IIT Bombay - Chief Operating Officer - Centre for Machine Intelligence & Data Science

Chief Operating Officer - Centre for Machine Intelligence and Data Science

About "Centre for Machine Intelligence and Data Science" AT IIT Bombay:

The Centre for Machine Intelligence and Data Science (CMInDS) at IIT Bombay was set up in February 2020 to contribute towards the growing role of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science in several aspects of our life. The Centre brings together faculty across different departments, pooling vertical domain-expertise and horizontal Artificial Intelligence/Machine learning (AI/ML) expertise to solve grand challenge problems and train manpower. The Centre will also be a focal point for industry partnerships, collaborative research, and shared state-of-the-art facilities.

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, set up in 1958 as the second IIT, is recognized worldwide as a leader in the field of engineering education and research. The Institute was granted the status of 'Institution of Eminence' by the Ministry of Education (the then Ministry of Human Resources Development) on July 9, 2018. IIT Bombay is reputed for the quality of its faculty and the outstanding caliber of students graduating from its undergraduate and postgraduate programs. IIT Bombay has been consistently ranked as one of the top 2 universities in India by QS World University Rankings.

Job Purpose :

- The role involves working with IIT Bombay departments, core faculty, industries, and government agencies in AI/ML, to contribute towards impactful research and training activities of the centre.

- It will require strategic planning, building successful partnerships, fundraising and commercialization, instituting systems, and processes for running the centre and engagement with the industry and government agencies for effective utilization of the centre's outcomes.

Key Responsibilities :

- Establish and grow the CMInDS organization. Build strategy for modelling a sustainable centre with strong commercialization outcomes and managing operations and growth of CMInDS

- Establish partnership with industry, startups, and government agencies to drive joint research and academic programs, and create strong career opportunities for CMInDS students

- Work with IIT Bombay departments and administration and establish core facilities / infrastructure and technology platform for CMInDS

- Project management and execution of grand challenge projects with several internal and external stakeholders like IIT Bombay departments, corporations, government agencies, software development companies, students etc.

- Develop innovative models for research and innovation driven projects working with the professors, students, early-stage start-ups, and PhD scholars of IIT Bombay.

- Position and market the Centre to be able to attract top talent for research, innovation commercialization and execution.

- Develop a relevant, high performance and cost optimized team to deliver on the commercialization and other organizational building and sustainability goals of CMInDS.

- Present the centre to corporates and prospective investors for fund raising and becoming financially sound; as well as organizing funding for hi-end research and related commercialization activities.

Desired Profile :

- An excellent academic pedigree with over 15 years of experience that cuts across academia and corporate.

- A background in AI, Data Science and Computing, while not essential, would be considered favorably.

- Experience in managing medium to large research labs or research centres which are self-funded or have minimal endowment support is preferred.

- Ability to build a strong working network of expert researchers (academic and industry), entrepreneurs and other experts in the AI/ML space, government officers in relevant departments, corporate leadership, and investors.

- Prior leadership experience of setting up or running operations of new business units.

- Experience in raising funds internally from within the corporate and externally from sources like foundations and government will be preferred.

- Strong stakeholder management skills.