WIDA Chief Operating Officer

The Chief Operating Officer will work with Executive Director Jenni Torres and the WIDA senior leadership team on overall strategic planning and execution as well as organization-wide operations and initiatives. In addition to these functions, the COO will oversee finance and contracts, project management, and information technology, and will be charged with bridging WIDA's mission and business needs while operating in the context of the University of Wisconsin system; assessing and strengthening WIDA's technology infrastructure to ensure a competitive edge in the marketplace; and partnering with the Executive Director and other senior leaders to ensure WIDA's products and services continue to meet the needs of clients and educators.

A mission-focused and strategic operations leader, the Chief Operating Officer will bring a deep knowledge of strategic planning, administration processes, information technology, and business operations. The successful candidate will have at least seven years of leadership experience in operations focused roles and will have a well-developed capacity for systematic analysis, relationship-building, and leading teams of committed mission-driven professionals.

WIDA has retained the national search firm Isaacson, Miller to assist in this important search. Confidential inquiries, nominations, and applications may be directed to the search firm.

For more information, visit https://www.imsearch.com/open-searches/wida/chief-operating-officer

This position will be eligible for fully remote work as assigned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A successful candidate will have the ability to work from home or an alternate office location as the position's Headquarters Location. This means that business travel and travel back to UW-Madison's campus would be compensated and eligible for reimbursement. More information and expectations of remote work can be found in the following UW Remote Work Policy (UW-5087). We will be happy to discuss and answer any questions you may have related to remote work during the interview process.

WIDA operates in a Windows-based environment and a Dell PC laptop will be issued for use in this role. Software and virtual connection tools that are critical to our work dictate that WIDA staff work on a PC.

• 10% Serves as the primary business advisor, liaison, and partner to divisional leadership and key stakeholder groups
• 20% Oversees the implementation of all operational and administrative activities
• 5% Develops the division's financial strategy including planning, forecasts, budgets, and cash management that focus on attaining and sustaining long-term financial equilibrium in collaboration with university leadership
• 5% Works with senior administrative and academic leadership to design, establish, and maintain an administrative organizational structure to effectively and efficiently accomplish goals and objectives while appropriately defining duties and mitigating risk
• 10% Assesses processes, staffing, and systems to identify opportunities for improvement and streamlining on a regular basis
• 15% Serves as a major point of contact and catalyst for problem resolution. Provides insightful and diplomatic communications
• 20% Exercises supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees
• 5% Develops and maintains relationships with industry and other partners, serving as the principal point of contact for the unit
• 5% Directs the overall vision of the organization, focusing on new program development and establishing and maintaining partnership opportunities across the institution, government, profit, and non-profit organizations
• 5% Leads the internal and product driven IT infrastructure and directs large vendor oversight to support innovation and organizational efficiency

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

For more information on diversity and inclusion on campus, please visit: Diversity and Inclusion

Required
Bachelor's Degree
Advanced degree preferred

- At least seven years of management experience in an operations-focused role, preferably at a large-scale education-related testing, assessment, or research organization; ability to cite specific examples of having efficiently operationalized organizational strategies
- Excellence in organizational management and demonstrated ability to coach staff, lead other leaders, and manage and develop high-performance teams
- Substantive knowledge and understanding of financial management and oversight, and the ability to manage a complex budget
- A nuanced understanding of the critical role of information technology and office equipment systems in supporting project management, finance, data security, and other critical internal operational functions
- Strong familiarity with externally facing IT platforms that inform WIDA's product delivery, as well as with matters regarding data security and compliance
- Broad experience with a wide range of business functions and systems, including strategic development and planning, business analysis, contract management and procurement, and human resources
- Ability to help others deliver measurable, high-impact, and cost-effective results that make an organization's vision a reality
- Ability to work within a dynamic, fast-paced, and collaborative environment while driving solutions forward
- Excellent professional judgment managing change
- A willingness to engage in and deepen knowledge of WIDA's mission and values

Full Time: 100%

Ongoing/Renewable

Minimum $150,000 ANNUAL (12 months)
Depending on Qualifications
This position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax-advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund. For a summary of benefits, please visit: https://hr.wisc.edu/benefits/.

What is WIDA? For over 20 years, WIDA has provided a trusted, comprehensive approach to supporting, teaching, and assessing multilingual learners. We are an educational services organization that advances language development and academic achievement for multilingual children in early childhood and grades K-12. In short, we provide educators around the world with high-quality language standards, assessments, professional learning, and research. We are proud to be a part of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) within UW-Madison's nationally ranked School of Education. Visit https://wida.wisc.edu/about/careers and watch our Introduction to WIDA video to see why WIDA is an incredible place to work!

The Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), established in 1964, is one of the first, most productive, and largest university-based education research and development centers in the world. WCER's researchers and staff work to make teaching and learning as effective as possible for all ages and all people.

WCER's mission is to improve educational outcomes for student populations of various backgrounds and needs, impact education practice positively and foster collaborations among academic disciplines and practitioners. To this end, our center helps scholars and practitioners develop, submit, conduct, and share grant-funded education research.

For more information and news about our center, please go to https://wcer.wisc.edu/.

WIDA has engaged Isaacson, Miller for this search. Inquiries, nominations, and applications should be sent in confidence to: https://www.imsearch.com/open-searches/wida/chief-operating-officer. Electronic submission of materials is strongly encouraged through their online portal. For questions and other inquiries, select the link above and click on "Contact Diana Carmona"

Jeff Kessner, Diana Carmona, and Jenny Rubin Isaacson, Miller

Kelly Krahenbuhl
Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information.

Business Affairs Director I(FN027)

A17-SCHOOL OF EDUCATION/WCER

Limited

311393-LI