Executive Director, Intellectual Property & Licensing, Office of Communications and Marketing - UTK

Knoxville, TN (On-site)

Salary Not AvailableSenior Level8+ years expFull time

Posted 2 months ago

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Job Summary

Own UTK’s brand IP and licensing portfolio, shaping policy and governance to protect the university identity while unlocking revenue across licensing categories by coordinating with athletics, research, and advancement teams.

  • IP strategy and policy governance across university, system, and state frameworks.
  • License management and brand monetization with external counsel and vendors.
  • Cross-campus advisory and leadership to drive risk management, asset development, and partnerships.

Job Description

Responsibilities
  • Develop and implement a comprehensive intellectual property strategy aligned with UTK’s mission, brand stewardship, athletic vision and partnership objectives.
  • Provide executive oversight of trademark licensing, retail brand commercialization, and related licensing agreements that advance and protect the University’s brand while driving revenue growth across key licensing categories.
  • Work closely with the brand creative teams within campus and athletic departments to ensure consistency across all.
  • Lead contract and vendor agreements with licensing contracts and retail distribution rights.
  • Lead the interpretation and application of UTK, UT System, state and federal intellectual property policies while actively participating in the identification, maintenance, and need for other policies.
  • Work with the licensing team members to manage budgets, revenue distribution, and financial reporting related to their licensing activities.
  • Adise senior leadership on risks, opportunities, and emerging trends affecting branding and commercialization.
  • Oversee and evaluate brand-related intellectual property disclosures, protection strategies, prosecution, portfolio management, and maintenance, specifically for university trademarks and copyrights.
  • Manage and direct relationships with outside counsel and service providers.
  • Ensure compliance with applicable state, federal and collegiate regulations.
Requirements
  • Bachelor’s degree
  • Minimum of 8 years of progressive experience in licensing, brand marketing, intellectual property management, or related fields.
  • 5+ years supervisory experience.
  • Demonstrated leadership experience in a complex academic, corporate or innovation-driven organization.
  • Deep knowledge of U.S. intellectual property law and commercialization practice.
  • Solid working knowledge of U.S. intellectual property law and licensing methods.
  • Proven experience negotiating and managing sophisticated intellectual property arrangements.
  • Familiarity with brand licensing, corporate partnerships, athletics, or consumer-facing intellectual property programs.
  • Strategic, integrative thinking across legal, brand, and partnerships
  • A collaborative, solutions-oriented leadership style
Preferred
  • Advanced degree in business, marketing, intellectual property, law or a related field.
  • Experience at a university or within a corporate intellectual property division or firm is preferred.
Benefits
  • The university offers a highly competitive benefits package that includes health insurance and retirement plans through the State of Tennessee, generous annual and sick leave accruals, longevity pay, tuition waivers and discounts, and more. Find more information on UT Benefits here
University of Tennessee, Knoxville logo

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville. Founded in 1794, it is the flagship institution of the statewide University of Tennessee system with nine undergraduate departments and eleven graduate departments and hosts more than 26,000 students from all 50 states and more than 100 foreign countries. In its 2009 ranking of universities, U.S. News & World Report ranked UT 118th among national universities and 52nd among public institutions of higher learning. Its ties to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, established under UT President Andrew Holt and continued under the UT-Battelle partnership, have positioned the University as co-manager and allow for considerable research opportunities for faculty and students enjoyed by few other institutions of comparable standing.Also affiliated with the University are the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, and the University of Tennessee Arboretum, which occupies 250 acres of nearby Oak Ridge, Tennessee and features hundreds of species of plants indigenous to the region. The University is a direct partner of the University of Tennessee Medical Center, the only Level I trauma center in the East Tennessee region and a self-proclaimed 'teaching hospital' due to its aggressive medical research programs and position as the primary career destination for most medical school graduates of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center at Memphis.

Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
9.2K employees (547 in marketing)

Traffic Signals

Monthly Visitors
2M
Monthly Google Ads Budget
$310K
Traffic Source Mix
Search
55.2%
Direct
39.2%
Referral
4.6%
Social
0.6%
Paid
0.3%

Headcount Trend

Current headcount: ~9.3K

Marketing Team

Marketing Team Size
437 (5% of company)
Median Career Experience
13 years
Median Tenure
3 years
Marketing Roles Posted (Last 30 Days)
3

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