Head of planning (m/f)

Manager, Strategic Initiatives
CIEBH Operations | Office of Research | Faculty of Medicine
6,747.50 - $9,701.42 CAD Monthly
At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.
Canada's Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub (CIEBH) aims to align BC's strengths in immuno-engineering, biomanufacturing, and public health with a pan-Canadian coalition of partners across six provinces. Through strong and coordinated governance, CIEBH facilitates multidisciplinary applied research, enhances specialized infrastructure, and supports training and talent development in biomanufacturing to accelerate the translation of promising research into commercially viable products and processes.
The Manager, Strategic Initiatives plays a pivotal role in advancing CIEBH's strategic objectives by overseeing a portfolio of complex, multi-stakeholder projects. The Project Manager is responsible for overseeing a portfolio of strategic research, infrastructure, and training projects and cross-sector initiatives that enhance lab space, technology platforms, early-stage biomanufacturing, and clinical trials capacity. These initiatives promote workforce development and accelerate the translation of research into commercially viable solutions and processes. Per direction and goal established by the Senior Manager, the incumbent will manage project planning, coordination, and implementation across a consortium of over 50 public, private, academic, and not-for-profit partners. This hybrid role requires strong project management, stakeholder engagement, communication skills and requires independent decision-making. This is a hybrid role-office hours and days may vary dependent on operational needs such as special meetings, event days, work type and workload.
The University of British Columbia is a global centre for research and teaching, consistently ranked among the top 20 public universities in the world. UBC encourages its students, staff and faculty to challenge convention, lead discovery and explore new ways of learning. Ranked among the world's top medical schools with the fifth-largest MD enrollment in North America, the UBC Faculty of Medicine is a leader in both the science and the practice of medicine. Across British Columbia, more than 12,000 faculty and staff are training the next generation of doctors and health care professionals, making remarkable discoveries, and helping to create the pathways to better health for our communities at home and around the world.
The Faculty—comprised of approximately 2,200 administrative support, technical/research and management and professional staff, as well approximately 650 full-time academic and over 10,000 clinical faculty members—is composed of 19 academic basic science and/or clinical departments, 3 schools, and 25 research centres and institutes. Faculty, staff and trainees are located at university campuses, clinical academic campuses in hospital settings and other regionally based centres across the province.
This position reports to Senior Manager at CIEBH who works closely with the executive leadership at CIEBH and UBC. Strategic Initiatives and Project Management

Oversees and coordinates multiple CIEBH-funded strategic initiatives, including those focused on research acceleration, early-stage biomanufacturing, clinical trials infrastructure, and workforce training.
Develops detailed project workplans, charters, scopes, and implementation timelines in alignment with CIEBH's strategic goals and direction from the Senior Manager.
Manages and tracks project timelines, deliverables, interdependencies, and performance metrics; monitors risks and recommends mitigation strategies.
Coordinates input and collaboration from key stakeholders, including academic institutions, industry partners, government bodies, and the not-for-profit sector.
Assesses training opportunities aimed at growing Canada's diversified talent pool in biomanufacturing and early-stage drug development.
Establishes and represents CIEBH in internal and external committees, working groups, and pan-Canadian national task forces including Health Emergency Readiness Canada (HERC) to ensure alignment with broader innovation strategies.
Supports the Senior Manager in aligning projects with institutional, regional, and national priorities in life sciences innovation.
Manages project data, dashboards, client relations management tools and performance indicators to support evidence-based decision-making and transparent reporting.
Plans local collaborative symposiums and nationwide workshops, and public engagement events to disseminate research findings from CIEBH's research activities of faculty and trainees.
Drafts high-quality reports, briefing notes, presentations, and communications for diverse stakeholders including government agencies, industry collaborators, academic partners, and non-profit organizations to support cross-sectoral collaboration.
Facilitates effective communication and coordination among pan-Canadian hub partners, including researchers, clinicians, industry collaborators, and federal and provincial government stakeholders.
Supports the implementation of CIEBH's internal and external communications strategy in coordination with the strategic communications officer at CIEBH.
Collaborates with researchers and project teams to develop accessible knowledge translation materials such as lay summaries, infographics, one-pagers, and slide decks for dissemination to non-academic audiences and partner organizations.
Anticipates and address operational needs of the Senior Manager to allow focus on strategic leadership.
A high degree of accuracy and initiative is required and relied upon by CIEBH's academic leaders and others in decision-making and effective implementation of strategic priorities, operational management, problem resolution and in addressing unique situations and opportunities. Supervision Received The Strategic Initiatives Manager works independently with direction from the Senior Manager of CIEBH. Supervision Given This position does not have direct supervisory responsibilities. The Strategic Initiatives Manager may occasionally help manage junior staff or students. Minimum Qualifications Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline. Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one's own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion
Post graduate degree in a relevant discipline:
degree in a relevant discipline including biotechnology and biomedical sciences.
Excellent research, analytical, project management, organizational, communication and interpersonal skills. Superior writing and effective translation of complex scientific information. Creative problem-solving and decision-making abilities. Computer competency with knowledge of project management software, spreadsheets, databases, and word processing applications.