Staff Careers

The Special Assistant to the President for National Defense at The University of Alabama in Huntsville will be responsible for aligning university assets within the research and academic organization as needed to support national defense, for the purpose of obtaining grants, contracts, and workforce development.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Perform continual assessment of the needs of organizations in the national defense sector, with particular focus on organizations in the Greater Huntsville / North Alabama region.
• Active engagement with current and potential sponsors to understand current and future needs and to ensure that institutional strategy and ongoing university programs are meeting the sponsors' expectations.
• Identification of new funding mechanisms and alignment of university assets to successfully obtain external resources.
• Continual assessment of university assets that support national defense, with particular attention paid to the attributes that differentiate UAH from peers and competitors.
• Internal coordination of university assets and personnel to pursue funding opportunities, with a particular focus on active engagement with academic leadership, faculty, and research center/institute directors to ensure robust communication.
• Collaboration with other units on campus, e.g., Marketing and Communications, Advancement, in the development of materials and content that highlight UAH assets in national defense.
• Collaboration with other units on campus, e.g., Proposal Development, in the successful pursuit of external funding opportunities.

• Master's degree; preferably in national security, defense, political science, international relations, public policy, engineering, business, or a related field
• 15-20 years of progressively responsible experience in defense, national security, government, military affairs, intelligence, defense industry, or a closely related field
• Demonstrated understanding of DoD, national security policy, military operations, defense technology, or the defense-industrial base
• Eligibility for a Secret security clearance is required.

• Ability to brief and advise a university president and communicate effectively with senior government, military, industry, and academic leaders.
• Demonstrated ability to work with federal/state agencies, military commands, congressional offices, defense contractors, or other national-security organizations.
• Ability to develop university strategies involving defense research, workforce development, federal partnerships, grants/contracts, and national-security priorities.
• Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive or confidential information.
• Experience coordinating across multiple organizations.
• Active security clearance at Secret or above is desired.

$273,938