Assistant Dean, Finance & Administration

Rice University•Houston, TX

6h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Assistant Dean for Finance and Administration serves as the chief administrative officer of the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies (GSCS), providing strategic leadership and oversight of finance, human resources, procurement, grants management, compliance, and legal coordination across the school’s Dean’s Office and its affiliated organizations. Reporting directly to the Dean, the Assistant Dean is a member of the Dean’s senior leadership team and serves as a strategic partner in advancing the school’s administrative, operational, and academic mission. This role leads the school’s shared services model, ensuring that administrative functions are centralized, compliant, and aligned with university policy. The Assistant Dean advises the Dean and program leadership on complex administrative matters, manages a team of administrative professionals, and represents the school in university-wide forums. The position requires the ability to operate with significant independence, exercise institutional authority, and build effective working relationships across a diverse and decentralized academic environment. The ideal candidate is a seasoned administrative leader with deep experience managing complex financial, compliance, and human resources functions in a higher education or similarly complex institutional setting. They are equally comfortable providing strategic guidance to senior leadership and ensuring the operational integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness of day-to-day administrative functions. They bring an entrepreneurial mindset, experience with financial proforma projections, a systems orientation, a strong compliance approach, and the interpersonal credibility to work effectively with faculty, staff, and central administrative offices. They are skilled at building and leading high-performing administrative teams, driving organizational change, and holding institutional authority with confidence and good judgment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree (In lieu of the education requirement, additional related experience, above and beyond what is required, may be substituted on an equivalent year-for-year basis.)
Six or more (6+) years of progressively responsible experience in financial administration, human resources, compliance, or operations management in a complex organization, including demonstrated experience leading and supervising staff (In lieu of the experience requirement, additional related education above and beyond what is required may be substituted on an equivalent year-for-year basis.)
Demonstrated ability to provide strategic leadership and manage complex, multi-functional administrative operations
Strong financial management skills, including budget development, forecasting, financial reporting, and compliance oversight
Experience managing human resources functions, including workforce administration, faculty appointments, and compliance with employment policy
Demonstrated ability to interpret, implement, and enforce institutional and school policies and regulatory requirements
Strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills; ability to advise and influence senior leadership and diverse stakeholders
Proven ability to lead organizational change and build effective administrative systems and teams

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in business administration, public administration, higher education administration, or a related field
Experience in academic administration, preferably in a school or college within a research university
Familiarity with Oracle Cloud or a comparable enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, especially with Rice’s Oracle system (iO)
Experience with complex budget development, forecasting, and reporting
Experience with grants administration, including pre- and post-award compliance in a university or research setting
Experience managing procurement operations and vendor or contractor relationships at scale
Experience working at Rice University

Responsibilities

Serves as the chief administrative officer of the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies and as a strategic partner to the Dean and school leadership
Provides leadership and oversight for the school’s administrative shared services model, encompassing finance, human resources, procurement, grants management, compliance, and legal coordination across the Dean’s Office and affiliated organizations
Leads the development, implementation, and monitoring of multi-year budgets and financial plans; advises the Dean and senior leadership on financial strategy, resource allocation, and long-range planning
Ensures compliance with university policies, school policy, federal regulations, and applicable legal requirements across all administrative functions; serves as the school’s subject matter expert on policy interpretation and enforcement
Oversees human resources administration for school personnel, faculty appointments, cross-campus arrangements, the performance evaluation process, and compliance with HR and VPAA policies
Manages research and grants administration for the school, including post-award compliance, effort reporting, and coordination with the Office of Research and Research Cost Accounting
Supervises and develops Dean’s Office administrative staff; builds team capacity and fosters a culture of compliance, accountability, and continuous improvement
Leads, in collaboration with the Dean and the school organizational excellence committee, workplace environment initiatives
Works closely with the offices of the Provost, Budget, Controller, Human Resources, General Counsel, and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs on matters affecting the school
Represents the school on university-wide committees and in cross-campus administrative forums
Performs all other duties as assigned
Oversees procurement operations, including vendor and independent contractor management, contract review, and policy compliance; leads centralization of procurement functions into the Dean’s Office
Reviews and manages contracts, agreements, and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) through their full lifecycle; serves as primary liaison to the Office of General Counsel
Manages travel and expense administration, including oversight of institutional purchasing card (PCard) program and expense report compliance
Represents the Dean and the school within and outside the university as needed
Commitment to advancing the school’s mission of providing access to degrees and programs that engage, educate, and empower lifelong learners and communities.