Executive Director for MBA Program (Academic Administrator)

San Diego, CA, United States

BACKGROUND:

The Rady School of Management’s MBA Programs include two self-supporting programs (FlexEvening MBA and Executive MBA) and one state-supported program (Full-Time MBA program).The Executive MBA program admitted its first cohort in 2004, the Full-Time MBA program admitted its first cohort in 2005, and the FlexEvening MBA program admitted its first cohort in 2007. Currently, all three programs enroll around 300 students in total.

POSITION:

The Academic Administrator will serve as the Executive Director of MBA Programs, a position that requires an individual with senior-level experience and a unique blend of academic expertise, familiarity with industry, and a proven ability to successfully drive the academic experience for a diverse student population, including developing and updating the MBA curriculum. The ideal candidate for the Executive Director must possess ambition and a clear ability to influence strategic decisions. The Executive Director should be adept at articulating and sharing a compelling vision with faculty and leadership, fostering a collaborative environment where shared goals and objectives are pursued. Additionally, the successful candidate must showcase exceptional judgment and coordination skills, working seamlessly with both faculty and senior administrators to drive innovation and excellence in the MBA program. Effective collaboration with key stakeholders is paramount, ensuring alignment and synergy in achieving the school's overarching MBA objectives.

This Executive Director will need high-level influencing skills to partner effectively with the MBA program faculty director, liaise with faculty instructional area chairs, and the ability to drive decisions to affect MBA student learning objectives. . The Executive Director will ensure that we deliver an outstanding MBA program across three modalities. The Executive Director may be required to teach several immersion or standard MBA courses and to fill gaps as required to meet program learning objectives. The Academic Administrator must demonstrate intellectual leadership as administrator, showcasing ongoing professional development and effective collaboration with academic faculty, departments, and counterparts in other campus units, along with the ability to anticipate evolving program and constituency needs.

The ideal candidate will be able to provide educational leadership to adapt and improve a curriculum that combines strengths in analytics and business acumen, will be able to successfully address the educational and academic needs of a diverse student population, including developing and updating curriculum and instructional strategies for the educational advancement of students from groups who are underrepresented in higher education, and will be committed to teaching excellence and student success at the graduate level.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY:

This position will report to the Rady School of Management’s Associate Dean of Programs and coordinate activities with the Faculty Director of the MBA Programs. The primary responsibilities are:

Effectively drive long-term program success: The long-term success of the MBA Programs will depend on (1) driving academic educational excellence, (2) MBA program planning, development, growth, and continuous improvement, (3) delivering an outstanding student experience. The Executive Director will partner with the MBA faculty director and area instructional chairs to create an annual instructional schedule and optimize the sequencing of MBA courses to meet student learning objectives and demand. The Executive Director will share responsibility for each of these success factors and work closely with staff in Graduate Admissions, the Career Management Center, Graduate Student Affairs, Marketing and Communications, Academic Personnel, and Finance as well as with faculty to ensure performance goals are met.

The Executive Director will take a lead role in the planning and delivery of major MBA student events including Orientation, Commencement, as well as admissions and student onboarding events. In addition, this role develops programming to enhance the student experience such as social and speaker events, mixers, forums, and workshops. The Executive Director will develop and refine an annual strategic plan, including KPIs and enrollment targets, with input from functional area directors (Admissions, Graduate Student Affairs, Career Management Center), faculty, alumni, and industry partners. This position partners with administrative unit directors to provide supervision of Graduate Program Staff to achieve program goals.

Program Management: The Executive Director shares responsibility for the effective administration and evaluation of program activities. The position provides formal oversight of all curricular matters relating to the program. The Executive Director also partners with the Admissions, Student Affairs, and the Career Management Center, to ensure the success of the annual strategic plan, and advises on operational and administrative aspects that will enhance the Grad Program team’s ability to recruit top students, and provide an outstanding student experience. The Executive Director is expected to hold meetings and facilitate regular communication between all program support staff responsible for delivering the MBA program experience. The Executive Director is expected to be continuously engaged with students throughout the program to develop the rapport required to optimally manage their program experience, and attend monthly/quarterly MBA cohort leader meetings. The Executive Director will work closely with staff in the Career Management Center and support programming and initiatives that drive strong student career outcomes.

Interface with Industry Sponsors: The Executive Director will partner with the Executive Director of Rady Action Projects to further build out the capstone program with additional industry sponsors and corporate partnership agreements which will enhance the reputation of the MBA program. All stakeholders want the MBA program’s reputation to continue to improve as it increases the value of a Rady MBA degree. The responsibilities of the Executive Director include developing proposals to secure external funding for the program.

Teaching responsibilities. The Academic Administrator may be required to teach several immersion or standard MBA courses and to fill gaps as required to meet program learning objectives.

Academic Administrator Titles per APM-370:

https://www.ucop.edu/academic-personnel-programs/_files/apm/apm-370.pdf

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