Associate Director, Chief Negotiator - Remote

Job

Location:

Oakland

Full/Part Time:
Full Time

At the University of California (UC), your contributions make a difference. A world leader producing Nobel and Pulitzer Prize recipients with over 150 years of groundbreaking research transforming the world. Choose a career where you can leverage your knowledge, skills and aspirations to inspire and support some of the greatest minds in the world, and those who will follow in their footsteps.

Working at the University of California is being part of a unique institution, and a vibrant and diverse community. At the University of California, Office of the President, we propel our mission through impactful work locally, in government centers and systemwide. We are passionate people, serving the greater good.

The University of California, one of the largest and most acclaimed institutions of higher learning in the world, is dedicated to excellence in teaching, research and public service. The University of California Office of the President is the headquarters to the 10 campuses, six academic medical centers and three national laboratories and enrolls premier students from California, the nation and the world.

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Systemwide Labor Relations (SWLR) is responsible for negotiating and administering 19 systemwide labor agreements and 14 local agreements with 16 unions covering approximately 170,000 academic and staff employees across the UC system. This includes bargaining on first contracts, successor contracts, accretion, impacts and effects bargaining, side letters, mid-term modifications and the sunshine process. Administering the systemwide and local collective bargaining agreements also involves creating systemwide guidance around contract implementation and contract interpretation, handling formal requests for information, authoring and issuing critical union communications, and providing training, advice, and counsel to local labor relations staff across the system.

In addition, Systemwide Labor Relations plays a critical role in labor disputes, including grievance processing, unfair labor practice charges, and strike preparation and responses. SWLR collaborates closely with key partners within UCOP including UC Legal (UCL) on labor‑related litigation activity, the Office of State Governmental Relations (SGR) in representing the University’s position on legislative, budgetary and policy matters concerning labor relations and collective bargaining, and the External Relations & Communications team to respond to media inquiries and develop messaging on labor relations and collective bargaining matters for internal and external stakeholders.

The Associate Director of Labor Relations / Chief Negotiator plays a critical, high-visibility leadership role across the University of California system in furthering the University’s mission and labor relations goals, which includes fulfillment of its collective‑bargaining obligations under the California Higher Education Employee‑Employer Relations Act (HEERA). As Associate Director/Chief Negotiator, you will have ultimate responsibility for all assigned negotiations and serve as the spokesperson and primary point of contact for labor negotiations across a subset of system‑wide collective‑bargaining agreements.

This includes working closely with SWLR colleagues and taking ownership over all key tasks associated with successful negotiations – working with internal stakeholders, managing proposals, building a collaborative and effective cross‑location bargaining team, building a relationship with the unions and recommending effective strategies for closing the contract. As Associate Director/Chief…