Director, Critical Materials Alliance — Lead Innovation

The Pennsylvania State University; Ferguson Township (PA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Startup package

Tuition discount

Job summary

The Pennsylvania State University seeks an inaugural Director for the Penn State Critical Materials Alliance (Penn State CMA), a university-wide initiative to advance research, education, workforce development, and industry engagement across the critical minerals and materials value chain.

The Director will provide visionary leadership and align faculty, institutes, and centers across campuses to build a nationally recognized program.

Qualifications

• Earned doctorate in engineering, materials science, geosciences, chemistry, physics, or a closely related field.
• Tenured Professor qualifications; exceptional Associate Professors may be considered for Professor rank.
• Internationally recognized scholarship in critical minerals, materials, energy technologies, or related fields.
• Proven leadership of large interdisciplinary programs, centers, or consortia with credibility to lead senior faculty.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills with academia, industry, government, and community stakeholders.
• Commitment to fostering collaborative and inclusive research environments.
• US Citizenship or Green Card Holder.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a strategic vision for the Penn State CMA.
• Build and lead interdisciplinary teams spanning multiple colleges, institutes, and campuses.
• Foster a collaborative culture that spans exploration, extraction, processing, manufacturing, recycling, AI-enabled systems, economics, policy, and workforce development.
• Expand partnerships with industry, federal agencies, national laboratories, state agencies, and international collaborators.
• Develop and lead large-scale research initiatives and center-scale proposals to federal sponsors including DOE, DoD, USGS, NSF, NIST, and related agencies.
• Establish and grow industry partnerships and consortia with Federal Labs to accelerate technology translation and workforce development.
• Coordinate strategic investments in shared research infrastructure, pilot-scale testbeds, and workforce programs.
• Advance educational and workforce initiatives for students, postdocs, and technical professionals.
• Serve as advocate and spokesperson for Penn State's critical minerals activities at regional and national levels.
• Maintain an internationally recognized program of scholarship at the rank of Professor.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Communication

Stakeholder engagement

Project management

Education

Doctorate in engineering or related field

Job description

The Pennsylvania State University seeks an inaugural Director for the Penn State Critical Materials Alliance (Penn State CMA), a university-wide initiative to advance research, education, workforce development, and industry engagement across the critical minerals and materials value chain.

The Director will provide visionary leadership and align faculty, institutes, and centers across campuses to build a nationally recognized program.