Lotus Group is proud to partner with the citys top innovation agency backing bold thinkers, builders and entrepreneurs tackling real challenges and creating whats next. Their vision is to establish a critical mass of entrepreneurs scaling technology and innovation companies toward global impact.

We are seeking a Post Secondary Institutions Engagement Lead who will serve as the primary top-of-the-funnel engine for our client, acting as the bridge between academic research and commercial success. This is a high-energy, proactive engagement role designed to be the face of the organization across all post-secondary campuses.

Your mission: identify high-potential founders among students, staff, and faculty, and position the organization as their dedicated commercializing partner. You wont be waiting for applications, youll be on the ground, in labs, building the next generation of ventures.

Role Responsibilities

• Maintain a constant, visible presence at post-secondary institutions to identify and engage post-grad students and PIs with high-potential intellectual property or startup ideas

• Conduct strategic outreach by identifying cutting-edge applied research from recent publications and targeting professors or teams suited for spin-outs

• Coordinate, organize, attend, and network at research symposiums, campus mixers, and relevant events to scout for talent

• Clearly communicate the organizations value proposition: founders remain technical leads while the organization supports venture fundamentals, commercialization readiness, and ecosystem navigation

• Build and maintain high-trust relationships with key counterparts across Edmontons post-secondary institutions including the University of Alberta, NAIT, MacEwan University, NorQuest College, Athabasca University, Concordia University, and The Kings University

• Navigate institutional cultural and administrative nuances to ensure the organization is viewed as a value-add rather than a competitor

• Collaborate with campus career centers, tech transfer offices (TTOs), and faculty leads to align commercialization efforts

• Balance a proactive hunter mindset with patience and respect for academic protocols and long-term partnerships
  
  

First-Year Focus

• Build a robust pipeline of high-potential founders transitioning from academia to industry

• Identify skill gaps within post-grad and PI-led teams and connect them to introductory learning pathways such as customer discovery, lean experimentation, and IP generation

• Establish and maintain deep relationships with faculty, lab leads, and campus entrepreneurship centers to drive referrals
  
  

Role Requirements

• 1–3 years of experience in business development, startup recruitment, or early-stage venture development, ideally within post-secondary environments

• Background in science strongly preferred

• Strong diplomatic communication and situational awareness to balance venture urgency with institutional sensitivity

• Ability to translate complex scientific and technical concepts into commercial opportunity (science-to-business fluency)

• Exceptional presentation skills and a confident hunter mindset

• Strategic thinker with long-term vision for early-stage research commercialization

• Proven ability to manage diverse stakeholder relationships simultaneously, from graduates to senior administrators
  
  

Compensation

A comprehensive compensation package of 70-90K will accompany the successful candidate and will be commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Lotus Group works to uncover top talent across Canada. With networks and clients spanning coast to coast and over 40 years of combined search, recruitment, and HR expertise, we remain dedicated to being Canadas most trusted provider of Elevated People Solutions.