Project Manager, Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap

Lobby of the Flinn Foundation office.

How to Apply

Applications must be submitted via email to [email protected]. Applicants should submit (1) a resume and (2) a cover letter explaining their interest in and alignment with the position. The cover letter should include a current email address and phone number.

Role Overview

Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap is the nation’s longest-running statewide bioscience strategic plan, commissioned by the Flinn Foundation in 2002. The current edition, released in 2025, includes new goals and strategies for Arizona to become a nationally recognized, rising bioscience leader. The Foundation coordinates Roadmap implementation, staffs its Steering Committee of Arizona bioscience leaders, and monitors progress against metrics.

The Project Manager, Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap, is the operational lead for these activities: planning meetings of the Steering Committee and supporting its members, facilitating working groups, managing logistics for aligned Foundation programs, and informing strategic decisions with data.

Operational and analytical capacity is essential to this role; the Project Manager should also have knowledge of how science and technology ecosystems function.

The Project Manager works as part of the Foundation’s four-person bioscience staff team and routinely interacts with leaders from organizations across Arizona involved in Roadmap implementation.

Responsibilities and Duties

  • Plan and execute activities of the Roadmap Steering Committee and its five project teams, including agenda development, communications, and meeting-materials production.
  • Track Steering Committee membership and participation, conduct new-member orientations, and provide ongoing support.
  • With colleagues, coordinate logistics for the Foundation’s annual public Roadmap Progress Report, risk capital conference, and other bioscience convenings.
  • Capture and analyze information on metrics relevant to Roadmap progress; lead project outcome assessments and make process improvements.
  • Build a working knowledge of the Foundation’s bioscience grantmaking and developments across the sector to advance Roadmap implementation.
  • Contribute to other Foundation bioscience initiatives as needed, including grantee communications, analysis of grant progress and program outcomes, and reporting to the Foundation’s board of directors.
  • Contribute to Foundation-wide initiatives, planning, and special projects, undertake other tasks as assigned, and contribute to a collegial shared responsibility for fostering excellence at the Foundation.
  • Foster the mission and values of the Flinn Foundation, including a commitment to inclusive excellence across internal practices, engagement with the community, and philanthropic activities.
  • Pursue professional development in areas of professional relevance and responsibility.

Skills and Abilities

Required

  • Skill in facilitating work among external stakeholders, ideally including support to a governance body such as a steering committee, advisory board, or board of directors.
  • Sound independent judgment: setting priorities among competing demands, moving work forward without close direction, and identifying and fixing inadequate processes.
  • Fluency with tools for managing and analyzing data (e.g., Salesforce, Excel, and dashboard tools such as Power BI), and for tracking projects and shared work (e.g., Trello, SharePoint).
  • Clear speaking and writing, including the ability to tailor messages to different audiences, synthesize evidence into actionable recommendations, and edit for accuracy and tone.
  • Discretion with confidential information and the ability to work productively with colleagues and constituencies across sectors.

Preferred

  • Formal project-management training or certification (e.g., PMP, CAPM), or equivalent applied experience.
  • Working familiarity with research universities, private companies, health systems, government agencies, and other organizations in the bioscience ecosystem.

Education and Experience

  • Master’s degree preferred, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
  • Five or more years managing multi-organization projects, programs, or events that involve senior stakeholders, including workplan development, selection and tracking of success metrics, and meeting design.
  • Experience in higher education, health care, economic development, government, or grantmaking organizations preferred.

Physical and Other Requirements

  • This position typically works at least four days per week in the Flinn Foundation office.
  • Occasional travel statewide during and outside normal work hours, with rare overnight stays.
  • Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer, and prolonged periods of standing and walking.
  • Must be able to lift up to 20 pounds at times.
  • Valid U.S. driver license.
  • Current auto insurance on personal vehicles.

Other Details

Compensation

The Flinn Foundation benchmarks salaries against nonprofit-foundation salary surveys. The minimum salary for this position is $75,000.

Benefits

Employee benefits include:

  • Paid holidays, sick leave, vacation; paid time off for jury duty, voting, and serving as a poll worker; paid leave for maternity/paternity/adoption and bereavement.
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance; health savings accounts with employer contribution; telehealth insurance.
  • Life insurance, short-term and long-term disability insurance.
  • Tuition reimbursement and professional-development support.
  • 403(b) retirement plan with employer match.
  • Covered parking and electric-vehicle charging.

Location

The Flinn Foundation is in the heart of Phoenix’s arts district, just north of downtown. We built our facility as a place to convene the community; in addition to staff offices, it includes two large conference rooms available at no cost to nonprofit organizations working in our areas of interest.

Staff generally work in the office at least four days per week. Because the Foundation serves the entire state of Arizona, many staff travel frequently to meet and work with grantees, program participants, and other collaborators.

Schedule

Typically, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday (occasional evenings and weekends required).

About the Flinn Foundation

The Flinn Foundation is a privately endowed grantmaking organization established in 1965 by Dr. Robert S. and Irene P. Flinn. Its mission is to improve the quality of life in Arizona to benefit future generations.

The Foundation makes grants and operates programs in four philanthropic areas, aiming to:

  • Advance the bioscience sector through research grants and stewardship of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap;
  • Enhance undergraduate education for high-achieving students at Arizona’s public universities through the Flinn Scholars Program;
  • Elevate the fiscal and creative capacity of arts and culture organizations throughout the state; and
  • Strengthen civic life and leadership through the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership.

The Foundation’s Board of Directors includes 10 leaders in medicine, health research, technology, business, and finance. The Foundation’s 20-member staff is led by President and CEO Tammy McLeod, Ph.D.

Culture

Our mission encompasses all of Arizona, and all Arizonans, and our success requires a commitment to inclusive excellence in our operations and our philanthropy.

Because those philanthropic areas of interest are diverse, we look for opportunities to bridge them, whether through collaborative projects across organizations we support or bringing program participants from one area into the work of another.

Such cross-pollination happens when staff know one another’s strategies and goals well. We encourage staff to learn continuously about all of the Foundation’s work, solve common problems collaboratively, and attend one another’s program events. Everyone pitches in when a team needs help.

People at the Flinn Foundation tend to stay, and responsibilities grow with them. 

Values

Staff identified five values that reflect and guide the work, ethics, and character of the Foundation:

Candor: We practice straight talk and believe in truth over harmony, within our team and across the community. We acknowledge failure without excuses to learn. In respectful communication, we address the relevant party with transparent intentions.

Trust: We embrace our identity as stewards of Irene and Robert Flinn’s legacy and vision. We ground our words and actions in integrity and assumption of good faith. We defend others when they are absent, don’t gossip, and refuse to stir the pot.

Innovation: We interrogate the status quo in processes and programs and seize mission-driven opportunities. We employ design thinking and rigorously experiment and evaluate, prizing improved quality and increased productivity. We collaborate across programs and strengths and engage in regular reflection to ensure a learning environment.

Empathy: We treat our constituents as customers. We listen to their needs, champion their goals, and co-create with them. We welcome the challenge of empathizing with disparate audiences: colleagues, grantees and program participants, and the people of Arizona.

Fun: We find satisfaction in challenge and hard work—but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We feel healthier and happier and perform best when we are having fun. We support each other when we fall short and celebrate each other’s successes.