Plug and Play is a global innovation platform and venture capital firm. Our mission is to make innovation open to anyone, anywhere. Each year, hundreds of entrepreneurs join our vertical-specific accelerator programs to team up with our corporate members or receive a direct investment from Plug and Play. Plug and Play has over 40 locations across the world and our corporate members include: The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, USAA, Visa, Nationwide, Aflac, Daimler, Ford, Nissan, BP, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Pfizer, Walmart, Coca Cola, Adidas, and over 500 more. Plug and Play’s corporate members utilize Plug and Play to identify the best startups to meet their challenges. Plug and Play’s proven investment track record includes Honey, Guardant Health, ApplyBoard, BigID, Kustomer, Rappi, Flutterwave, Hippo, PayPal, Lending Club, Dropbox, and many more.
The Program Associate is responsible for supporting the day-to-day tech accelerator program delivery, team co-ordination and act as a main point of contact to support key clients in KSA to meet their startup engagement and innovation goals.
He/she is also expected to take a supporting role in the delivery and coordination of accelerator support services and stakeholder coordination.
Ultimately, the Program Associate supports the startups accepted into the acceleration program, and the partner sponsoring the program, to make the most out of Plug and Play.
Duties and Responsibilities
Client Facing
- In close dialogue with the client sponsoring the accelerator to align on timely and accurate delivery of project deliverable
- Act as the key point of contact for client needs and enquiries
- Work closely with client’s business units and teams to understand and define clear technology needs and startup sourcing criteria
Startup Facing
- Work closely with the client and/or strategic partners to help engage with program startup
- Work with the team onboard and support the startups during the accelerator
Program Management
- Support in the coordination and delivery of all program deliverables, including successful sourcing communication with the ventures team, as well as stakeholder engagement throughout
- Support team and external stakeholders to align expectations expectations and ensure smooth and timely delivery of a successful accelerator program.
- Support the detailed design and delivery of the program through workshops, coaching and mentorship for the startups, and other important ecosystem engagements e.g. dealflows with possible tech end-users, investor and wider ecosystem activation
Marketing & Event Planning
- Take a supporting role in the delivery of key private and public events for the program by ensuring the overall agenda, promotion and operations of the event have been suitable delegated and managed
- Take a supporting role in ensure all external communications, collateral and marketing material by ensuring the quality of content going out
Administrative
- Keeping track of contractual deliverables and support the Program Manager in updating the project charter
- Keeping record of all key interactions between startups and the client to support in the expedition of successful collaboration throughout the accelerator.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree
- 2+ years’ corporate/government servicing experience required
- Project management and business operations experience a plus
- Must have strong verbal and written communication skills
- Exceptional organizational and multitasking skills
- Must be proactive with strong leadership and teamwork skills
- Demonstrate integrity, dependability, responsibility, accountability, self-awareness, work ethic, and empathy
- Passionate to drive innovation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the GCC. Current or past experience in KSA or GCC highly desired.
- Understand startup technologies and able to evaluate the suitability of a startup based on their technology, traction and team. A background in AI and/or big data is a bonus
- Understand corporate innovation or venture capital, especially in emerging markets
- Bi-lingual (Arabic & English) preferred
- Consultancy & Innovation Advisory experience preferred
