(Hybrid) Assistant Director of Operations and Business Systems - Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative

West Virginia University•West Virginia, WV

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Assistant Director of Operations and Business Systems provides operational, project management, and business systems leadership for the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative (Smith OEDC) at West Virginia University. The role supports initiatives advancing outdoor recreation, economic development, workforce development, talent attraction, and community impact across West Virginia. It leads department-wide project management, administers business systems and cloud-based platforms, supervises marketing and communications staff, and turns organizational priorities into scalable processes, workflows, and technical solutions. Reporting to the Assistant Vice President of Economic, Community and Asset Development, the Assistant Director coordinates among departmental leadership, program teams, university partners, vendors, consultants, and external stakeholders. The position maintains operational continuity, improves organizational efficiency, tracks KPIs and grant metrics, and ensures systems, projects, and workflows meet the department’s evolving needs. It also provides strategic and operational oversight of marketing and communications, supporting staff and alignment among organizational priorities, program delivery, brand strategy, and public-facing communications.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, communications, marketing, information systems, project management, public administration, economic or community development, or a related field.
At least three years of progressively responsible experience in operations, project management, business systems administration, marketing operations, program implementation, economic development, or a related area.
Related education and/or experience may be considered as an equivalent combination.
Qualifications must be met by the time of employment.
Ability to lead complex, cross-functional projects involving multiple programs, teams, stakeholders, vendors, and partners.
Experience administering and improving cloud-based business systems, including CRM, workflow automation, website, collaboration, communications, and productivity platforms.
Experience building and administering Airtable solutions, including relational data structures, linked records, forms, interfaces, formulas, automations, permissions, dashboards, and reporting tools.
Ability to gather organizational requirements and translate them into scalable workflows, system configurations, implementation plans, and technical solutions.
Experience administering and troubleshooting integrations and automated workflows across multiple platforms.
Strong organizational and project management skills, including the ability to manage multiple department-wide initiatives, systems, priorities, and deadlines simultaneously.
Ability to identify operational challenges, evaluate processes, and develop solutions that improve efficiency, consistency, and organizational effectiveness.
Experience developing process documentation, standard operating procedures, training resources, and system documentation.
Ability to train and support users with varying levels of technical expertise.
Experience supervising, mentoring, and developing employees and providing strategic oversight for functional areas.
Ability to communicate complex technical and operational concepts clearly to nontechnical audiences.
Strong interpersonal and stakeholder-management skills and ability to work effectively with leadership, staff, university partners, vendors, consultants, and external organizations.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Airtable, HubSpot, Wix, Zapier, Typeform, Microsoft 365, Canva, ChatGPT/OpenAI, Adobe Acrobat Sign, Slack, or comparable platforms.
Experience with workflow automation, system integration, CRM administration, data reporting, and process improvement.
Experience leading marketing and communications operations, including digital platforms, content workflows, brand implementation, campaign management, or creative production.
Experience working in higher education, economic development, workforce development, community development, outdoor recreation, or grant-funded programs.
Experience supporting operational systems and workflows for budget and grant-funded initiatives.
Professional certification in project management, Scrum, Airtable, HubSpot, data analytics, automation, or a related field.
Experience supporting distributed teams and multiple programs with different operational requirements.

Responsibilities

Lead planning and execution of complex department-wide projects, programs, events, campaigns, system implementations, and strategic initiatives.
Translate leadership priorities into project plans, workflows, timelines, responsibilities, deliverables, and measures of success; establish objectives, dependencies, communication practices, and accountability systems.
Coordinate projects involving leadership, program teams, marketing and communications staff, university partners, consultants, vendors, and external stakeholders; monitor progress, identify risks and barriers, facilitate decisions, and resolve operational issues.
Connect work across programs and teams, improve departmental procedures and workflows, and recommend process improvements that increase efficiency, consistency, scalability, and organizational effectiveness.
Serve as primary technical, functional, and administrative owner for departmental cloud platforms, including Airtable, Typeform, Zapier, Wix, HubSpot, ChatGPT/OpenAI, Canva, Microsoft 365 shared inboxes, Slack, Adobe Acrobat Sign, and other assigned systems.
Design, configure, administer, maintain, and improve departmental systems and applications, including Airtable bases, data structures, interfaces, forms, formulas, automations, permissions, dashboards, and reporting tools.
Administer platform accounts, users, roles, permissions, licenses, templates, shared assets, and configuration settings; maintain and troubleshoot automated workflows and data exchanges.
Gather staff and leadership requirements and translate operational needs into scalable system configurations and technical solutions, including KPI and grant-reporting metrics.
Lead system implementations and major enhancements from discovery and design through testing, deployment, training, and ongoing support.
Maintain data quality, system documentation, process maps, administrator guides, and continuity procedures; monitor system performance, automation failures, access issues, product changes, and integration dependencies.
Evaluate platforms and recommend configuration changes, integrations, enhancements, or new solutions; coordinate with vendors, consultants, WVU technology personnel, and other stakeholders on licensing, security, procurement, access, and technical issues.
Provide strategic and operational oversight for marketing and communications staff, workflows, systems, timelines, and project delivery; establish priorities, provide feedback and coaching, and support workload and professional development.
Collaborate with leadership and marketing staff to maintain Smith OEDC’s brand, voice, positioning, and storytelling; develop systems for content planning, project intake, campaign management, approvals, digital assets, and performance reporting.
Coordinate marketing and communications work with program staff, university partners, agencies, photographers, designers, and external vendors; support administration of HubSpot, Wix, Canva, social media platforms, and related tools; use performance data to inform planning and improvements.
Develop and deliver system onboarding, demonstrations, training, documentation, and individualized technical support; help staff adopt systems and workflows and understand data-quality and process-compliance responsibilities.
Create and maintain standard operating procedures, user guides, process documentation, and continuity materials; document business-critical systems and workflows so they are transferable.
Support employee onboarding and ensure staff have appropriate system access, information, training, and resources; identify opportunities to improve workflows, system adoption, and internal capacity.
Develop and maintain systems for budget processes and grant-funded initiatives, including project tracking, documentation, reporting, data collection, and workflow management.
Work with grants, finance, program, and leadership personnel to translate administrative and reporting needs into effective systems and processes; support teams in maintaining organized and reliable information about budgetary and grant-funded activities.
Assist with operational coordination and documentation for budgetary and grant-funded initiatives as assigned.
Develop and maintain productive relationships with university departments, vendors, consultants, community partners, and external stakeholders; represent Smith OEDC in meetings, partner discussions, events, and other forums as assigned.
Communicate complex operational and technical information to audiences with varying levels of expertise and support change management for new systems, processes, programs, and departmental initiatives.