Summary
MBZUAI is hiring a Head of Operations & Planning for its Office of Faculty Excellence and Advancement in Abu Dhabi. The role coordinates operations across the Center for Teaching Excellence, Nexus, and Postdoctoral Affairs, and serves as deputy to the Associate Director when needed. Responsibilities include managing project plans, documenting recurring processes, maintaining data and reporting systems, and consolidating budget and resource information. Applicants need a bachelor’s degree and at least 8 years of relevant program or project management experience; a master’s degree and PMP or similar certification are preferred.
The posting
As published on mbzuai.ac.ae. Pulled from the employer's site and shown as they wrote it.
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