Assistant Director of Research Programs

Research Foundation of The City University of New York•New York, NY

2d•$104,000•Hybrid

About The Position

In a single integrated system of 26 colleges and schools, the City University of New York (CUNY) Office of Research is responsible for the leadership of University initiatives that build research capacity. Research, scholarly, and creative pursuits are supported through three OR divisions that jointly encourage collaborative and transdisciplinary research innovations; foster startups and commercialization both within and beyond the CUNY community; and ensure adherence to the standards that govern research ethics and sponsored program administration. As part of the Office of Academic Affairs, and with an operating budget over $10 million, we serve over 7,000 full-time and 11,000 part-time faculty, including renowned scholars in nearly every academic field. With over $700 million in research and sponsored projects expenditures in FY24, and substantial growth across the past decade, our mission is to design a research and innovation ecosystem that strengthens CUNY’s renown as the leading, diverse public impact university. Several CUNY campuses are already recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as top-tier research colleges. CUNY is seeking an Assistant Director of Research Programs for the Oﬃce of Research (OR). Reporting to the University Director of Research Programs within the Research Development and Programs division, this skilled professional will help build CUNY-wide capacity for undergraduate research experiences (UREs) and opportunities across the research enterprise. The Assistant Director will coordinate, convene, and connect the myriad but disparate undergraduate research initiatives occurring throughout the University to build an undergraduate research community of practice among faculty and staff that is greater than the sum of its parts. This position’s key deliverable will be training and catalyzing CUNY faculty and staff to be successful leaders of UREs for their respective college(s) and school(s). The Assistant Director will also cultivate CUNY stakeholders to competitively seek external resources that enable UREs at their institutions, ranging from federal and private grants to governmental and corporate partnerships.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 6 years’ directly related experience required.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in a relevant field strongly preferred.
Demonstrated track record of managerial skill in guiding cohorts to accomplish larger program aims and organizational objectives.
Experience teaming with higher education leadership to influence programs, processes, and policy.
Experience with catalyzing faculty collaboration and partnership on cross-institutional initiatives.
Experience with facilitating discovery of and disseminating opportunities about research funding mechanisms.
Experience with “train-the-trainer” style initiatives in higher education to achieve impact at scale.
Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office suite, administrative, financial, and/or academic programs, systems, and databases.
Exemplary organizational and project management skills to develop objectives, set and adapt to changing priorities, manage competing demands/changes, and meet deadlines.
Proactive, flexible, and collaborative work style with strong interpersonal communication, presentation, and negotiation skills to forge successful relationships with diverse faculty, staff, and external partners.
Detail-oriented and precise with strong research, writing, and analytical skills, plus ability to thrive in a demanding, multi-faceted, time-sensitive office.
Demonstrated commitment to public service, service excellence, inclusion, equity, ethics, confidentiality and integrity.

Responsibilities

Discover, map, and analyze the individual nodes of UREs occurring CUNY-wide.
Generate new relationships with CUNY undergraduate research leaders and advocates of all roles and backgrounds.
Travel frequently to CUNY colleges and schools for URE direct engagement and observation.
Facilitate identification and exchange of CUNY URE best practices at scale among diverse stakeholders.
Establish permanent platforms, forums, and infrastructure for URE collaboration throughout the University.
Identify parallels between CUNY-wide UREs and Office of Research strategic planning.
Connect existing URE PIs with one another and develop nascent URE advocates into successful URE PIs.
Gather and evaluate key analytic data on CUNY URE outcomes consistent with strategic plan and other CUNY data modernization goals.
Engage in research strategic intelligence to leverage CUNY faculty research strengths with URE potential.
Utilize Cayuse, internal grant, and post-award data to assess previously unknown clusters of URE activity.
Engage in the design and deployment of assessment instruments reporting on RDP program data for stakeholders in senior leadership.
Train CUNY PIs in leadership, project management, and other competencies to secure and manage URE opportunities in their local contexts.
Disseminate internal URE opportunities to prospective PIs and student participants University-wide.
Discover and widely publicize external URE opportunities to enable program growth across CUNY institutions.
Other duties as assigned.