Job title ideas

[Watchmaker]

I'm tasked with choosing a job title for a new role we are creating at my work.  I have a few ideas, none of which I'm completely satisfied with (I'll hold off mentioning them for now).  Hopefully one of you will have an even better one.

The job is within the R&D department in a "materials science" type company.  The role is to find and monitor external research groups (university labs, national labs, start ups) that have interesting technology and to evaluate the technology for use in our industry.  This includes a lot of reading scientific papers, patents, and news items, making contact with the outside group, arranging evaluation of the technology, and sometimes negotiating sponsored research agreements, joint development agreements, or licenses (in cooperation with our lawyer).

For some internal political reasons, we want a job title that is more descriptive of this role then a generic title such as Scientist.

Thoughts?

[Cwadda]

Hey there,

I'll PM you a link to my company because it might be something for your work to look into? Or maybe not, it's worth a shot I suppose :)

I'll brainstorm some ideas for the job title...

[Glenstache]

Sounds like a Research Coordinator.

[Curbside Prophet]

Importer/exporter of Vandalay Industries.

[kenaces]

Chief Alchemist

:)

[Cwadda]

The word "relations" comes to mind.

Customer Relations
R&D Customer Relations
External Relations

[2Cent]

How about (material science) Technologist

[Watchmaker]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Technologist is fine, but a bit more generic than I'm hoping for.

It's not really a *customer* relations role, more of a *supplier* relationship.  External Relations is similar to a phrase I've seen used- External Technology. 

Research coordinator is a pretty good option.  My two worries with it are 1) it is a term used almost exclusively in the bio/medical fields, as far as I can tell.  2) The emphasis in this job will be to find new technologies, rather than to coordinator ongoing research (although both functions are part of the role).

For those reasons, I have considered Technology Scout, a term I found used in the materials industry.  But one I'm not completely happy with.

[2Cent]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Technologist is fine, but a bit more generic than I'm hoping for.

It's not really a *customer* relations role, more of a *supplier* relationship.  External Relations is similar to a phrase I've seen used- External Technology. 

Research coordinator is a pretty good option.  My two worries with it are 1) it is a term used almost exclusively in the bio/medical fields, as far as I can tell.  2) The emphasis in this job will be to find new technologies, rather than to coordinator ongoing research (although both functions are part of the role).

For those reasons, I have considered Technology Scout, a term I found used in the materials industry.  But one I'm not completely happy with.

Technology scout, sounds like a Talent scout.
But actually the first question you should ask is, who is the audience? Is is for potential candidates? Is it an internal name? Is it to identify the person to external relations?

If you meet a potential client and say, Hi I'm Watchmaker, Technology Scout, I think people would think you're maybe a writer for a technology website. Maybe you could make it something like New Technology Coordinator. That sounds more like a serious job.

[stripey]

My thoughts:


{'New' or 'Emerging'} + {'Technology' or 'Research' or 'Science'} + {'Coordinator' or 'Facilitator' or 'Officer'}

 

[Watchmaker]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Technologist is fine, but a bit more generic than I'm hoping for.

It's not really a *customer* relations role, more of a *supplier* relationship.  External Relations is similar to a phrase I've seen used- External Technology. 

Research coordinator is a pretty good option.  My two worries with it are 1) it is a term used almost exclusively in the bio/medical fields, as far as I can tell.  2) The emphasis in this job will be to find new technologies, rather than to coordinator ongoing research (although both functions are part of the role).

For those reasons, I have considered Technology Scout, a term I found used in the materials industry.  But one I'm not completely happy with.

Technology scout, sounds like a Talent scout.
But actually the first question you should ask is, who is the audience? Is is for potential candidates? Is it an internal name? Is it to identify the person to external relations?

If you meet a potential client and say, Hi I'm Watchmaker, Technology Scout, I think people would think you're maybe a writer for a technology website. Maybe you could make it something like New Technology Coordinator. That sounds more like a serious job.

You've had the same reaction I did to the phrase "technology scout", which is that it sounds somewhat less than serious.  It does seem to be an exisiting title used in our industry though, so I can't dismiss it outright.  In answer to your (good) question about the audience: this is primarily for identifying the person's role to external relations (mostly academic researchers).

Stripey - I kind of like Emerging Technology xyz, but I worry it sounds buzzword-y.  Anything that will strike the academic crowd as MBA-speak might be an issue.

To fill in a few more details, we already have someone for the role (so this isn't for recruiting purposes) and it's not me (just to be clear).  And, given where this falls in our organization, the xyz part would probably be 'manager'.

[Glenstache]

External Science/Research/Technology Coordinator?

[stripey]

I agree. And yes I am concerned ir is a little buzz wordy... my background is academia in a biomedical field so of course my first thought was 'research coordinator'.

How about 'research liason', to take a slightly different tack?

[scottish]

Add 'Principal' or at least 'Senior' to the title for some extra clout.

[G-dog]

In my former workplace (biotech) - coordinator title meant that they had two layers of folks reporting to them, manager meant one layer of direct reports. Whereas analyst, associate, or liaison were more technical roles vs. line management. Scientist title could go either way.

Emerging Technology Analyst (associate; scientist; liaison)
(Senior) Competitive intelligence (associate)
Technology and Licensing

[mrpercentage]

Acquisition Specialist

[PFHC]

In my former workplace (biotech) - coordinator title meant that they had two layers of folks reporting to them, manager meant one layer of direct reports. Whereas analyst, associate, or liaison were more technical roles vs. line management. Scientist title could go either way.

Emerging Technology Analyst (associate; scientist; liaison)
(Senior) Competitive intelligence (associate)
Technology and Licensing

I like (Senior) Competitive Intelligence/Technology Analyst.;

[gooki]

Technology Analyst or Director of New Technologies if it's a senior position.

[With This Herring]

"Investigator" might help get the meaning across, mashed together with other people's good ideas.

[JRA64]

Something including Technology Outreach?  Chief Technical Officer was the first thing that came to mind but might cause problems with C-level folks at your company.

[PFHC]

You should tally the answers here, create a poll, then post a link to it so we all can take it.