Toby Smith is Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Public Policy at the Association of American Universities (AAU), where he leads the association's engagement on science and innovation policy, higher education, and international initiatives. In this role, he provides strategic leadership on a broad range of policy issues, including research funding and costs, research integrity and security, scientific openness, public access to research, and technology transfer.

He previously served as Director of Federal Relations for Research at the University of Michigan and as Assistant Director of the MIT Washington Office, where he worked on federal policy issues affecting scientific research and higher education.