Executive Director

About the Foundation

MISUMI Imprint Foundation is the first corporate giving organization in MISUMI Group's history. It launched in October 2026 with a $2 million seed investment from MISUMI Americas and a mandate to fund the people who will build the physical world.

The reasoning is straightforward. MISUMI supplies the components that engineers design into machines, and as AI moves out of software and into factories, vehicles, operating rooms, and orbit, demand is rising for engineers, machinists, and technicians who can build hardware that works safely and reliably in the real world. The United States is not producing enough of them. The Foundation exists to widen that pipeline.

We make grants in three areas:

• Scholarships & Access — need-based support for first-generation and underrepresented students in engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain, at four-year universities and community colleges alike
• Maker Programs — equipment grants for manufacturing labs, engineering team sponsorships, maker spaces, and student hackathons
• Industry–Academia Bridges — curricula built around real manufacturing problems, internship and apprenticeship pathways, mentorship and career support

The Foundation launched under the fiscal sponsorship of the SME Education Foundation and has filed for independent 501(c)(3) public charity status. Its defining structural feature is partner co-investment: MISUMI's global supplier partners are invited to contribute annually and join the Foundation Advisory Board, with seats at three tiers — Founding, Growth, and Community Partner.

About the role

This is a founding role. The mission is set, the seed capital is committed, and the board is in place. Almost everything else is yours to build: the first grant cycle, the review criteria, the partner program, the measurement framework, and the independent organization itself.

You will be the Foundation's first full-time employee and its public face — to universities and community colleges, to K–12 and robotics programs, to MISUMI's supplier partners, and to the press. You will report to the Board Chair and work closely with MISUMI Americas leadership, but the Foundation's day-to-day direction will be set by you.

We are looking for someone who wants the version of this job where the answers do not exist yet.

What you'll do

Build and run the grantmaking. Design the application, review, and award process across all three program areas. Source and evaluate grantees. Set award sizes and durations. Make the hard calls about what we fund and what we decline, and be able to explain both.

Grow the partner co-investment program. Recruit supplier partners into the Founding, Growth, and Community tiers. Run the Advisory Board, which convenes twice yearly to set grant priorities and announce awards jointly. Manage relationships with senior executives at some of the world's largest component manufacturers.

Complete the transition to an independent 501(c)(3). Work with counsel and the board to move the Foundation out of fiscal sponsorship into standalone operation — governance, policies, financial controls, audit readiness, and state charitable registrations.

Measure and report honestly. Define what success looks like beyond dollars granted, build the data to track it, and publish results — including the parts that did not work. Produce the Foundation's annual report.

Represent the Foundation externally. Speak at conferences and on campuses. Work with MISUMI Americas marketing on announcements and storytelling. Build relationships with industry bodies, workforce coalitions, and peer funders.

Build the team. Scope and hire the Foundation's next one to three roles as grant volume justifies them.

First-year priorities

• Open and close the inaugural grant cycle, with a defensible process and a portfolio you can stand behind
• Secure the first cohort of Founding Partners and hold two Advisory Board meetings
• Complete the 501(c)(3) determination and operational transition from fiscal sponsorship
• Publish a measurement framework and the Foundation's first annual report
• Establish institutional relationships with a target set of universities, community colleges, and K–12 programs

Desired Traits

• Seven or more years in philanthropy, workforce development, education, or a closely adjacent field, including direct ownership of a grantmaking or scholarship program — you have made funding decisions, not only administered them
• Experience building something from the beginning. A founding role, a new program inside a larger institution, or an organization you took from idea to operating. Comfort with ambiguity is not a nice-to-have here
• Credible with two very different audiences. You can hold a room of community college deans and a room of manufacturing executives, and you do not change your argument between them
• Fundraising or partner development track record. You have asked people for significant money and been told yes
• Working knowledge of nonprofit governance and compliance — 501(c)(3) requirements, fiscal sponsorship, board management, charitable registration. You do not need to be a lawyer, but you need to know what you are looking at
• Clear writing. Grant guidelines, board materials, annual reports, and declines all live or die on it

Genuine interest in manufacturing and engineering education. You do not need an engineering degree. You do need to find this industry interesting enough to learn it properly

Helpful, not required

• Background in engineering, manufacturing, or the skilled trades, or lived experience of a technical education pathway
• Familiarity with community college and technical program funding, CTE, or registered apprenticeships
• Relationships with FIRST, VEX, SkillsUSA, SME, NAM, the Manufacturing Institute, or similar
• Experience inside a corporate foundation, or navigating the relationship between a foundation and its corporate parent
• Japanese language ability or experience working across U.S. and Japanese organizations

What we offer

• The chance to build a foundation from its first grant, with committed capital and a board that wants it to be independent
• Competitive salary, health coverage, retirement contribution, and paid time off
• Remote-first, with travel to campuses, partner sites, MISUMI Americas offices, and the Advisory Board convenings
• A mandate that is deliberately broad, because the talent pipeline will change and we intend to change with it

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Ability to travel 25–30% annually within the United States for campus and grantee site visits, partner site visits, Advisory Board convenings (twice yearly), MISUMI Americas offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and Chicago, and industry conferences.
• Occasional international travel as the Foundation's work extends beyond the U.S.

Salary Range: $215,000 to $250,000 per year, based on experience and location

Interested in learning more?  We look forward to hearing from you soon.