Associate Dean & Director, Academic Programs - School of Technology

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
 

Grade: Management_Executive 610

Pay Range: $122,100.00 - $219,800.00

Job Description

As the Associate Dean and Program Director of one or more academic programs in WGU’s School of Technology you will be a subject matter expert and a respected academic business leader in driving the education and successful outcomes of students in your field. In collaboration with college and university leadership, other departments, and other WGU organizations, you will have end-to-end responsibility of (a) growing your programs with new, market relevant, and innovative competency based program offerings, (b) identifying and supporting the implementation industry partnerships and go-to-market strategies to bring the right students and employers to these programs, and (c) delivering great educational outcomes for these students by directly managing the instructional faculty and leveraging the coaching and mentoring faculty to drive student success. Your success will be measured in terms of planning, building, delivering and scaling the right programs profitably that cater to our underserved student population with a high-level of retention and ROI for the students. In this role, you will report to the Vice President and Dean of the Department.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• P&L ownership experience with managing over Cloud and Network Security Programs with focus on achieving WGU contribution margins and net new student growth

• Program management and program marketing experience in launching new and revised programs into the education market and operating programs using data and insights; data-driven portfolio management experience

• Drive a culture of continuous experimentation, measurement, and learning from data to rapidly improve the quality and delivery to students

• Strong people leader to directly or indirectly lead a diverse team of people including program managers, instructional faculty, and student coaches/mentors

• Influences Others and Communicates Effectively: Communicates to improve and promote teamwork, decision making, and problem solving. Listens and responds effectively to the reactions and positions of others and encourages the expression of diverse ideas and opinions. Adjusts message and style to fit the audience. Provides timely and helpful feedback. Communicates appropriately to win support with all audiences.

• Collaborates: Works cooperatively with others across the organization to achieve shared objectives. Represents own interests while being fair to others and their areas. Partners with others to get work done. Credits others for their contributions and accomplishments. Gains buy-in, trust and support of others.

• Manages Ambiguity: Deals comfortably with the uncertainty of change. Effectively handles risk. Can decide to act without the total picture. Is calm and productive, even when things are up in the air. Deals constructively with problems that do not have clear solutions or outcomes.

• Drives for Results: Has a strong outcomes-based orientation. Persists in accomplishing objectives despite obstacles and setbacks. Has a track record of successfully achieving goals. Pushes self and helps others achieve results. Has a continuous improvement mindset.

• Builds Effective Teams:   Forms teams with appropriate and diverse mixes of styles, perspectives, and e