(Hybrid) Assistant Director of Operations and Business Systems - Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative

The Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative at West Virginia University is currently accepting applications for an Assistant Director of Operations and Business Systems.

About the Opportunity

The Assistant Director of Operations and Business Systems provides operational, project management, and business systems leadership for the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative (Smith OEDC), supporting initiatives that advance outdoor recreation, economic development, workforce development, talent attraction, and community impact across West Virginia. The position leads department-wide project management, serves as the primary administrator for the department's business systems and cloud-based platforms, supervises marketing and communications staff, and translates organizational priorities into scalable processes, workflows, and technical solutions.

Reporting to the Assistant Vice President of Economic, Community and Asset Development, the Assistant Director serves as a key coordination point among departmental leadership, program teams, university partners, vendors, consultants, and external stakeholders. The position is responsible for maintaining operational continuity, improving organizational efficiency, tracking KPIs and grant metrics, and ensuring that systems, projects, and workflows support the department's evolving needs.

The Assistant Director also provides strategic and operational oversight for the department's marketing and communications function, supervising staff responsible for day-to-day communications and supporting alignment among organizational priorities, program delivery, brand strategy, and public-facing communications.

We strongly believe in work-life balance and keeping time for things we love outside our work. WVU offers generous benefits, including:

• 37.5-hour work week
• 13 paid holidays (staff holiday calendar)
• 24 annual leave (vacation) days per year (employee leave)
• 18 sick days per year (for when you're ill, for when you need time to care for sick family, for your own, or your family's, regularly scheduled medical appointments. Who is family for the purpose of this leave? A lot of people in your life including immediate relatives and in-laws as well as others considered to be members of your household living under the same roof)
• WVU offers a range of health insurance and other benefits
• 401(a) retirement savings with 6% employee contribution match, eligibility to continue health insurance, and other retiree perks. Looking for more retirement benefits information? Check out retirement health insurance benefits, retirement income, and FAQ's.
• Wellness programs

What You'll Do

Operational Strategy and Department-Wide Project Management

• Lead planning and execution of complex department-wide projects, programs, events, campaigns, system implementations, and strategic initiatives.
• Translate leadership priorities into project plans, workflows, timelines, responsibilities, deliverables, and measures of success.
• Establish project objectives, dependencies, communication practices, and systems of accountability.
• Coordinate work involving leadership, program teams, marketing and communications staff, university partners, consultants, vendors, and external stakeholders.
• Monitor project status, identify risks and barriers, facilitate decisions, and resolve operational issues affecting project delivery.
• Connect work across programs and teams to identify dependencies, reduce duplication, and maintain alignment with organizational priorities.
• Develop and improve departmental procedures, workflows, tools, and reporting practices.
• Evaluate departmental processes and recommend improvements that increase efficiency, consistency, scalability, and organizational effectiveness.

Business Systems Administration, Integration, and Implementation

• Serve as the primary technical, functional, and administrative owner for the department's portfolio of cloud-based platforms, including Airtable, Typeform, Zapier, Wix, HubSpot, ChatGPT/OpenAI, Canva, Microsoft 365 shared inboxes, Slack, Adobe Acrobat Sign, and other assigned systems.
• Design, configure, administer, maintain, and continuously improve departmental systems and applications.
• Develop and maintain Airtable bases, relational data structures, linked records, interfaces, forms, formulas, automations, permissions, dashboards, and reporting tools.
• Administer platform accounts, users, roles, permissions, licenses, templates, shared assets, and configuration settings.
• Design, maintain, and troubleshoot automated workflows and data exchanges among departmental platforms.
• Gather requirements from staff and leadership and translate operational needs into scalable system configurations and technical solutions, including KPIs and grant reporting metrics.
• Lead system implementations and major enhancements from discovery and design through testing, deployment, training, and ongoing support.
• Maintain data quality, system documentation, process maps, administrator guides, and continuity procedures.
• Monitor system performance, automation failures, access issues, product changes, and integration dependencies.
• Evaluate existing platforms and recommend configuration changes, integrations, enhancements, or new solutions.
• Coordinate with vendors, consultants, WVU technology personnel, and other stakeholders regarding licensing, security, procurement, access, and technical issues.

• Support strategic administration of HubSpot, Wix, Canva, social media platforms, and related communications tools.

Marketing and Communications Strategic and Operational Oversight

• Supervise and support the staff member responsible for marketing and communications.
• Establish priorities, provide feedback and coaching, and support workload and professional development.
• Provide strategic and operational oversight for marketing and communications workflows, systems, timelines, and project delivery.
• Collaborate with departmental leadership and marketing staff to maintain Smith OEDC's brand, voice, positioning, and storytelling.
• Develop and maintain systems supporting content planning, project intake, campaign management, approvals, digital assets, and performance reporting.
• Coordinate marketing and communications work involving program staff, university partners, agencies, photographers, designers, and external vendors.
• Support strategic administration of HubSpot, Wix, Canva, social media platforms, and related communications tools.
• Use available performance data to inform communications planning and operational improvements.

Staff Training, Documentation, and Organizational Capacity

• Develop and deliver system onboarding, demonstrations, training, documentation, and individualized technical support.
• Help staff adopt new systems, workflows, and processes and understand their responsibilities for data quality and process compliance.
• Create and maintain standard operating procedures, user guides, process documentation, and continuity materials.
• Reduce organizational reliance on undocumented institutional knowledge by ensuring business-critical systems and workflows are documented and transferable.
• Support employee onboarding and ensure staff have appropriate access to systems, information, training, and resources.
• Identify opportunities to improve workflows, system adoption, and internal capacity.

Systems Support for Budget and Grant-Funded Initiatives

• Develop and maintain systems that support budget processes and grant-funded initiatives, including project tracking, documentation, reporting, data collection, and workflow management.
• Work with grants, finance, program, and leadership personnel to translate administrative and reporting needs into effective systems and processes.
• Support project teams in maintaining organized, accessible, and reliable information related to budgetary and grant-funded activities.
• Assist with operational coordination and documentation for budgitary and grant-funded initiatives as assigned.

Stakeholder Coordination and Organizational Representation

• Develop and maintain productive relationships with university departments, vendors, consultants, community partners, and other external stakeholders.
• Represent Smith OEDC in meetings, partner discussions, events, and other forums as assigned.
• Communicate complex operational and technical information to audiences with varying levels of expertise.
• Support change-management efforts associated with new systems, processes, programs, and departmental initiatives.

• Bachelor's degree in business, communications, marketing, information systems, project management, public administration, economic or community development, or a related field.
• A minimum of three (3) years of progressively responsible experience in operations, project management, business systems administration, marketing operations, program implementation, economic development, or a related area.
• Any equivalent combination of related education and/or experience will be considered.
• All qualifications must be met by the time of employment.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, cross-functional projects involving multiple programs, teams, stakeholders, vendors, and partners.
• Demonstrated experience administering and improving cloud-based business systems, including CRM, workflow automation, website, collaboration, communications, and productivity platforms.
• Demonstrated experience building and administering Airtable solutions, including relational data structures, linked records, forms, interfaces, formulas, automations, permissions, dashboards, and reporting tools.
• Ability to gather organizational requirements and translate them into scalable workflows, system configurations, implementation plans, and technical solutions.
• Experience administering and troubleshooting integrations and automated workflows across multiple platforms.
• Strong organizational and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple department-wide initiatives, systems, priorities, and deadlines simultaneously.
• Demonstrated ability to identify operational challenges, evaluate processes, and develop solutions that improve efficiency, consistency, and organizational effectiveness.
• Experience developing process documentation, standard operating procedures, training resources, and system documentation.
• Demonstrated ability to train and support users with varying levels of technical expertise.
• Experience supervising, mentoring, and developing employees and providing strategic oversight for functional areas.
• Ability to communicate complex technical and operational concepts clearly to nontechnical audiences.
• Strong interpersonal and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to work effectively with leadership, staff, university partners, vendors, consultants, and external organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Airtable, HubSpot, Wix, Zapier, Typeform, Microsoft 365, Canva, ChatGPT/OpenAI, Adobe Acrobat Sign, Slack, or comparable platforms.
• Experience with workflow automation, system integration, CRM administration, data reporting, and process improvement.
• Experience leading marketing and communications operations, including digital platforms, content workflows, brand implementation, campaign management, or creative production.
• Experience working in higher education, economic development, workforce development, community development, outdoor recreation, or grant-funded programs.
• Experience supporting operational systems and workflows for budget and grant-funded initiatives.
• Professional certification in project management, Scrum, Airtable, HubSpot, data analytics, automation, or a related field.
• Experience supporting distributed teams and multiple programs with different operational requirements.

• Valid driver's license

West Virginia University is a place of purpose and community. We take pride in our profound impact on the state of West Virginia and are committed to the personal and professional growth of our employees.

From the groundbreaking R1 research at our flagship campus in Morgantown to the career-oriented programs at WVU Potomac State in Keyser, and the technology-intensive programs at WVU Tech in Beckley, the contributions of WVU employees resonate across the state, touching lives and shaping futures.

At WVU, you will discover a supportive community that champions work-life balance and fosters a collaborative atmosphere. Our core values - service, curiosity, respect, accountability and appreciation - unite us as Mountaineers.

Join us at West Virginia University, where your work will make a lasting impact. To learn more about WVU, visit wvu.edu.

West Virginia University is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We invite all qualified applicants regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or Veteran status.