Executive Director, Academic Technology

Requisition number: 39668

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Information Technology Services (ITS) is seeking an Executive Director, Academic Technology to lead the strategic management and optimization of academic products, platforms, and related technologies. The Executive Director, Academic Technology will oversee the full application lifecycle for solutions that enable the business of teaching, learning, student administration, and faculty administration. This leader will leverage their strategic thinking, strong leadership skills, and a deep understanding of the university’s needs and goals to enhance the academic experience through the strategic use of technology. The Executive Director will lead a team that enables the core academic mission of the University to flourish by providing educators and students with the technology needed to deliver/receive an optimal teaching, learning, and research experience, both in-person and virtually.

Situated on 419 acres, five miles from the Pacific Ocean, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is enriched by the cultural diversity of the dynamic greater Los Angeles area, as well as the geographic advantages of Southern California. One of the world’s preeminent public research universities, UCLA is an international leader in breadth and quality of academic, research, health care, wellness, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs, with more than 5,200 faculty members who teach approximately 47,500 students in the UCLA College and 12 professional schools. UCLA is consistently ranked among the top institutions nationally for research funding, having generated $1.7 billion in research grants and contracts in the last fiscal year alone.

The Information Technology Services (ITS) department at UCLA is a vital part of the university community, providing essential technology services and support to ensure the campus can effectively pursue its mission. It is UCLA’s spirited tradition of thought leadership and commitment to excellence that enables an ambitious and resourceful approach to transforming our networked, ever-changing campus environment. To meet the needs of today’s campus and tomorrow’s leaders, ITS has identified a set of strategic priorities entitled the Digital Campus Roadmap.

Working Title	Executive Director, Academic Technology
Anticipated Salary Range	$207,700 - $254,179
Career Tracks Job Summary	Involved in the development of server/OS/desktop/mobile applications and services including researching, designing, developing specifications for designing, writing, modifying, testing, debugging, troubleshooting and maintaining source code. Also having direct or related involvement in designing related databases, user interfaces, integration to other systems/applications, content or multimedia processes. Work includes analysis and design to post-production processes, quality assurance, maintenance and documentation.
Career Tracks Summary	Oversees through subordinate managers a large department or multiple smaller units, OR manages a highly specialized technical function/team. Has significant responsibility to achieve broadly stated goals through subordinate managers. Determines objectives, directs programs, develops strategies and policies, manages human, financial, and physical resources, and functions with a high degree of autonomy. Proactively assesses risk to establish systems and procedures to protect organizational assets. Determines strategies for a program with organization-wide impact. Establishes objectives and work plans, and delegates assignments to subordinate managers. Responsible for managing, preparing, administering, and directing resources. Reviews and approves recommendations for applications programming initiatives. Involved in developing, modifying and executing policies that affect immediate operation(s) and may also have impact campus-wide, throughout a medical center or other university entity. Erroneous decisions or failure to achieve goals results in additional costs and personnel, and serious delays in overall schedules.
Department Summary	Academic Technology sets the strategy for a portfolio of enterprise-wide products and platforms enabling the activities of academic stakeholders across the university. The Academic Technology team designs, develops, configures, enhances, optimizes, and maintains core enterprise technologies ensuring functionality, quality, business value, user-experience, and digital accessibility of the products and platforms meet the expectations of the campus community. Academic Technology fuels ITS’ cloud-first strategy by strategically reducing technical debt in partnership with other departments and teams leveraging cutting-edge techniques to accelerate releases using automation and application lifecycle management standards and tools.
Type of Supervision Received	Reports to Deputy CIO; Directly supervises ~4 FTE; Indirectly supervises ~50 FTE.

Core Functions and Duties

% of Duty Total (must total 100%)	Core Function	Duty Statements
35%	Academic Technology	Develops and executes a comprehensive technology strategy for academic and student products, platforms, and systems, aligning technology with the university's academic objectives. Orchestrates the transformative journey from a traditional IT application services model to a future-facing, product-model. Oversees the Academic Technology department, providing strategic leadership and guidance to a team responsible for configuring, monitoring, and optimizing academic applications, including the Learning Management System and Student Information System. Collaborates closely with university stakeholders, including faculty and students, to understand their evolving needs and align technology services accordingly. Develops and manages the budget for the Academic Technology department, ensuring effective allocation of resources and cost optimization. Ensures compliance with relevant policies, regulations, and security standards in the implementation and management of academic applications. Ensures the adoption of standard product methodologies and standard application development tooling to support management of products and platforms at scale while maintaining a high-degree of quality.
10%	Continuous Improvement	Fosters a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, and user-centricity within the team, inspiring them to create seamless and transformative digital experiences. Identifies opportunities for innovation and improvement in academic technologies, driving initiatives to enhance the university’s academic functions. Stays informed about emerging trends and best practices in academic/student technologies, assessing their potential impact and relevance to the university's academic programs. Promotes a human-centered design approach to product management.
10%	Project Planning & Management	Directs, develops, and presents proposals related to academic/student technologies to senior leadership to secure funding and support for programs and initiatives. Provides leadership and guidance on the strategic use of academic/student technologies to drive process improvements, efficiency, and data-driven decision-making across the university. Develops formal project plans for complex projects that include interdisciplinary teams; conducts resource planning, work estimation, and oversees related interdependencies; may oversee and/or develop master project plans.
10%	Communications & Training	Clearly articulates the organization's vision, values, goals, and strategy; explains how the Academic Technology team's purpose and goals contribute to UCLA’s broader academic mission. Provides strategic guidance to university leadership on academic technology initiatives, presenting reports, recommendations, and updates as needed.
10%	Relationship Management & Development	Collaborates with stakeholders such as faculty and students to understand their evolving needs and align academic/student technology services accordingly. Optimizes user experience by working closely with stakeholders and end-users to understand their needs and provide user-friendly interfaces and functionalities. Fosters strong relationships with academic stakeholders, promoting effective communication, collaboration, and alignment between technology and academic objectives.
20%	Leadership, Management, and Supervision	Develops Academic Technology team objectives, strategy, and goals; provides clear and consistent information regarding team and unit specific goals and objectives. Leads recruitment, selection, hiring, and performance management processes for the Academic Technology team.
5%	Other	Actively contributes to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion across the organization and UCLA’s campus. Actively promotes the organization’s core values and consistently integrates innovation, employee fulfillment, teamwork, respect, excellence, integrity, service, and accountability into each aspect of their work. Maintains current knowledge of university policy and procedure; effectively, consistently and fairly applies University policy and/or campus/division procedures for assigned area and team members supervised; complies with University, Campus and division policies and procedures regarding privacy of information, authorized use of university resources and the security of university systems and data. Performs other related responsibilities as requested and when necessary. The University reserves the right to add or change duties at any time.

Education

Education	Education Details	Required/Preferred
Bachelor’s Degree	In one or more of the following fields: information technology, customer service, computer science, public administration, business administration, or related field.	Required
Advanced Degree	In one or more of the following fields: information technology, customer service, computer science, public administration, business administration, or related field.	Preferred

Experience

Experience	Experience Details	Required/Preferred
12 or more years	Experience working in one or more of the following fields: information technology, customer service, higher education, application and services, IT service management, or related field.	Required
8 or more years	Experience leading teams in a management or leadership role, particularly in a fast-paced, service-oriented environment.	Required

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

#	KSA	Required/Preferred
1	Proven experience in a senior leadership role within the field of academic technologies, preferably in a higher education setting.	Required
2	Strong knowledge of educational technology trends, emerging tools, and best practices in online learning and instructional design. In-depth understanding of the academic environment and the unique technology needs of students and faculty.	Required
3	Demonstrated experience in developing and executing strategic plans for academic technologies. Demonstrated ability to drive innovation and continuous improvement in academic technologies.	Required
4	Excellent leadership and management skills, with the ability to lead and inspire a diverse team of professionals.	Required
5	Familiarity with learning management systems, digital content platforms, and other student academic products.	Required
6	Highly skilled in written and verbal communications and is able to communicate on behalf of large teams and relay highly complex technical information. Significant experience communicating with technical and non-technical leaders.	Required
7	Significant demonstrated experience leading and managing teams, including advanced abilities in persuasion, negotiation, change management, and mentorship.	Required
8	Highly advanced project management skills with significant experience delivering multiple complex projects, delegating responsibility between teams, overseeing multiple projects, managing others, and leading teams to prioritize among competing project/customer needs. Significant experience managing teams in a project-based environment using leading project management practices including schedule management, status reporting, and communication of project risks and issues.	Required
9	Significant experience solving complex, technical and non-technical problems with budget, timeline, and other resource implications. Able to delegate solutioning when appropriate to the proper resources. Experience operating as a point of escalation or final decision making. Demonstrated understanding of how decisions affect teams. Demonstrated ability to make decisions with integrity.	Required
10	Significant experience providing inclusive leadership of others, establishing, and advancing an inclusive environment that values equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging.	Required
11	Integrates creative thinking and industry-leading practices into diverse team operations; has demonstrated experience inspiring teams to innovate and grow. Has significant experience leading in an ever-changing, fast-paced environment.	Required
12	Experience in complex higher education environments, serving academic and administrative functions of a large public university.	Preferred

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