Carnegie Mellon University · 6 hours ago
AVP & Executive Director of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship - Office of the Vice President for Research
Pittsburgh, PA
Full-time
Onsite
Director/ExecutiveCarnegie Mellon University is seeking an accomplished leader to serve as the Associate Vice President and Executive Director of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. The Executive Director will guide CMU’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, engaging faculty, students, and external partners to enhance startup creation and growth while securing the university's position as a leader in entrepreneurship.
EducationHigher EducationUniversities
Responsibilities
Developing and executing a cohesive and ambitious campus-wide strategy to realize CMU’s role as a global leader in entrepreneurship and startup success
Elevating CMU’s entrepreneurial culture, visibility, ambition, incentives, and narrative to make entrepreneurship and startup creation, launch, and growth central to the university’s identity
Ensuring that the Swartz Center is CMU’s flagship resource for entrepreneurship by engaging with colleges and schools to deliver highly impactful, visible, and accessible events, services, programs, and resources for all the university’s students, staff, faculty, and alumni
Strengthening alumni mentorship networks and relevant infrastructure, particularly in the areas of AI, software, deep tech, hardware, and biomedical ventures
Building a founder-first environment that provides exceptional training, mentoring, facilities, and access to funding at all stages of start-up development – derisk, launch, invest, and grow
Collaborating across the CMU academic colleges, schools, and departments to enhance incentives —student fellowships, promotion and tenure recognition, faculty leave, IP structures— to mobilize students and faculty into action
Expanding relationships with a broad range of top-tier investors and companies in Pittsburgh and beyond. Driving student, faculty, staff, and alumni ambition to create and build start-ups with unicorn potential
Establishing a data-centric approach to measure outcomes and impact and to tell CMU’s story of success both internally and externally
Raising philanthropic funding to expand Swartz Center entrepreneurship activities and programs, and to increase the amount of CMU early-stage grant support and resources for startups with the most potential for launch and growth
Using the Swartz Center’s distinctive mission and platform to leverage the expertise, networks and experience of CMU’s Trustees, alumni, partners, and friends to accelerate CMU’s entrepreneurship agenda
Developing and incentivizing an ambitious team, ensuring that roles and structure are aligned with the Center’s mission, and are in line with best practices in governance and data infrastructure
Qualification
Required
Credibility as a successful tech entrepreneur and/or investor with a track record of building and scaling organizations that drive impact and value
Intellectual stature and curiosity with a bias for action and results to achieve an outsized impact for CMU entrepreneurship and startups
Deep appreciation of and passion for CMU's goals to have a transformative impact on society through education, research, creativity and entrepreneurship
Able to thoughtfully lead and influence within an academically rigorous culture rooted in excellence and interdisciplinary outcomes and across colleges and schools with diverse portfolios and goals
Capable of articulating and implementing an ambitious vision for the future of entrepreneurship at a leading research university through an action-oriented, collaborative, cross-college/school approach
Can leverage strong and active contacts with a broad range of investors, companies, alumni, and universities to advance Swartz Center goals
Able to serve as a compelling and visible ambassador and fundraiser to further elevate the profile of the Swartz Center and CMU's culture of entrepreneurship
Capable of recruiting, retaining, and leading high-performance matrixed teams through action, collaboration, and influence
Prior experience as executive and/or operational leader in the context of significant complexity and commensurate scope and scale
Benefits
Comprehensive medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance
Generous retirement savings program with employer contributions
Tuition benefits
Ample paid time off
Observed holidays
Life and accidental death and disability insurance
Free Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus pass
Access to our Family Concierge Team to help navigate childcare needs
Fitness center access
Company
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university that offers degrees in technology, arts, and various other fields.
Founded in 1900
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Carnegie Mellon University has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (131)
2024 (131)
2023 (149)
2022 (132)
2021 (120)
2020 (99)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$488.58MKey Investors
ICANNAppalachian Regional CommissioneBPF Foundation
2025-05-29Grant· $0.45M
2024-09-05Grant· $0.5M
2024-08-29Grant· $0.05M
Leadership Team
Amy Coutu
Assistant Vice President, Enterprise Applications
Chirag Patel
Adjunct Professor
Recent News
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2026-01-07
2026-01-03
2025-12-29
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