization materials that translate complex research into a compelling value proposition.
- Represent UNH Innovation at industry conferences, partnering events, technology showcases, investor forums, and relevant meetings.
- Develop durable relationships with companies that may become research, licensing, startup, or commercialization partners.
- Gather industry feedback and market intelligence that can inform commercialization strategy, translational work, and future university research opportunities.
Faculty, Inventor, and Campus Engagement
- Build trusted, responsive relationships with faculty, researchers, students, and inventors across UNH colleges and disciplines.
- Meet regularly with research groups and campus partners to understand emerging work and identify potential inventions and commercialization opportunities.
- Educate university stakeholders about intellectual property, invention disclosure, licensing, startup pathways, federal obligations, and commercialization practices.
- Guide inventors on the commercial implications of development, publication, disclosure timing, intellectual property, licensing, and startup strategies.
- Engage inventors throughout assessment, patenting, marketing, negotiation, and commercialization; set clear expectations and provide timely updates.
- Encourage early disclosure and a proactive commercialization culture across the university.
Startup and Entrepreneurial Commercialization
- Assess whether technologies may be appropriately commercialized through a startup, an established-company license, or parallel exploration of both pathways.
- Support faculty founders in developing commercialization strategies, milestones, team needs, and licensing approaches consistent with university policies.
- Identify and connect opportunities with entrepreneurs, executives, mentors, accelerators, investors, and other external partners.
- Support startup licensing and related negotiations, including coordination with conflict-of-interest and other applicable university processes.
- Connect projects with SBIR/STTR, translational funding, proof-of-concept, accelerator, investment, and business-development resources.
- Develop alternative commercialization pathways for technologies that are unlikely to advance through traditional outbound licensing alone.
Portfolio, Systems, Compliance, and Performance Management
- Independently maintain an active portfolio of assigned technologies and commercialization opportunities, with documented priorities, milestones, decisions, risks, and next steps.
- Maintain timely and accurate records for invention disclosures, intellectual property, marketing activity, contacts, agreements, obligations, and outcomes in the office technology-transfer database and related systems.
- Coordinate iEdison reporting and support compliance with requirements associated with federally funded inventions, in collaboration with appropriate university offices.
- Use the Sophia database, or its successor system, to support portfolio management, reporting, document control, contacts, agreement tracking, and operational continuity.
- Track and analyze disclosures, patent activity, licenses and options, revenue, startups, industry engagement, pipeline progression, and other program metrics.
- Prepare portfolio updates, forecasts, dashboards, and analyses for the Director and UNH Innovation leadership.
- Identify and implement practical improvements to workflows, templates, tools, data quality, and service delivery.
Collaboration and Program Development
- Collaborate closely with the Director of Technology Transfer and other UNH Innovation personnel on strategy, priorities, major matters, and operational planning.
- Work effectively with colleges, departments, research administration, legal counsel, finance, compliance, entrepreneurship programs, communications, and university leadership.
- Contribute to policies, procedures, training, and initiatives that strengthen UNH technology transfer, industry engagement, and the broader innovation ecosystem.
- Perform other related duties consistent with the purpose and level of the position.
Indicative Allocation of Effort
Approximate Effort- Licensing and deal execution - 30%
- Technology assessment and portfolio strategy - 25%
- Industry engagement and business development - 20%
- Faculty engagement and startup development -15%
- IP processes, systems, compliance, and other duties -10%
The allocation is a planning guide and may shift based on portfolio needs, transactions, staffing, and university priorities. The position should remain principally focused on commercialization, licensing, and external engagement.
RequirementsMinimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in business, science, engineering, law, technology, or a closely related field.
- At least five years of relevant professional experience in technology transfer, licensing, commercialization, business development, intellectual property, industry partnerships, biotechnology, engineering, or a related area.
- Demonstrated experience evaluating technical opportunities and identifying feasible commercial pathways.
- Demonstrated experience negotiating, structuring, or managing technology-related agreements or business transactions.
- Experience building productive relationships with companies, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, attorneys, or other external stakeholders.
- Strong written, oral, analytical, presentation, negotiation, and interpersonal communication skills.
- Ability to independently manage multiple projects, deadlines, priorities, and stakeholders while exercising sound judgment.
- Ability to handle confidential, sensitive, export-controlled, proprietary, and commercially significant information with integrity and discretion.
- Ability to translate complex scientific or technical concepts into clear commercial opportunities for varied audiences.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree, MBA, JD, PhD, or another relevant advanced degree.
- Experience in university or nonprofit technology transfer and familiarity with AUTM practices and professional networks.
- Licensing or commercialization experience involving one or more of the following: biomedical or life sciences, engineering, advanced materials, energy, software, data, artificial intelligence, agriculture, or other research-intensive technologies.
- Experience with startup formation, university spinouts, startup licensing, SBIR/STTR, proof-of-concept funding, or translational programs.
- Experience working with venture capital, corporate venture groups, angel investors, accelerators, or other sources of commercialization expertise and capital.
- Working knowledge of patent strategy, prosecution, freedom-to-operate considerations, intellectual property ownership, and federal invention-reporting obligations.
- Experience using technology-transfer databases, customer relationship management tools, iEdison, Sophia, or comparable systems.
- Established industry, investor, entrepreneur, or technology-commercialization networks.
Knowledge, Skills, and Competencies
- Commercial and entrepreneurial judgment grounded in evidence, market context, and university mission.
- Ability to create opportunities proactively and sustain external relationships over long commercialization cycles.
- Strong negotiation, listening, influence, and relationship-management skills.
- Market assessment, competitive analysis, technology marketing, and business-model fluency.
- Ability to prioritize a diverse portfolio and make practical recommendations with incomplete information.
- Excellent project, portfolio, data, and deadline management.
- Ability to work effectively with faculty scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, executives, attorneys, investors, administrators, and students.
- Faculty-centered service orientation combined with the ability to set expectations and make difficult portfolio recommendations.
- Comfort with ambiguity, experimentation, and nontraditional commercialization pathways.
- High integrity, discretion, accountability, collaboration, and commitment to the mission of a public research university.
Decision Authority and Escalation
- The Senior Manager is expected to independently manage routine assessment, marketing, partner engagement, transaction development, portfolio decisions, system records, and post-license follow-up within delegated authority and established university policies.
- The Senior Manager will involve the Director in strategic portfolio decisions, major or precedent-setting transactions, high-value or high-risk negotiations, significant disputes or compliance concerns, unusual resource commitments, and matters requiring executive or institutional approval.
Key Working Relationships- Internal: UNH Innovation; faculty, researchers, students, and inventors; colleges and departments; research administration; legal counsel; finance; compliance; entrepreneurship and innovation programs; communications; university leadership; and other administrative units.
- External: Corporations; prospective and current licensees; startups; entrepreneurs; investors; patent counsel; consultants; economic-development organizations; accelerators; technology-transfer professionals; industry associations; and other commercialization partners.
Applicant InstructionsApplicants should be prepared to upload the following documents when applying online within the My Experience: Resume/Cover Letter section of your application:
Applications that are missing any of the required items may not move forward for consideration. Additional uploaded documents not requested in the position announcement will not be reviewed.
The University of New Hampshire is an R1 Carnegie classification research institution providing comprehensive, high-quality undergraduate and graduate programs of distinction. UNH is located in Durham on a 188-acre campus, 60 miles north of Boston and 8 miles from the Atlantic coast and is convenient to New Hampshire's lakes and mountains. There is a student enrollment of 13,000 students, with a full-time faculty of over 600, offering 90 undergraduate and more than 70 graduate programs. The University actively promotes a dynamic learning environment in which qualified individuals of differing perspectives, life experiences, and cultural backgrounds pursue academic goals with mutual respect and shared inquiry.
EEO StatementThe University System of New Hampshire is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access employer. The University System is committed to creating an environment that values and supports diversity and inclusiveness across our campus communities and encourages applications from qualified individuals who will help us achieve this mission. The University System prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or marital status.
Compensation Pay Range:
$80,270.00 - $143,800.00
The pay range for this position is listed above. Actual offer will be based on skills, qualifications, experience, and internal equity, in addition to relevant business considerations. More information on benefits can be found here: USNH Employee Benefits | Human Resources
Location:
Durham
