Executive Director, Biological Design Center Biomedical Engineering Boston, MA

Boston University; Boston, Northern (MA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Boston University seeks an Executive Director to lead the Biological Design Center in Biomedical Engineering. The role guides day-to-day operations, strategic growth, communications, and financial stewardship for a multi-disciplinary research hub.

The Executive Director will oversee shared infrastructure, training programs, external communications, and multi-PI grant coordination, advancing science on a global platform.

Qualifications

• PhD in biology, physical sciences, biomedical engineering, or a related field.
• At least 3 years of related work experience post-graduation in scientific administration, outreach, program management, or communications.
• Demonstrated experience taking primary responsibility for a program or operation from planning through execution.
• Strong communication skills to convey scientific and organizational information effectively.
• Strong organizational skills to create structure around new programs and activities.
• Experience contributing to grant proposals or complex, multi-author scientific documents.

Responsibilities

• Overseeing the Center's Operations and Shared Research Infrastructure: purchasing and managing shared equipment, planning maintenance, supervising facilities, interfacing with University offices, implementing SOPs, ensuring a safe environment.
• Supporting the Center's Scientific and Training Programs: manage NIH SB2 and NSF training programs, organize seminars and symposia, develop new objectives for training.
• Managing Public Relations, Communications, and Marketing: handle social media, website content, marketing, and collaborate with Marketing & Communications offices.
• Maintaining Oversight on and Managing Finances and Budget: assist with annual reviews, budgets, invoicing, payroll, and accounts.
• Supervising Administrative Staff: conduct meetings, establish workflow practices, delegate tasks.
• Coordinating and Writing Multi-PI/Institution Grants: identify faculty and institutions, coordinate, write, and submit grant proposals.

Skills

Strong communication

Strong organizational skills

Program management experience

Grant writing experience

Diversity collaboration

Education

PhD in biology, physical sciences, biomedical engineering, or related field

Tools

Job description

Executive Director, Biological Design Center Biomedical Engineering

Category

Job Location

Tracking Code

26500377430825

Posted Date

9/4/2026

Salary Grade

Grade 50

Expected Hiring Range Minimum

$120,000.00

Expected Hiring Range Maximum

$150,000.00

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, training and internal pay comparison. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Position Type

Full-Time/Regular

Nature creates highly adaptable and efficient biological systems. The goal of the Biological Design Center (BDC) at Boston University is to unlock these design principles and reengineer them for applications in human health and the environment. To achieve this goal, the BDC brings together disparate research areas — including biology, engineering, physics, chemistry, and medicine — to create disruptive ideas and biomedical technologies, drawing in scientists from industry and academia to tinker, invent, and discover under the Center's auspices.

The Center is home to 21 core faculty and more than 150 researchers and trainees, spanning departments of engineering, sciences, computing, and medicine, and occupying three floors of the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering. The BDC's deeply collaborative investigators advance cutting‑edge research through federal, foundation, and industry support, and anchor two field‑defining graduate training programs: the NIH T32 in Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology (SB2) and the NSF NRT in Biological Feedback Control.

The Executive Director leads the day-to-day operation of the BDC — driving the strategic, communications, and operational aspects of the Center's activities and programs, both facilitating the Center's growth and promoting its science on the global platform.

Specific responsibilities include:

1. 1.Overseeing the Center's Operations and Shared Research Infrastructure: The BDC's operations include purchasing and managing shared equipment, planning equipment maintenance and selective upgrades, overseeing the Center's facilities and resources, interfacing with other University offices and groups, implementing standard operating procedures, and maintaining a safe and positive environment at the Center.
2. 2.Supporting the Center's Scientific and Training Programs: the BDC is home to a number of prestigious scientific training programs — including the NIH T32 SB2 program and the NSF NRT in Biological Feedback Control — for which seminars, workshops, training and professional development opportunities, symposia, and requests for applications, among other things, will need to be managed. The Executive Director also organizes the Center's annual symposium and seminar series and, where necessary, develops and implements new objectives and opportunities for training within the Center.
3. 3.Managing the Center's Public Relations, Communications, and Marketing: this includes the Center's social media communications, website content, marketing and public relations programs and communications, and where necessary, interfacing with University Marketing & Communications offices.
4. 4.Maintaining Oversight on and Managing the Center's Finances and Budget: this includes reporting on the Center's finances, assisting with annual reviews and reports, development and management of budgets and projections, and overseeing invoicing, disbursements, payroll, purchase orders, accounts receivables and/or payables.
5. 5.Supervising the Center's Administrative Staff: this includes regular meetings, creating constructive, efficient and positive workplace practices, and delegation of the Center's administrative tasks.
6. 6.Coordinating and Writing Multi-PI/Institution Grants: this involves supporting multi-PI and multi-institution grant efforts that advance the scientific goals of the BDC, including identifying faculty and institutions, and coordinating, writing, and submitting grant proposals to funding agencies.

Required Skills

Required Qualifications:

• A PhD in biology, physical sciences, biomedical engineering, or a related field.
• At least 3 years of related work experience post-graduation (such as in scientific administration, outreach, program management, or communications). Postdoctoral training is not required.
• Demonstrated experience taking primary responsibility for a program, initiative, or operation from planning through execution — for example, running a training program, a seminar or symposium series, laboratory or core facility operations, or a comparable organizational unit.
• Strong communication skills, with demonstrated ability to convey scientific and organizational information effectively.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to create structure and mechanisms around new programs and activities.
• Experience contributing to grant proposals or comparable complex, multi-author scientific documents.
• Ability to work with a diverse group of scientists, administrators, trainees, and staff members, and to navigate interpersonal relationships.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in an academic research center, institute, or core facility environment. Familiarity with shared research infrastructure, scientific equipment purchasing, or core facility operations. Experience coordinating multi-PI or multi-institutional grants, particularly training grants or center grants. Experience communicating science to both scientific and general audiences.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.