Director, Science Partnerships

Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative, founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, that bets early on exceptional people making the world better.  We knit talent into networks, bet on the most promising ideas through diverse forms of competition and support, and equip people to scale through partners and modern tools. To realize this vision, Schmidt Futures uses a broad set of tools — including gifts, grants, investments, and startup activity — for charitable, educational, and commercial efforts with a public purpose. Our initiative brings together the efforts of various charitable and non-charitable entities to improve our potential impact by making diverse types of capital available to the efforts we support.

The Partnerships function at Schmidt Futures focuses on equipping our programs, grantees, and network with the scaling capital to deliver on their ambitious goals. The function achieves this through three key activities: developing new communities of funders, including high-net-worth individuals, foundations, corporations, and family offices aligned to our work in science and society; brokering high-quality and long-term relationships and shared resources within these communities; and supporting grantees and programs to create and cultivate high-impact partnership strategies. 

The Role 

Reporting to the Head of Partnerships, the Director , Science Partnerships will be responsible for building a community of funders interested in supporting ambitious scientific initiatives. The Director, Science Partnership’s role will include:

Identifying and building relationships with funders interested in science-focused philanthropy. Launching initiatives to build community, increase overall funding, and spur collective action among these funders. Supporting programs and grantees to effectively collaborate with these funders.

Key Responsibilities

Identify and build relationships with funders interested in science-focused philanthropy

Map and analyze existing communities of science funders and science philanthropy advisors. Perform landscape analyses to identify funders, including high-net-worth individuals, foundations, corporates, and family offices, interested in science-focused philanthropy. Conduct outreach to develop relationships and partnerships with science funders. 

Launch initiatives to build community, increase overall funding, and spur collective action 

Identify and work to overcome bottlenecks to increased funding of science-focused philanthropy.  Analyze existing models of philanthropic collaboration and identify missing models of collaboration within the science-philanthropy ecosystem. Mobilize a community of funders interested in science-focused philanthropy. Ideate and test initiatives such as roundtables, working groups, competitions, and convenings to drive collective action and funding towards science-focused philanthropy.  

Support scientific grantees to collaborate with these science-focused funders

Work with scientific grantees to develop their fundraising materials.  Connect scientific grantees with potential partners and funders. Develop the capacity of grantees and programs to build partnerships. 

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 

Some of the desired capabilities include:

Expert-level experience and credentials in at least one field of science. Experience working with science-focused institutions such as philanthropic organizations or academic research organizations.   Entrepreneurial ability to develop and execute self-designed initiatives.   Ability to coordinate numerous efforts across multiple stakeholders, partners, and portfolio teams. Demonstrated leadership ability and proven record of impact in high-intensity, team-based environments. Excellent verbal and written communication, with the ability to tailor communication to a wide range of stakeholders and reasonable ability to use common software tools for word processing, presentation, and spreadsheets (especially Google Docs and Sheets). Strong relationship management skills. Exceptional problem-solving skills for both conceptual and analytical problems. Values-based, collaborative working style with demonstrated commitment to the highest standards of ethics and confidentiality.

Requirements 

Applicants must:

Have ten  or more years of experience in business, government, consulting, project management, philanthropy, graduate school, or the military. Have fundraising or major gift development experience.  Have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent from an accredited institution. Be based at the Schmidt Futures offices in New York or Washington, D.C., and be able to travel within the U.S. and internationally on a regular basis as needed, following company policy and permitting circumstances. 

At Schmidt Futures we are committed to fair, transparent pay and we strive to provide competitive, market-informed compensation. The target base salary range for this role is $220,000 to $260,000. Compensation for the successful candidate will be informed by the candidate’s particular combination of knowledge, skills, competencies and experience.

Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative, founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, that bets early on exceptional people making the world better.  We knit talent into networks, bet on the most promising ideas through diverse forms of competition and support, and equip people to scale through partners and modern tools. To realize this vision, Schmidt Futures uses a broad set of tools — including gifts, grants, investments, and startup activity — for charitable, educational, and commercial efforts with a public purpose. Our initiative brings together the efforts of various charitable and non-charitable entities to improve our potential impact by making diverse types of capital available to the efforts we support.

Futures Action Network, LLC, which operates Schmidt Futures, is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer that proudly pursues and hires a diverse workforce. We do not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion or religious belief, ethnic or national origin, nationality, sex, gender, gender-identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws or prohibited by Company policy. We strive for a healthy and safe workplace and strictly prohibit harassment of any kind.