Manager for Startup Programs

Development & Innovation team’s mission is to capture market opportunities and trends, to perform technology trials and market research studies, to work closely with the Commercial and Technical teams in order to discover innovative services opportunities, alternative ways to generate additional revenues and monetize Orange Romania infrastructure. In order to deliver this mission one of the key task is to transform the Development & Innovation team into a high-tech innovation center to fuel the business, anticipate the key technologies’ trends, collaborate with startups, promote Orange Romania research and innovations and disseminate this know-how inside the organization.

The role of Manager for Startup Programs consists in overseeing and implementing the Orange Fab startup acceleration program, Orange’s support for Innovation Labs pre-acceleration program and working with various Orange departments to facilitate the integration of the selected startups into Orange’s new products and client offers.

Part of the role involves external attributions, like representing Orange Fab at events and in discussions with startups and ecosystem stakeholders. Inside Orange, the role is paramount in identifying new technological opportunities, connecting with various areas of the company, pulling resources together and coordinating cross-department activities.

Orange Fab Romania is a 1-year acceleration program designed to support entrepreneurs in developing innovative products and distributing them locally and internationally. This acceleration program aims to discover startups in Romania with products in area like smart territories, future of life, networks and security. Startups will get access to technologies and APIs for product development, support for testing it in a real-world environment, and access to Orange's distribution network for business growth. More details here:

https://www.orangefab.ro/programul-de-accelerare-startup/.

Innovation Labs is pre-acceleration program organised with the co-support of Orange in Bucharest, Iasi, Cluj, Sibiu and Timisoara. Each year, up to 60 teams work from March to May alongside mentors, to improve their business idea, gain new users, develop & test their prototype into a MVP. In May, the Demo Day brings the best teams into spotlight to gain outreach, traction and continued support from our network of alumni and business connections. More details here: https://innovationlabs.ro/

The candidate should possess/have:

• Experience in fast-paced environments with a focus on business, project or program management;
• Strong technical knowledge and interest in innovation, startups, entrepreneurship;
• Proven attention to detail, experience in event planning;
• Comfortable with a variety of responsibilities;
• Team leadership experience, results-oriented, strong relationship building skills;
• Analytical, strategy and planning skills;
• Comfortable with a minimal amount of direction but high expectations;
• Experience in evaluating and working with startups;
• Understanding of the startup ecosystem and startup evolution stages;
• Bachelor's Degree from an accredited technical university, with a preference for Computer Science or Electronics

Responsibilities:

Startup scouting and internal integration:

• Identify and evaluate technical solutions on the market that can be integrated with Orange’s solutions to bring added value to Orange clients and the company
• Keep up-to-date with Orange Romania’s new technology development, to be able to continuously identify new fitting startups
• Oversee the internal evaluation process, from proposition to the final Go / No Go decision for each startup following the inter-departmental governance
• For the selected startups, work with the various internal departments for integrating, further developing, productizing, promoting and commercializing the solutions
• Keep in touch with startups selected in the program and support them in their connected activities

Innovation programs development:

• Keep an overview of all Orange Romania innovation programs and ensure their interoperability
• Develop the program plan and own the overall responsibility for the successful implementation
• Collaborate with the PR & Communication departments to develop and implement strategies and activities for the promotion of the innovation programs
• Keep in touch and cooperate with Orange Fab representatives from other countries
• Evaluate existing programs results and formulate improvement plans
• Identify new opportunities for Orange Romania to get involved in external innovation programs

External representation:

• Represent Orange Romania & Orange Fab at external events
• Collaborate with PR and Marketing departments to support Orange Fab presence in third party events
• Present, explain and showcase Orange technologies and products in external events dedicated to startups, academia and entrepreneurial communities

Internal management and reporting:

• Relationship management, reporting with upper management of Orange Romania
• Follow through KPIs and activities inside Orange departments
• Onboard & collaborate with internal & external members for the cross-departmental Orange Fab and Innovation Labs teams

Thank your for your application!