Associate Director, Doctoral Affairs and Academic Initiatives

New York University • New York, NY

12d • $110,000 - $130,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Associate Director will drive the successful growth of University-wide doctoral affairs initiatives, increasing capacity for PhD alumni engagement, using data & integrated systems for strategic insights & planning, growing opportunities for cross-school and cross-campus PhD student engagement, and supporting other high-profile academic initiatives related to the Vice Provost’s portfolio. Serving on the leadership team of the Doctoral Affairs Council, serves as the central NYU point-person for NYU school leaders overseeing PhD programs at NYU, providing guidance, addressing challenges and escalating sensitive issues to the Vice Provost. Responsible for successful leadership and delivery of existing initiatives including NYU PhD Live!, the University-wide Outstanding Dissertation Awards, NYU’s PhD Alumni data projects and others. Conceptualize, deliver and maintain new high-impact doctoral affairs initiatives that align with the strategic priorities of the University (i.e., building a new centralized PhD Hub for current and prospective NYU PhD students; developing new University-wide professional development frameworks, increasing opportunities for cross-disciplinary PhD student engagement, expanding alumni networks, increasing institutional capacity to track PhD student accomplishments and outcomes, and others). Build integrated data systems and build and manage interactive PhD dashboards. Serves as a crucial liaison between central Provost leadership and school-based graduate leaders, providing data and policy insights and creative problem-solving to address emergent challenges in doctoral education. Mentors staff and oversees the flawless execution of all portfolio programs, events, digital communications, and budgets.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in related field
• 5+ years Experience administering academic and/or research programs and events
• Experience using programming (Python, SQL, R) and data visualization tools (Tableau) to transform complex data into navigable dashboards, research briefs, decks and reports
• Experience simultaneously managing multiple projects with required deadlines and deliverables
• Exceptional written, verbal, and visual communication skills, with a proven ability to craft executive-level presentation decks, author strategic briefs, and translate complex information into clear narratives for senior leadership.
• Superior interpersonal diplomacy to lead committee meetings, mediate cross-departmental challenges with care, and serve as a trusted central point-person across decentralized school structures.
• Exceptional organizational skills with ability to simultaneously juggle multiple projects, initiatives and deliverables on time, re-prioritizing as needed.
• Ability to oversee and directly implement program logistics, manage operational budgets, and leverage modern productivity and Generative AI/LLM tools to optimize workflow efficiency, data management, and content generation within secure university guidelines.
• Strong collaborative skills to lead and participate in cross-unit initiatives.
• Must be willing to foster and maintain positive relationships with alumni, donors, and other external stakeholders.
• Advanced technical and data programming proficiency is required.
• Expertise in Python-based ML workflows, specifically including the fine-tuning, evaluation, and integration of Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Proven experience integrating LLM APIs and orchestration frameworks for automated analysis, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and reporting tasks.
• Experience developing robust, automated data cleaning, preprocessing, and validation workflows using modern ML and data engineering tools.
• Experience building advanced text analysis models and crafting compelling data visualizations and interactive dashboards (using Tableau, Python visualization libraries, or similar tools).
• Experience using Python data science stacks (Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-Learn, PyTorch/TensorFlow).

Nice To Haves

• Master's Degree in related field
• 5+ years Hands-on experience with university web content management systems (CMS) for site architecture and digital publishing.
• Deep familiarity with the doctoral student lifecycle and higher education research ecosystems.
• Familiarity with central higher education enterprise database systems (e.g., PeopleSoft, Slate, Salesforce, Workday) to facilitate seamless data integration across administrative units.

Responsibilities

• Drive the successful growth of University-wide doctoral affairs initiatives.
• Increase capacity for PhD alumni engagement.
• Use data & integrated systems for strategic insights & planning.
• Grow opportunities for cross-school and cross-campus PhD student engagement.
• Support other high-profile academic initiatives related to the Vice Provost’s portfolio.
• Serve as the central NYU point-person for NYU school leaders overseeing PhD programs at NYU, providing guidance, addressing challenges and escalating sensitive issues to the Vice Provost.
• Lead and deliver existing initiatives including NYU PhD Live!, the University-wide Outstanding Dissertation Awards, NYU’s PhD Alumni data projects and others.
• Conceptualize, deliver and maintain new high-impact doctoral affairs initiatives that align with the strategic priorities of the University.
• Build integrated data systems and build and manage interactive PhD dashboards.
• Serve as a crucial liaison between central Provost leadership and school-based graduate leaders, providing data and policy insights and creative problem-solving to address emergent challenges in doctoral education.
• Mentor staff and oversee the flawless execution of all portfolio programs, events, digital communications, and budgets.

Benefits

• New York University considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as, market and organizational considerations when extending an offer.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level