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Head of Operations & Planning

Job in Abu Dhabi, UAE/Dubai
Listing for: MBZUAI (Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence)
Full Time position
Listed on 2026-09-22
Job specializations:
  • Management
    Administrative Management
Salary/Wage Range or Industry Benchmark: 350000 - 550000 AED Yearly AED 350000.00 550000.00 YEAR
Job Description & How to Apply Below

The Head of Operations & Planning serves as second-in-command within OFEA, providing day-to-day operational oversight of the office's program teams, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), Nexus, and Postdoctoral Affairs. This role maintains a single consolidated view of OFEA's processes, projects, and capacity; owns the office's data and reporting infrastructure; and translates OFEA's strategic priorities into consistent, well-documented operations across teams.

The ideal candidate combines strong program oversight and coordination skills with a genuine interest in building the operational infrastructure (templates, SOPs, workflows, dashboards) that lets a growing, multi-team office scale smoothly.

Portfolio & Capacity Management
  • Maintain one consolidated view of all major OFEA processes, events, projects, deadlines, staffing demands, and decision points
  • Run a short weekly or biweekly operational meeting with workstream leaders, and provide the Associate Director with a concise summary of progress, risks, and decisions needed
  • Ensure recurring processes — P&T, faculty reviews, orientation, mentoring, recognition, policy development, and Nexus planning — have clear owners, timelines, templates, and escalation paths
  • Consolidate the office's budget picture, including Nexus event activity, staffing, consultants, and project costs, without taking financial authority away from relevant unit leads
  • Track decisions from the Associate Director, the Vice Provost, SMT, and committees, ensuring actions are followed through and do not disappear between meetings
Team & Program Oversight
  • Oversee and coordinate daily operations across CTE, Nexus, and Postdoctoral Affairs, ensuring alignment with OFEA's overall goals and calendar
  • Serve as the primary point of coordination between team leads, surfacing risks, resourcing gaps, and cross-team dependencies — without holding direct-line management authority over them
  • Act as deputy to the Associate Director, representing OFEA in meetings and decisions when needed
Project Management
  • Own project plans and timelines for major OFEA initiatives (e.g., faculty orientation, retreats, program launches), tracking milestones and deliverables across teams
  • Introduce and maintain lightweight project management practices (status tracking, milestone reviews) suited to a small, fast-moving office
Process Documentation & Templates
  • Build and maintain a library of reusable templates (event planning, communications, onboarding, reporting) to standardize how teams operate
  • Document standard operating procedures for recurring OFEA processes, ensuring continuity as the office and its teams grow
  • Partner with team leads to capture undocumented institutional knowledge and convert it into repeatable process
Data & Reporting
  • Own OFEA's data and reporting infrastructure, including tracking systems, dashboards, and shared data repositories across CTE, Nexus, and Postdoctoral Affairs
  • Consolidate program metrics (faculty engagement, event participation, P&T milestones, survey results) into regular reports for the Associate Director, SMT, and other stakeholders
  • Establish data collection standards and governance practices so metrics are consistent, accurate, and comparable across teams
  • Identify opportunities to automate or streamline recurring reporting needs
Cross-Team Integration
  • Support the integration of newly added or merged teams (most recently Postdoctoral Affairs) into shared OFEA workflows, tools, and reporting structures
  • Identify redundancies or gaps across CTE, Nexus, and Postdoctoral Affairs and propose consolidated processes wherever useful
Professional Experience
  • 8+ years of experience in program/project management, ideally within higher education, faculty affairs, or a similar multi-stakeholder environment
  • Demonstrated experience coordinating or overseeing multiple teams/programs without formal line authority
  • Strong process-documentation and systems-thinking skills — comfortable building from scratch in a growing office
  • Experience consolidating budget or resource visibility across multiple work streams
  • Comfort working with data tracking tools, dashboards, and reporting systems (e.g., Excel, Power BI, or similar)
Preferred
  • PMP or similar project management certification a plus
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