Director of Research Innovation & Operations (DRIO) – Abundant Intelligences

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Director of Research Innovation & Operations (DRIO) – Abundant Intelligences

Application deadline: March 21, 2025
Start date: as soon as possible
Salary: Negotiable up to $160,000 (plus benefits), depending on experience
Hours per week: 40 hours/week
Location: Indigenous Futures Research Centre at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Work style: Given the importance of community and partnership building, this position is in-person, with occasional flexibility.
Reporting relationship: Position reports to Abundant Intelligences Co-Directors

The Opportunity

If you are a purpose driven research operations leader looking to make a difference in traditional approaches to AI, this opportunity is for you.

We invite you to consider joining Abundant Intelligences, a global, Indigenous-led, radically interdisciplinary, and community-grounded research group dedicated to understanding how we can integrate Indigenous Knowledges with AI for the good of all.

As our Director of Research Innovation and Operations (DRIO), your mandate will be to lead us to success with your ability to develop, in collaboration with the co-directors, a long-term vision for enabling Indigenous-centered innovation within the research program, communicate it to the research team, and organize the operations team to provide world-class operational support.

You’ll foster an environment of interdisciplinary collaboration that will excite technologists, artists, scholars, and cultural practitioners alike, and equip the operations team to enable unexpected connections, unanticipated conversations, and out-of-left-field collaborations. The researchers, students, and organizations across the Partnership will look to you for guidance on building capacity within the program and within Indigenous communities capable of innovating across the whole spectrum of AI research.

More specifically, you’ll
• Provide leadership of and responsibility for the research support staff, articulating a vision of excellence in operational support and establishing clear pathways for achieving that vision.
• Manage the Associate Directors and Managers (Partner Relations, Summer Institute for Indigenous AI & Student Support, Emerging AI Technologies, HQ Operations) to enable excellence in their portfolios.
• Collaborate with program leadership, co-investigators, collaborators, and partners to ensure that the partnership receives excellent operational support for conducting their research.
• Identify research and partnership challenges and new opportunities that require innovative solutions that lie outside existing operational parameters.
• Recommend and facilitate Call for Proposals (CFP), activities, network events, and other activities that will strengthen collaborations and improve research outcomes.
• Develop, in collaboration with the co-directors, a long-term vision for enabling Indigenous-centered innovation within the research program.

Who We Are

Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace (AbTeC) is a research studio-lab of artists, academics, activists, and technologists exploring the intersections between Indigenous creative practice, cultural expression & knowledge frameworks and digital & networked technologies. AbTeC is part of the Indigenous Futures Research Centre (IFRC), which, in turn, is part of Concordia’s Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology. AbTeC is based at Concordia University (Montreal) and Prof. Jason Edward Lewis is AbTeC’s Primary Investigator (PI). See www.abtec.org.

AbTeC is the HQ for Abundant Intelligences. Abundant Intelligences is an ambitious, large-scale ($28 million), six-year research Partnership exploring how to integrate Indigenous Knowledges and Artificial Intelligence systems. It is conducted by an international research team co- directed by Prof. Lewis and Prof. Hemi Whaanga at Massey University (New Zealand). The research team consists of 48 co-investigators and collaborators at 13 universities/research institutes and 8 community-based organizations in Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. See www.abundant-intelligences.net.

Change the world with us

Abundant Intelligences is trying to change the world. As the Director of Research Innovation & Operations, we need your help. We want you, with the imagination to help the research team pursue their vision of transformative AI technology and the managerial chops to ensure that the research operations team can support that pursuit. As we move into our third year of the program, we need your supernatural ability to successfully operationalize complex projects to meet and exceed ambitious research goals.

We work extensively with Indigenous communities in Canada, the US, the Pacific, and New Zealand, and require leadership that is focused, adaptive, and passionate about our commitment to co-creating innovative technologies that benefit them and set an example for AI in general that is better suited to helping humanity thrive. Our ability to successfully conduct our research will depend on your passion for understanding the ways in which AI research is rapidly evolving, helping us identify opportunities where our research and operations support can make a difference, and ensuring that our operations team itself places innovation at the core of its being.

You’ll Need These Qualifications

• You have 5+ years of experience running complex projects. A Master’s degree and research in a relevant domain is an asset; a Doctoral degree is a significant asset.
• You have substantial experience working with Indigenous communities and organizations.
• You have managed 5-to-10-person operational teams.
• You have absurdly good interpersonal, organizational, and administrative skills.
• You are autonomous, with an obsession with accuracy and attention to details.
• You have excellent communication skills, including spoken and written English, that can connect with and inspire scholars, students, partners, and Indigenous community organizations.
• You use tact, diplomacy, sensitivity and flexibility in dealing with research teams and Indigenous community organizations and members.
• You have engaged with international collaborations.
• You are familiar with the current state of AI research and are passionate about remaining up to date as it evolves.

It Would Be Nice If

• You know an Indigenous language—or two!
• You have competent spoken and written French abilities.
• You have worked with policies regarding Indigenous technological sovereignty such as the First Nations principles of ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics).

If the Director of Research Innovation & Operations opportunity ignites your passions and interest, we want to hear from you. AbTeC and Concordia University are strongly committed to employment equity. Applications from qualified candidates, including Indigenous Peoples, racialized persons, women, members of sexual minorities, persons with disabilities, and others who may contribute to the diversity of lived experiences and scholarship are encouraged. Candidates are invited to self-identify in their applications.

Completed applications can be submitted online at www.kbrs.ca/Career/17387625326900000008mLZ. We welcome your queries about the role. We can be reached at info@amorell.com, kfrank@kbrs.ca and lwright@kbrs.ca.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however Canadians and Permanent Residents will be given priority.

KBRS will provide support in the recruitment process to applicants with disabilities, including accommodation that takes into account an applicant’s accessibility needs. If you require accommodation in order to participate as a candidate in the recruitment process, please contact accommodate@kbrs.ca or communicate your needs to the recruitment professional named in the job description.

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