Job Description

Position: Sr. Business Functional Manager, SCMC

Position Number: H26-007

Status: Full-Time (Exempt)

Reports to: Senior Vice President, Operations Director SCMC

Location: Remote, Indianapolis, IN, Washington, DC, Bloomington, IN

Position Summary

The Senior Business Functional Manager is a key operational leader within the Silicon Crossroads Hub, a regional hub of the DoD-backed Microelectronics Commons initiative. This role is responsible for building and sustaining the Hub’s program operations infrastructure - designing and standardizing business workflows, establishing reporting and governance frameworks, and coordinating effectively across a complex consortium of academic, industry, and government partners.

This is fundamentally a program operations and process design role. The ideal candidate brings a track record of building operational infrastructure in technically complex, multi-stakeholder environments - translating ambiguous requirements into clear processes, governance frameworks, and tools that teams can actually use. Experience in R&D program management, federal initiatives, or microelectronics is a meaningful differentiator. Familiarity with workflow automation, AI-enabled productivity tools, and business intelligence platforms is highly valued.

Core Responsibilities

• Design and maintain the Hub’s operational infrastructure, including program lifecycle frameworks, governance structures, SOPs, templates, and tracking systems to enable consistent, scalable execution across a distributed consortium.
• Develop and continuously refine standardized workflows across the full program lifecycle, including partner onboarding, project intake, execution, funding coordination, compliance reporting, and closeout processes.
• Establish and manage the Hub Operations Playbook, reporting cadences, escalation paths, and performance tracking systems that provide leadership with clear visibility into program health and delivery status.
• Lead process improvement and change management initiatives that reduce administrative burden, eliminate operational bottlenecks, and ensure adoption of new workflows across diverse partner institutions.
• Own operational reporting and performance management, including the design of dashboards, reporting frameworks, and standardized data structures for internal leadership and external stakeholders (e.g., DoD program offices and NSTC interfaces).
• Ensure consistency, accuracy, and completeness of program data by coordinating reporting standards across consortium partners and aligning outputs with federal grant and compliance requirements.
• Serve as the primary operational coordinator across the consortium, aligning partner institutions through onboarding, training, working groups, and ongoing engagement to ensure consistent execution of Hub programs.
• Facilitate cross-partner collaboration by tracking deliverables, surfacing risks and dependencies, and ensuring alignment across distributed stakeholders.
• Represent Hub operations within broader national ecosystem coordination efforts, including engagement with Microelectronics Commons and related networks.
• Identify, evaluate, and implement workflow automation and AI-enabled tools to improve operational efficiency, streamline reporting, and reduce manual effort, ensuring solutions remain practical, scalable, and usable by non-technical staff.

Qualifications & Experience

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical, scientific, business, or operations-related field
• 8+ years in program management, business operations, or process design roles
• Demonstrated ability to build SOPs, governance frameworks, and operational infrastructure from the ground up
• Proven ability to align and coordinate across technically complex, multi-institutional environments
• Ability to design and manage reporting templates, dashboards, and performance tracking tools
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, with the ability to translate technical complexity for diverse audiences

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree or equivalent advanced credential
• Experience managing R&D, federally funded, or public-private programs
• Experience in multi-partner, consortium-style, or distributed organizational models
• Experience designing and delivering workshops, training sessions, and stakeholder alignment sessions
• Familiarity with microelectronics, advanced manufacturing, or related deep‑tech domains
• Working familiarity with project management, low‑code automation, or BI platforms (Power BI, Airtable, Smartsheet, etc.)

Desired Competencies

• Infrastructure Builder: Does not wait for systems to exist - designs and implements the processes, templates, and governance structures required for a consortium to operate reliably and at scale.
• Technical Translator: Comfortable operating in technically complex environments and converting ambiguous requirements, R&D outputs, and engineering complexity into clear, actionable processes and documentation usable by non-technical stakeholders.
• Consortium Enabler: Understands that a hub is only as strong as its partner network; builds onboarding, coordination, and training infrastructure that keeps distributed institutions aligned, engaged, and accountable.
• Reporting Architect: Designs reporting frameworks that deliver the right level of information to the right audiences - accurate, structured, and decision-relevant -without imposing unnecessary administrative burden on program teams.
• Facilitative Leader: Leads workshops, working groups, and cross-stakeholder sessions that produce actionable outcomes; brings structure, focus, and follow-through to multi-organization collaboration and ensures outputs translate into operational improvements.
• Pragmatic Operator: Selects tools, processes, and approaches based on scalability and adoptability rather than theoretical optimality; executes quickly while maintaining system stability and minimizing disruption to dependent teams.

Who we are:

The Applied Research Institute (ARI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit leader in technology innovation and strategy. ARI drives economic growth and enhances national security by uniting innovators and powering innovation across the technology ecosystem. ARI collaborates with cross-sectional partners from state and federal government, industry, and academia across a wide spectrum of technology focus areas. Learn more at www.theari.us.

Salary:

$120,000.00-$180,000.00/yr depending on experience

Benefits:

• 401k (ARI provides 5% non-elective Employee Eligible Compensation, as well as providing an elective Safe Harbor match of up to 4% of Employee Contribution)
• Health, Dental, and Vision insurance coverage. IN3 pays 90% of plan costs for individuals and 80% for families
• Employer-provided short-term, long-term disability, and life insurance
• 4 weeks PTO to start, 5 weeks after 2 years consecutive employment; 10 sick days in addition to PTO
• 14 company holidays
• Flexible schedule, including the possibility of a full-remote position for highly qualified candidates

To apply: Please email your resume to hr@theari.us and reference job number H26-007

Pay: $120,000.00 - $180,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Flexible schedule
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan
• Tuition reimbursement
• Vision insurance

Work Location: Remote