Manager, Division Operations

Join our community and experience Emerson College!
The Manager, Division Operations is the Vice President's operating partner for the Technology, Media & Facilities division (Information Technology, Facilities, Media Technologies & Productions, Institutional Research, Web & Digital Services, and Business Services). The Manager runs the division's executive operations, anticipates problems, provides confidential personnel and labor-relations support to the Vice President and the division's AVPs and Directors, serves as the division's liaison to Finance and Human Resources, and stewards the division's contract, purchasing, and verification processes.
ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES
Executive & Division Operations
Serve as the division's primary liaison to Finance: carry the division’s questions, corrections, and requests to Finance and Finance’s requirements back to the division’s leaders, and ensure the division’s operations align with institutional financial policy.
Serve as principal point of contact for the Vice President’s office, interacting with College leadership, faculty, staff, students, vendors, and external partners with discretion and professionalism.
On behalf of the VP, monitor and track AVP’s completion of important divisional actions to ensure operational compliance.
Prepare agendas and materials for leadership meetings; review and correct AI-generated minutes; distribute decisions and action items; track follow-through to completion.
Track progress on divisional strategic goals and deadlines; assemble data and narrative for the division’s Annual Report and other recurring institutional reporting.
Manage the calendars of the Vice President and the division's AVPs, coordinating meetings, resolving conflicts proactively, and protecting time for divisional priorities.
Plan and execute logistics for divisional all-staff meetings, workshops, and special events across the division's departments.
Complete expense reports and spend authorizations for the VP; arrange travel as needed.
Contracts & Purchasing Compliance
Own the division’s contracts. Ensure every divisional contract, amendment, and renewal is loaded, that the system’s AI extraction has read its terms (dates, escalations, renewals, etc) correctly. Work with functional leaders to ensure they have validated all business terms before VP review.
Review each new or modified contract through the contract system. Where terms depart from standard, provide the responsible AVP or Director with specific feedback so they can secure the necessary changes with the vendor.
Serve as the division’s point of conformance to College purchasing policy before a requisition is submitted: ensure accurate spend category and worktags, contract on file before a purchase order is raised, competitive quotes or sole-source justification where thresholds require, and a reviewed contract behind every renewal. Work with department leads to correct submissions that do not conform.
Monitor the division’s renewal and notice dates and ensure decisions are made before deadlines pass.
Conduct a quarterly sampled audit of invoices against what was actually received and is still in use.
Division Systems, AI & Onboarding
Serve as the division’s first point of contact for Workday process questions (Finance and HR) and for the division’s budget and contract systems; resolve what can be resolved and route the rest to the appropriate central office or system owner. Also, provide feedback to Finance and HR about issues or process concerns.
Use AI-assisted tools as a standard part of the work, including drafting, summarization, meeting minutes, contract term extraction, and analysis. And remain accountable for every output: every figure, function and result must be verified.
Act as the division’s operational owner of its purpose-built systems for contract, scheduling and budget management. Identify recurring friction and gaps in how the budget, contract, and facilities systems serve staff; specify improvements in terms the systems’ developers can act on; and test changes with AI-assisted development tools.
Orient new AVPs, Directors, and managers to the division's financial framework, purchasing standards, personnel documentation practices, and systems.
Contribute to the design and adherence of divisional operating procedures.
All other duties as assigned.
QUALIFICATIONS – Qualifications are deemed required or preferred and represent what is needed to effectively perform job.
Bachelor's degree and 5+ years of progressively responsible experience in executive operations or business operations required, or 8+ years of equivalent experience required; higher education or non-profit setting preferred.
Demonstrated experience handling confidential personnel matters with discretion required.
Experience with contract administration and/or institutional purchasing and procurement compliance required.
Experience managing executive calendars and meeting logistics for multiple senior leaders required.
Demonstrated use of AI-assisted tools in professional work, with the ability to explain what was checked before the output was used.
Experience supporting managers in a unionized environment preferred.
Experience with Workday (Finance and/or HCM) preferred.
Experience training or coaching managers preferred.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES – May be representative, but not all-inclusive, of those knowledge, skills, and abilities commonly associated with the job.
Sound judgment and the ability to hold confidential information without exception.
Ability to read a contract and identify financial and operational terms accurately; comfort verifying that a system has captured those terms correctly.
Working knowledge of purchasing and procurement practices and of employment documentation standards.
Strong writing skills.
Ability to work by influence with senior leaders who do not report to the position, and to give direct, constructive feedback with tact.
Ability to track many parallel deadlines and commitments without dropping any.
Fluency with AI-assisted tools for writing, analysis, and document review, and the judgment to verify their output before relying on it; interest in improving the systems the division builds for itself.
Proficiency with Google Workspace and Excel required; familiarity with Zoom and Slack preferred.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively; flexibility to adapt to shifting priorities.
PHYSICAL ABILITIES – Activities commonly associated with the performance of the functions of this job. The physical demands described below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.
Requires ability to lift and move objects that are light
Requires a