About MaRS

MaRS Discovery District (@MaRSDD) is a charitable organization and North America’s largest urban innovation hub, dedicated to helping high-growth technology companies succeed. With a focus on climate, health sciences and other emerging technologies, MaRS supports startups tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues. Through its world-class facilities, strategic programs and partnerships, MaRS accelerates the adoption of groundbreaking Canadian technology and bolsters a globally competitive innovation ecosystem. MaRS is the place where you can play a meaningful role in the innovation economy.

We understand requirements on a job posting can be daunting. If you're passionate about the role and believe you can make a meaningful impact, we want to hear from you, even if you don't meet every listed qualification. We’re always looking for great talent to join our team on planet MaRS.

We actively encourage all candidates to apply, including equity-deserving communities, including those who identify as BIPOC, racialized, women, people with disabilities, and people with diverse gender identities, expressions and sexual orientations.

We want you to be comfortable being your most authentic self throughout our recruitment process. Please reach out to careers@marsdd.com if there’s anything we can do to make your experience more accessible and inclusive, including accommodations. Include 'Accessibility Request' in your subject line.

About the Position

This is a permanent, full-time position. Reporting to the Director of Startup Services, the Senior Associate, Advisory Services owns the end-to-end execution, administration, and strategic growth of the MaRS Volunteer Advisor program and the administrative operations for all Contracted Advisors, Facilitators and Specialists at MaRS. This role is the primary lead for the technical infrastructure, data integrity, and relationship management strategies that enable MaRS to scale its advisory offerings to ventures. The Senior Associate acts as a key bridge between external advisors and internal teams, ensuring operational excellence and high-value engagement across the ecosystem. The Senior Associate proactively identifies gaps in current advisory offerings and designs structured approaches to solve them, acts as an internal champion for operational excellence, pushing the boundaries of how MaRS uses technology to deliver client value, and constantly iterates on existing processes to transform manual tasks into scalable digital workflows.

Key Responsibilities

Program Ownership & Advisor Engagement

• Strategic Lead for Volunteer Advisors: Independently manages the recruitment, onboarding, and lifecycle of the Volunteer Advisor community
• Designs and implements engagement strategies to foster a positive, active, and high-performing community of advisors
• Develops and maintains best-in-class tools and resources to empower advisors and ventures during their engagements
• Maintains and tracks advisors’ areas of expertise, preferences and availabilities and is able to match with organizational needs
• Ensures advisors and ventures are aware of tools and resources available to enable best-in-class advisory
  

Operations & Technical Architecture

• Owns the administration and optimization of relationship management systems, including Salesforce CRM and Calendly
• Designs and implements automated workflows to streamline program delivery and reduce manual administrative overhead
• Leads the evaluation and rollout of new software solutions and technical tools for the Advisory team in collaboration with MaRS IT
• Standardizes onboarding and training materials for all internal and external users of advisory tools
• Designs and implements campaigns to drive awareness to advisory bench strength both internally and externally
• Processes contracts, NDAs, conflict of interest attestations and manages monthly planning and advisory assignment process
• Tracks and processes on time monthly invoices
  

Data Insights & Reporting

• Defines and tracks key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to measure program success and advisor impact
• Creates dashboards and data reports for senior leadership to drive continuous program improvement and scaling
• Maintains high-integrity records across MaRS teams to ensure transparency and seamless reporting
  

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience in business operations, program management, or stakeholder relations in a fast-paced environment (Startup/Innovation sector experience preferred)
• Proven track record of managing projects with limited guidance and taking full ownership of program outcomes
  
• Expert-level knowledge of Salesforce/CRM and Calendly; advanced capabilities in GSuite/MS Office (specifically advanced Excel/Google Sheets)
• Exceptional ability to foster and maintain a community of high-profile volunteers or donors
• Excellent judgment in setting priorities, anticipating potential roadblocks, and executing structured solutions
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to influence internal and external stakeholders
  

Nice to Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in Business or related field
• Process improvement experience
• AI data integration and analysis
• Data visualization

Applications will close at 12pm EDT on May 7, 2026. However, we may close the posting earlier if we receive a high volume of qualified applications or if the position is filled before the deadline. We encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as possible.

This posting is for an existing vacancy.

Applicants must be legally eligible to work in Canada, reside in Ontario and be willing to work out of our Toronto office (101 College Street) a minimum of 3 days per week.

Salary Range: $65,000 to $70,000, up to a 10% discretionary incentive, extended healthcare benefits, wellness spending account, GRRSP matching, and paid time-off

Our Applicant Tracking System, BambooHR, does not use Artificial Intelligence (AI). From time to time MaRS may use AI in our screening, assessment, and selection processes.

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