Fellowship Manager

Position Summary 

The Fellowship Manager, New York, is the strategic and operational program lead for Activate's New York community, supporting a cohort of scientist-entrepreneurs. In this role, you will work closely with founders throughout their two-year Activate fellowship journey as they build breakthrough hard-tech companies in fields like climate tech, new materials, biomanufacturing, and aerospace.

The Fellowship Manager, New York, is responsible for delivering an exceptional two-year fellowship experience while cultivating one of the nation's leading hard-tech founder communities. This role combines founder support, community building, operational excellence, ecosystem engagement, and team leadership to create a program helping fellows successfully commercialize transformative technologies.

Each Activate community supports about 20 fellows and is run by a three-person team. 

• The Fellowship Manager (this role) leads the local community and reports to the Fellowship Director, who oversees all five US communities.
• The Fellowship Associate reports to the Fellowship Manager and is responsible for the community’s daily operations.
• The Managing Director is an experienced entrepreneur who mentors the community’s fellows and leads external ecosystem efforts. 

All three roles sit within the Fellowship team and benefit from being on a team of peers performing similar work in other communities. This role is one of 5 Fellowship Managers at Activate, each responsible for one of our US communities. 

Primary Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end fellow experience, including the strategy and health of the Activate New York community, continuously evolving the fellowship experience through programming, partnerships, operational improvements, and community-building initiatives.
• Direct New York community programming, including bi-weekly in-person programming and quarterly virtual programming. 
• Manage local program operations, including fellow selection, fellow onboarding, fellow data, and fellow benefits.
• Manage the Fellowship Associate to ensure high-performance execution of local community operations and support their professional development.
• Partner with the Managing Director to provide targeted support to New York fellows.
• Oversee community budgeting, strategy, team meetings, and team-wide coordination.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate fellowship insights and stories into strategies that amplify organizational impact.
• Contribute to broader Fellowship team-wide initiatives, operations, and cross-functional working groups.
• Oversee and coordinate ecosystem events hosted by Activate in New York
• Represent Activate across New York's hard tech innovation ecosystem by cultivating partnerships, engaging alumni, and participating in conferences, recruitment events, and industry convenings.
• Champion a positive, welcoming environment while contributing to the wider Activate culture.

The Ideal Candidate...

• Has 4+ years of professional experience, including at least 1 year supporting scientists, research, hard tech, or entrepreneurship.
• Has a passion for and experience with community building.
• Is experienced with facilitating personal connections, collaborations, and mutual support within a community.
• Gets the details right and takes pride in being organized and prepared.
• Can smoothly manage a complex program through changing external circumstances.
• Proactively collects and analyzes the data needed to drive continuous improvement and be two steps ahead of any problem.
• Is eager and capable of gathering the shared challenges of entrepreneurs and translating them into programming.
• Communicates nuanced information clearly in any context, including on a stage, in a heartfelt conversation, or with a graph-filled presentation.
• Is excited to grow their skills as a manager and help others reach their full potential.
• Switches smoothly between collaboration and individual work, between words and numbers, and between strategic and nitty-gritty tasks.
• Is passionate about building entrepreneurial ecosystems and supporting hard-tech founders tackling society's hardest challenges.
• Loves science and is ready to learn a lot of it.

About the Role

This is a full-time position with a competitive annual salary of $100,000 and a generous benefits package that includes professional development, $2,000 in annual wellness funds, flexible paid time off, healthcare coverage for employees and dependents, with 90–100% of premiums covered, and the opportunity to join a retirement plan with a 3% match beginning after 3 months at Activate. 

This position is based in New York City. Because we operate an in-person community, our team typically works from the office Tuesday through Thursday each week.