The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder invites nominations and applications for the position of Director of Strategy and Partnerships. The position provides a rare opportunity to help define the future of one of the world’s premier space research institutions.
Director of Strategy and Partnerships
The Director of Strategy and Partnerships is a senior leadership team role, reporting to LASP’s Director, that develops and executes LASP’s strategic vision, cultivates the partnerships essential to advancing the lab’s space science mission, and ensures competitive proposals are submitted for winning new grants and contracts that support the laboratory’s science and technology efforts. In collaboration with the Director of LASP and the executive team, this role represents LASP objectives, champions strategic positions for large missions and instrument lines, leads capture efforts, and oversees proposal activities across key partner relationships. The Director of Strategy and Partnerships leads a team of proposal and capture managers to identify, formulate, and support research and technology in emerging opportunity areas spanning government, commercial, philanthropic, and international sectors. Their team also includes a committee of LASP professionals engaged part-time to support proposal opportunity dissemination and proposal internal support and review.
Key Responsibilities
Strategy
- Working with the LASP Director and senior leadership, oversee the development of short- and long-term strategic priorities and future plans that span LASP’s science and technology teams, including in coordination with CU, government, private, and international space partners.
- Identify new opportunities across academic, government, commercial, and international sectors, including awareness of emerging domains, products, and sectors eligible for expansion, such as large mission concepts, instrument line development, and strategic faculty and staff hiring
Partnerships
- Cultivate partnerships with NASA, NOAA, local and state government, federal agency, industry, foundation, and philanthropic entities, supported by a robust partner relationship management system.
- Identify and develop advancement and philanthropic opportunities in collaboration with the Director of LASP.
Proposal & Capture
- Interact with prospective principal investigators (PIs) to maintain a continual awareness of future ambitions
- Evaluate proposal opportunities and assess resource and capacity requirements for responding to calls, working closely with LASP leadership
- Publicize upcoming proposal opportunities within LASP
- Lead a team of proposal and capture managers to grow the quality and number of proposals submitted by LASP principal investigators and by external principal investigators partnered with LASP scientists and technologists
- Oversee the submission of large mission, instrument, and research proposals, including conducting internal reviews to ensure proposal excellence
- Oversee the LASP Strategy and Partnerships Committee, a rotating group of scientists and technologists to support the Director of Strategy & Partnerships in shared responsibility for lab-wide dissemination of opportunities, internal proposal support and review, and fostering the skills growth of new PIs and PMs.
- Ensure initiatives for strategy and partnerships are resourced, sequenced, and tracked to completion.
Plus other duties as assigned.
Qualifications
Minimum:
- Advanced degree or equivalent experience in a relevant discipline of engineering or science.
- Ability to lead and define new directions in science, engineering, and mission opportunities
- Program/project management experience in a research or science mission capacity
- Demonstrated ability to manage complex organizational relationships and drive alignment across diverse teams without direct authority
- Knowledge of government, commercial, philanthropic, and international space research goals, objectives, and opportunities
- Deep familiarity with federal proposal and procurement processes, including experience with NASA, NOAA, NSF, DoD, or comparable agencies.
- Ability to identify academic, financial, and political factors that impact research and mission opportunities
- Ability to assess and manage business, social, and cultural factors affecting strategy and partnerships with local, national, and international organizations
- Excellent collaborative and adaptive thinking perspectives, along with high emotional intelligence
- Excellent cross-cultural and multi-discipline communication skills
- Resilience and composure under pressure, with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-moving environment.
- Creativity, accountability, and resilience
Preferred
- Ph.D. degree in a relevant discipline of engineering or science
- Experience with industry, federal, and/or international space agencies
- Commercial business development and marketing experience
- Eligibility for a high-level security clearance
Due to requirements governing access to export-controlled data and information, only U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), or other protected individuals (i.e., persons designated as an asylee, refugee, or temporary resident under amnesty provisions) are eligible for hire.
LASP
The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is one of the largest research institutes of CU Boulder, the #1 public university recipient of NASA research grants, and one of America’s leading aerospace universities. With a focus on solar, stellar, space plasma, atmospheric, and planetary sciences, LASP employs both experimental and theoretical approaches to answer key science questions. Since its inception in 1948, LASP has developed, operated, and analyzed the data from scientific instrumentation for solar science, earth atmospheric, planetary, deep-space, and Earth-orbiting spacecraft missions investigating the Sun, all eight planets, Pluto and beyond. The progressive development of research capabilities and use of innovative technologies in pursuit of emerging research initiatives ensures a continued leadership role for LASP in today’s growing “new space” era. Since 2013, LASP has secured over $1.75B in grants and contracts.
Thanks to its distinctive combination of scientific and engineering expertise and its ability both to manage long-term collaborations with agencies such as NASA and to respond to faster-moving opportunities with private sponsors, LASP has grown rapidly in the last decade, with expenditures that exceed well over $150M annually, secured through grants, contracts, and other funding vehicles. Some 400 of LASP’s 600-person staff are technical staff and research scientists. The LASP community includes tenure/tenure-track faculty, approximately 110 student employees, 69 graduate students, and 10 postdocs.
An important element of LASP’s mission is to train the next generation of space scientists and engineers: through wide-ranging research and flight projects, LASP participates actively in the development of the future leaders of space research and is a leader in educating students with highly valued technical and scientific skills. Undergraduate and graduate student participation is integral to LASP’s R&D and operational success. In this regard, LASP has been both a contributor to and beneficiary of the remarkable growth of the state of Colorado’s space sector.
Search Process and Employment Information
The annual salary range for this position is $225,000 to $265,000, plus moving allowance and performance bonus. The University of Colorado offers excellent benefits, including medical, dental, retirement, paid time off, tuition benefit, and ECO Pass.
The University of Colorado and LASP have engaged Opus Partners (www.opuspartners.net) to support the recruitment of the Director of Strategy and Partnerships. Craig Smith, Managing Partner and Jeffrey Stafford, Senior Associate, are leading the search. Candidates should send their CV and letter of interest to jeffrey.stafford@opuspartners.net.
Nominations, recommendations, and inquiries should go to the same address. Every effort will be made to ensure candidate confidentiality. Applications received by August 1, 2026, will receive full consideration. The search process is confidential.
In compliance with the Colorado Job Application Fairness Act, in any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.
CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.
