Volunteer Advisor, Momentum (COOScaling Ventures)

MaRS Discovery District; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 30,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading urban innovation hub in Toronto is seeking a Volunteer Advisor to support late-stage technology companies in their growth journey. This role involves guiding COOs through operational challenges and ensuring insightful peer-to-peer sessions. Ideal candidates should have significant experience as a COO or senior leader in a scaling tech environment. The engagement can be done remotely or in-person, depending on the assignment.

Qualifications

• Experience as a COO, VP Operations, or equivalent senior operational leader in a scaling technology or science-based company during the $10M–$100M growth stage.
• Proven track record in operational scaling, process improvement, and strategic planning at the enterprise level.
• Experience as a mentor, coach, or consultant to scaling companies.

Responsibilities

• Develop agendas, structure discussions, and ensure each session delivers meaningful value to participants.
• Guide peer discussions to keep conversations productive, relevant, and action-oriented.
• Collaborate with the MaRS team to understand participant needs and tailor program content.

Skills

Fundraising

Communication skills

Public Speaking

Writing Skills

Job description

About MaRS

MaRS Discovery District (@MaRSDD) in Toronto is one of the world's largest urban innovation hubs.

MaRS supports promising high-growth companies to scale their businesses globally while tackling key societal challenges in areas such as Health, Cleantech, Finance, Transportation, AI, and more. The MaRS community is dedicated to cross-disciplinary collaboration, commercialization of discoveries and driving ideas to impact.

MaRS is the place where you can play a meaningful role in our innovation economy.

We understand qualifications on a posting can be daunting. If you’re passionate about the opportunity and believe you can make a meaningful impact, we want to hear from you even if you don't meet every listed qualification. We're always looking for great talent to join our team on planet MaRS.

We actively encourage all applicants, including equity-deserving communities, including those who identify as BIPOC, racialized, women, people with disabilities, and people with diverse gender identities, expressions, and sexual orientations.

We want you to be comfortable being your most authentic self throughout our search process. Please reach out if there’s anything we can do to make your experience more accessible and inclusive, including accommodations. Include Accessibility Request in your subject line.

About The Opportunity

MaRS is seeking Advisors (Volunteer Advisor Momentum) with proven COO-level experience to guide some of Canada’s most promising late-stage technology companies. This role focuses on helping ventures navigate the complexities of scaling operations, optimizing organizational performance, and building the infrastructure needed for sustained growth.

The ideal Advisor has led a scaling technology company through the $10M–$100M revenue phase with deep expertise in operational strategy, cross-functional leadership, and execution. You bring both a strategic lens and a hands-on approach, able to help founders and executive teams address critical growth challenges in areas such as operational scaling, process optimization, organizational structure, and risk management.

This is a volunteer position.

Scope of Work

You will work closely with the MaRS team to lead the successful delivery of the MaRS COO Peer-to-Peer Program, where COOs from our portfolio of late-stage companies meet to share challenges, exchange insights, and learn from one another.

Your responsibilities will include :

• Program Planning & Execution: Develop agendas, structure discussions, and ensure each session delivers meaningful value to participants.
• Facilitation: Guide peer discussions to keep conversations productive, relevant, and action-oriented, drawing on your own operational experience to add context and insights.
• Needs Assessment: Collaborate with the MaRS team to understand participant needs and tailor program content accordingly.
• Strategic Input: Contribute to company assessments and inform the overall program strategy based on trends, challenges, and opportunities identified through peer sessions.
• Network Connections: Leverage your network to connect participants with relevant talent, experts, vendors, resources, and specialized advisors.

Engagement Structure

• You will have a set schedule of Peer-to-Peer sessions running monthly for the duration of the engagement.
• Prep and training will be provided prior to each session.
• Advisors are expected to work autonomously.

Areas of Engagement

• Advisors may be engaged to contribute in one or more of the following ways depending on the needs outlined by the program team:
• Plan, facilitate, and enhance the COO Peer-to-Peer Program, ensuring monthly sessions for late-stage company COOs are well-structured, highly relevant, and deliver actionable insights.
• Provide one-on-one strategic advisory to ventures as a continuation of the P2P program where applicable.
• Support MaRS operational excellence by documenting activities, logging interactions in Salesforce, and providing monthly reports.
• Any additional work or activities will be mutually agreed upon in advance.
• Work may be completed remotely or in-person depending on the nature of the assignment.
• Allocation of work (as outlined above) will be primarily focused on later-stage scaling companies.

What you bring

The following criteria define the work experience required to support these late-stage ventures:

• Experience as a COO, VP Operations, or equivalent senior operational leader in a scaling technology or science-based company during the $10M–$100M growth stage.
• Proven track record in operational scaling, process improvement, and strategic planning at the enterprise level.
• Experience as a mentor, coach, or consultant to scaling companies.

Required Experience: Chief

Key Skills

Fundraising, Communication skills, Public Speaking, Writing Skills

Employment Type: Full-Time

Experience: years

Vacancy: 1