Executive Director of Technology Sector Education Strategy

Executive Director of Technology Sector Education Strategy

Downtown District Office at 180 N. Wabash

City Colleges of Chicago (CCC), the largest community college system in Illinois, is made up of seven colleges and five satellite sites, providing more than 70,000 students each year access to a quality, affordable education.

Reporting to the Chancellor and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs, the Executive Director of Technology Sector Education Strategy is responsible for implementing initiatives and executing projects aimed at promoting and supporting CCC’S vision, mission, and strategic plans on inclusive technology sector education and partnership initiatives, with the goal of preparing students to participate in Chicago’s Tech Economy.

The Executive Director provides leadership, administrative direction, and oversight of technology sector initiatives in areas to include academic programs, enrollment, accreditation, work-based learning, strategic planning, strategic partnerships, and other areas of operation.

The Executive Director of Technology Sector Education Strategy focuses on creating systems to engage and train CCC student talent for competitive technology roles. The position effectively develops major technology sector program projects, including acquiring resources and coordinating the efforts of district-wide teams, district personnel and third-party contractors or consultants in order to deliver projects according to plan.

This role requires a strategist who is forward thinking, creative and deeply immersed in the technology ecosystem where they can represent CCC, both locally and nationally, with the ability to connect a large vision(s) to ground level strategies. These strategies will be focused on addressing systemic barriers to upward economic mobility for diverse tech talent among CCC students.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

PROGRAMS

• Serves as a strategic advisor and key collaborator to the Chancellor as well as district and college leadership to build best-practices based technology education and workforce programs that support the mission and priorities of CCC.
• Manages partner relationships and responds to strategic partnership opportunities within Chicago’s tech ecosystem.
• Develops strategy for preparing CCC talent to participate in the technology innovation economy, including initiatives in the areas of academic programs, work-based learning including apprenticeships and industry certifications and overall CCC tech brand.
• Establishes model of cross-college collaboration for a centralized Center of Excellence in Technology.
• Builds out strategies leveraging college Centers of Excellence intersections with technology. (e.g. automation, data analytics, healthcare technology).
• Aligns initiatives with the established strategic plan for the district and collaborates with district personnel to ensure alignment between district initiatives and college projects.
• Identifies opportunities to improve student success and business process implementation via retention and wrap around supports.
• Defines project or initiative scope, goals and deliverables that support business goals in collaboration with senior leadership and stakeholders.
• Develops new projects, builds sponsorship, gains resource commitments and drives project results. Leads teams to drive operational, organizational, and financial improvement projects.
• Determines appropriate use of central resources for various college initiatives.
• Manages technology sector initiatives program and student support staff; shaping a culture of teamwork, establishing standards of performance, and clearly communicating expectations to foster high levels of accountability.
• Leads cross-functional teams of faculty and staff from multiple colleges to develop and launch programming that will support diverse students in successfully connecting to IT careers.

EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIP MANGEMENT

• Builds, grows and manages CCC Technology Advisory Councils aimed to influence and support CCC tech initiatives and relationships vital to the success of the project.
• Represent CCC in external affairs.
• Develops external partnerships with key stakeholders including, public and private partnerships, technology companies and other higher education institutions.
• Develops, in partnership with other key internal stakeholders, CCC tech brand.
• Works with stakeholders and the district office to define project success criteria and disseminates them to the stakeholders throughout the project life cycle.
• Develops, codifies, and executes internal and external best practices.

QUALIFICATIONS

• A Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university
• Five years of work experience in strategic consulting, or in a strategy department and/or turnaround department
• Experience working in the technology sector
• Experience working in a higher education environment desirable
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience with process change and optimization
• Demonstrated ability to advise and influence leaders throughout the organization on performance improvement opportunities in areas of academics, finance, and operations
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

WE OFFER: Excellent health and welfare benefit package and long term savings and investment programs including 403(b) & 457(b) Investment Plans and a pension plan with the State University Retirement System (SURS) Plan. Generous vacation, holiday, personal and sick days, and tuition reimbursement. For a more detailed overview of benefits, please visit the benefits page of our website.

Chicago residency is required for all full-time employees within 6 months of hire.

We are an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. Thank you for your interest in City College of Chicago!