Executive Director, Bloomberg Harvard Leadership Initiative

Company Description

By working at Harvard University, you join a vibrant community that advances Harvard's world-changing mission in meaningful ways, inspires innovation and collaboration, and builds skills and expertise. We are dedicated to creating a diverse and welcoming environment where everyone can thrive.

The Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University serves a global community committed to improving public management, leadership, and governance. The Center’s cross-Harvard collaboration unites expertise focused on cities across disciplines and schools to produce research, train leaders, and develop resources for global use. The Center is designed to have practical impact on the future of cities, where more than half of the world’s people now live, by informing and inspiring local government leaders, scholars, students, and others who work to improve the lives of residents around the world.

The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative–a program of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University–is a collaboration between Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and Bloomberg Philanthropies to equip mayors and senior city officials to tackle complex challenges in their cities and improve the quality of life of their residents. Launched in 2017, the Initiative has worked with 613 mayors and 4,000+ senior city officials in 594 cities worldwide.

The Initiative has also advanced research and developed new curriculum and teaching tools to help city leaders solve real-world problems.

The Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University seeks an exceptional Executive Director to lead the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, which strengthens the capabilities of mayors and senior city leaders to build more effective city governments, solve pressing problems, and improve outcomes for residents. This is an opportunity for a strategic and collaborative leader to help advance the next era of the Initiative’s programming and impact.

Reporting to the Center’s Executive Director and working closely with the Center’s Faculty Director, this role will guide the team responsible for delivering executive education, applied learning, alumni programming, curriculum development, and in-city engagement. They will work with colleagues across the center to support faculty co‑chairs in their academic leadership by facilitating high-quality pedagogy and curriculum design, delivering a world-class participant experience, ensuring coherence across and within programs, adapting programs to evolving needs of cities and their leaders, and collaborating with Bloomberg Philanthropies as a key partner in advancing the Initiative’s goals.

The ideal candidate brings a strong understanding of leadership development and public sector capability building, along with the ability to translate ideas into practical action. They appreciate the complexity of operating within a major university and a philanthropic partnership and are comfortable leading in settings where multiple priorities, stakeholders, and perspectives must be aligned. They are energized by helping mayors and senior city leaders strengthen the skills and practices needed to deliver meaningful results for residents.

• Help develop and execute a strategy that integrates executive education delivery, applied learning in the field, responsive curriculum design, and alumni support.
• Ensure that all offerings build to a seamless, high‑impact learning experience for mayors, senior leaders, and alumni cities.
• Translate strategic priorities into Initiative‑level goals, plans, and milestones.
• Work closely with Initiative faculty co‑chairs in their academic leadership to support high‑quality program design, teaching, and participant experience.
• Anticipate the needs of mayors and city teams, identify patterns across programs, and use insights to strengthen relevance and impact.

• Oversee the Senior Directors of Program Delivery, City Support, and…