Head of Operations & Planning

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Administrative vacancy

Head of Operations & Planning

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Vacancy overview

Job Purpose:

The Head of Operations & Planning serves as second-in-command within Office of Faculty Excellence and Advancement (OFEA), providing day-to-day operational oversight of the office’s program teams, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), Nexus, and Postdoctoral Affairs. This role maintains a single consolidated view of OFEA’s processes, projects, and capacity; owns the office’s data and reporting infrastructure; and translates OFEA’s strategic priorities into consistent, well-documented operations across teams. The ideal candidate combines strong program oversight and coordination skills with a genuine interest in building the operational infrastructure (templates, SOPs, workflows, dashboards) that lets a growing, multi-team office scale smoothly.

Key Responsibilities:

Portfolio & Capacity Management

Maintain one consolidated view of all major OFEA processes, events, projects, deadlines, staffing demands, and decision points

Run a short weekly or biweekly operational meeting with workstream leaders, and provide the Associate Director with a concise summary of progress, risks, and decisions needed

Ensure recurring processes — P&T, faculty reviews, orientation, mentoring, recognition, policy development, and Nexus planning — have clear owners, timelines, templates, and escalation paths

Consolidate the office’s budget picture, including Nexus event activity, staffing, consultants, and project costs, without taking financial authority away from relevant unit leads

Track decisions from the Associate Director, the Vice Provost, SMT, and committees, ensuring actions are followed through and do not disappear between meetings

Team & Program Oversight

Oversee and coordinate daily operations across CTE, Nexus, and Postdoctoral Affairs, ensuring alignment with OFEA’s overall goals and calendar

Serve as the primary point of coordination between team leads, surfacing risks, resourcing gaps, and cross-team dependencies — without holding direct-line management authority over them

Act as deputy to the Associate Director, representing OFEA in meetings and decisions when needed

Project Management

Own project plans and timelines for major OFEA initiatives (e.g., faculty orientation, retreats, program launches), tracking milestones and deliverables across teams

Introduce and maintain lightweight project management practices (status tracking, milestone reviews) suited to a small, fast-moving office

Process Documentation & Templates

Build and maintain a library of reusable templates (event planning, communications, onboarding, reporting) to standardize how teams operate

Document standard operating procedures for recurring OFEA processes, ensuring continuity as the office and its teams grow

Partner with team leads to capture undocumented institutional knowledge and convert it into repeatable process

Data & Reporting

Own OFEA’s data and reporting infrastructure, including tracking systems, dashboards, and shared data repositories across CTE, Nexus, and Postdoctoral Affairs

Consolidate program metrics (faculty engagement, event participation, P&T milestones, survey results) into regular reports for the Associate Director, SMT, and other stakeholders

Establish data collection standards and governance practices so metrics are consistent, accurate, and comparable across teams

Identify opportunities to automate or streamline recurring reporting needs

Cross-Team Integration

Support the integration of newly added or merged teams (most recently Postdoctoral Affairs) into shared OFEA workflows, tools, and reporting structures

Identify redundancies or gaps across CTE, Nexus, and Postdoctoral Affairs and propose consolidated processes wherever useful

Other Duties

Contribute to university-wide programs, including orientation, wellbeing initiatives, global observances, leadership development, and personal growth activities.

Perform all other duties as reasonably directed by the line manager that are commensurate with these functional objectives.

Qualifications and Criteria:

Bachelor’s degree required; master’s preferred (higher education administration, business administration, or related field)

Essential:

8+ years of experience in program/project management, ideally within higher education, faculty affairs, or a similar multi-stakeholder environment

Demonstrated experience coordinating or overseeing multiple teams/programs without formal line authority

Strong process-documentation and systems-thinking skills — comfortable building from scratch in a growing office

Experience consolidating budget or resource visibility across multiple workstreams

Comfort working with data tracking tools, dashboards, and reporting systems (e.g., Excel, Power BI, or similar)

Preferred:

PMP or similar project management certification a plus

Application open

Employment typeFull-Time

CategoryAdministrative

LocationAbu Dhabi, UAE

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Head of Operations & Planning

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