UVA’s Office of University Advancement (UA) seeks applications for a business-savvy, senior administrative professional to support the Advancement Operations team as the Assistant Director for Advancement Operations.  The Assistant Director (AD) will join the Operations team as the organization embarks upon major technology and business process modernization efforts.

The Assistant Director for Advancement Operations (AD) is a senior, professional staff assistant reporting to the Associate Vice President for Advancement Operations. The AD shall serve as a contributing member of the Advancement Operations leadership team and will work closely with a diverse team of professionals who manage core operational areas of finance and accounting, technology, applied data analysis, training, and stakeholder engagement.

The AD will manage administrative, operational, logistical and financial affairs of the Office of the AVP for Advancement Operations. In addition, this individual will also be responsible for special projects, communications, and managing sensitive and confidential matters.

Qualified candidates will be comfortable with cultivating and maintaining business relationships with a wide variety of advancement professionals.  They will work in close collaboration with other UA leaders to meet and manage stakeholder needs across the advancement community, including those of senior leadership, directors, and peers. The AD will have a knack for knowing what’s on the forefront of technology and finance industry changes and will be a partner in advancing business changes necessary to ensure a successful CRM implementation at UVA.

This is a unique opportunity to learn the inner workings of all aspects of UVA Advancement operations and management at time when the Operations division is leading transformational changes.

The Assistant Director of Advancement Operations (AD) will:

• Provide follow-up to any initiative which the AVP and Operations Leadership Team identify as needing support;
• Perform decision support duties including fact finding, research and analysis, preparation of white papers, reports, and presentations;
• Undertake project work in support of key initiatives, coordinating with colleagues and other stakeholders;
• Synthesize data and analyses into useful formats, contribute observations, ideas, hypothesis, and solutions from actionable insights, straddling between the details and higher-level implications of critical business issues when necessary.
• Present findings and communicate with highly technical management teams and non-technical, cross-functional teams;
• Provide administrative support (including calendar management and meeting support) to AVP for Advancement Operations;
• Provide writing support, including but not limited to internal and external correspondence, reports, executive summaries, presentations, and talking points for departmental or unit leadership and other senior administrators;
• Prepare meeting agendas and materials for distribution;
• Produce meeting minutes with accountability action items for follow up and scheduling next steps to advance projects;
• Create reports, dashboards, PowerPoint presentations, or other status indicators in consultation with project leaders and other colleagues, under direction from the AVP;
• Develop and implement mechanisms for reviewing timelines and project benchmarks across Advancement Operations;
• Collaborate with others to produce the very best projects, products, and information;
• Deliver complex information in understandable terms and context to relevant audiences;
• Work independently to lead projects to fruition with little oversight;
• Manage up and down the organization in the spirit of service excellence and with an eye toward meeting customer needs.

The Assistant Director of Advancement Operations may:

Represent the AVP in certain situations, acting as liaison with internal and external groups, offices, and constituents.

Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree
• Experience: At least five years of relevant experience working in non-profit or higher education fundraising and development or Master’s degree with at least two years of relevant experience.
• Relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.

Knowledge, skills and abilities to execute the roles & responsibilities of this position:

Industry Knowledge

• Knowledge of fundraising principles (especially in higher ed);
• Ability to translate information into actionable intelligence;
• Demonstrated ability to obtain, analyze, and interpret information from a broad range of sources and provide clear, concise narratives;
• Knowledge of a broad array of digital platforms such as Evertrue, Marketing Cloud, Eventbrite, Cvent, Ellucian Advance,  Cognos, Salesforce, ResearchPoint, iWave, Tableau. Direct experience with these tools is strongly preferred;
• The position requires that the incumbent quickly develop a deep understanding of UVA, its policies and procedures and an understanding of the culture and regional and divisional interdependencies. The position requires a deep understanding and respect for the organization’s systems and workflow.

Professional skills

• Proven collaborator and business partner; possesses the ability to translate between frontline fundraisers, data analysts, technical personnel and other non-technical professionals;
• Must possess ability to contextualize business needs, evaluate and modify current practices, and recommend solutions that work across the Advancement Community;
• Collegial team player who works well across teams in a matrixed environment of project-based work, cross-functional teams, agile methodology and professional project management;
• Possesses a strong customer service orientation;
• Builds trust and appropriately uses influence to drive results;
• Exercises fiscal responsibility in the utilization of all UVA resources;
• Exhibits appropriate collegiality and works cooperatively to ensure that Advancement Operations is well represented;
• Exercises a high degree of professionalism, accuracy and ethics in all activities, services, and products;
• High level judgement and problem-solving skills are required, as the incumbent is frequently faced with situations which require immediate action in response to issues and requests.

General

• Excellent communicator, both verbal and written;
• Excellent customer service skills;
• Data-savvy advancement professional who can translate across technical and non-technical domains;
• Tech savvy, comfortable with a variety of tools and resources;
• Able to take broad direction from the AVP and is otherwise expected to work with a high level of autonomy and independence, discretion, confidentiality and diplomacy. The Associate Director will be responsible for his/her own time management and prioritization of tasks to ensure key responsibilities are met.

Committed to attracting and retaining a diverse staff, University Advancement honors your experiences, perspectives and unique identity. Together, we strive to create and maintain working environments that are inclusive, equitable and welcoming so we can best achieve our mission of supporting our broadly diverse partners, schools, and networks of engaged alumni, parents, and friends of the University.

UVA Advancement offers a flexible and hybrid workplace. All team members must have access to and maintain a secure home office environment with high-speed internet service and work collaboratively with others using a variety of technologies and tools. Depending on the type of position and work performed, or as deemed by manager, some positions may be required to work intermittently in a shared office space located in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Preference will be given to candidates received by November 7, 2021. This is an Exempt level, benefited position.  Anticipated Hiring Range: $70,000 – $85,000 commensurate with education and experience. This position is a restricted position and is dependent upon project need, availability of funding and performance. The University will perform background checks on all new hires prior to employment. For questions about the position or the application process, please contact Ashley Cochran, Senior Recruiter at [email protected].

Please apply through Workday, and search for “Assistant Director for Advancement Operations.” Complete an application online and attach a cover letter and CV/resume all into the resume submission field, multiple documents can be submitted into this one field. Internal applicants must apply through their UVA Workday profile.

COVID Vaccination Requirement

The University of Virginia expects all current and new employees (UVA Health System and Academic), to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

If hired to work within the University Health System, you will be required to provide proof of vaccination or be willing to receive the vaccination. Employees may request a medical or religious exemption from vaccination.

If hired to work on the Academic side of the University, excluding the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, UPG, and the Health Systems Library, you will be required to provide proof of vaccination or be willing to submit to mandatory, weekly prevalence testing. Employees that are working 100% remotely will not be subject to weekly prevalence testing; however, if the employee works on UVA Grounds (including the Medical Center) even intermittently, then they are required to be tested for COVID-19 once per week on an indefinite basis and follow masking mandates.

The University of Virginia, including the UVA Health System which represents the UVA Medical Center, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, UVA Physician’s Group and the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, are fundamentally committed to the diversity of our faculty and staff.  We believe diversity is excellence expressing itself through every person’s perspectives and lived experiences.  We are equal opportunity and affirmative action employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, veteran status, and family medical or genetic information.