Associate Manager Education

APPOINTMENT: Full-Time Regular (FTR)

LOCATION: Oak Ridge, TN

*SALARY RANGE: $96,657.60 - $134,472.00

PURPOSE:

Provides the project management, planning, budgetary and technical oversight, and coordination necessary to operate research participation programs for the Department of Energy (DOE), national labs and other sponsors for postgraduate, graduate, undergraduate and precollege students and for university faculty. Such programs include research participation appointments, fellowships, scholarships and internships.

Personnel Coordination:

• Analyze workforce needs and establish personnel requirements. 
• Requisition and select qualified employees necessary to meet established requirements and program goals. 
• Assign employees to jobs, establish standards and training for the proper performance of work and familiarize staff with company rules, procedures and policies. 
• Maintain discipline of employees under supervision in accordance with established policies. 
• Assume responsibility for the proper application of established human resource administration policies, safety and health regulations and local, state and federal regulations.
• Initiate action and approve or recommend approval of hires, disciplinary actions, leaves of absence, promotions, reductions-in-force, performance evaluation, salary increases, terminations of employment for cause, separations, transfers and other personnel actions. 
• Approve or disapprove leave requests, timecards and work schedules. 
• Approve employee travel and reimbursement.
• Plan, organize, direct and schedule the work of employees, program assets and material within budgetary and quality standards. 
• Define program goals and implement strategies for addressing these goals, consistent with maximizing program efficiency and performance. 
• Propose, monitor and comply with project budgets. 
• Examine work for exactness and conformance with policies and procedures.

Recruitment:

• Design and implement recruitment strategies for programs to include establishing strong ties with the Minority-Serving Institution community as well as the overall higher education STEM community, visiting campuses, preparing and updating a program website, preparing program announcements/flyers and participating in professional meetings, conferences, and other higher education meetings, etc. 
• Gather diverse applicant pools and find candidates in response to specific sponsor or laboratory research opportunities. 
• Lead other group and organizational unit recruitment activities. 
• Maintain data that will help inform recruitment strategies.
• Provide project management for ongoing and expanding activities related to higher education programs. This requires an extensive understanding of the sponsoring agencies missions and directorates, and their research areas to interact with hundreds of federal research facility and university education coordinators, participants, advisors, government and private sector representatives, and program sponsors in response to questions and to provide programmatic and other requested information.
• Oversee application system and review process for applicant selection, ensuring ongoing recruitment of qualified applicants including prompt, fair and thorough reviews of all applications, and well-documented employee participant program activities.
• Ensure best practices and innovations are identified and shared, and barriers are identified and overcome.

Financial Management:

• Coordinate with program sponsors to determine funding levels. 
• Prepare and monitor budgets and controls expenditures in accordance with agreed upon deliverables and ORAU/Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) requirements. 
• Approve appointments, travel, stipend authorizations, and other programmatic expenditures. 
• Provide accurate cost reporting to sponsors. 
• Responsible for programs with a combined budget of $8-15 million per year.

Organizational Representative:

• Represent the organization on various committees and professional societies, and at national meetings and public forums. 
• Actively participate by leading a specific activity or event for one or more internal ORAU or ORISE teams/committees, especially those promoting participant engagement and support of STEM-Workforce Development (WD) mission and operations and the Annual Lab Plan.

Collaborate with Senior Management:

• Assist the senior manager, other STEM-WD managers, and other ORISE/ORAU management staff in program development activities, implement and manage new programs.
• Prepare proposals for new programs. 
• Identify and qualify new areas for program initiatives and position ORISE as the organization most likely to win targeted new business.
• Work with the senior manager to establish standards of performance and implement quality control measures. Formulate, prepare and deliver reports, briefs, evaluation and other materials.
• Serve as the back-up to the group manager during absences from the workplace. 
• Represent the group, ORISE-WD, and ORISE/ORAU on various committees and professional societies, and at national meetings and public forums.

JOB REQUIREMENTS: 

Bachelor's degree in business, scientific, technical, education or related field and 6 years of job-related experience. Doctoral degree is preferred. An equivalent combination of education and experience requiring similar knowledge, skills, abilities, and performing duties as described may be substituted for the minimum requirements.

• Must have experience in working with the university community of faculty, graduate students, and postgraduates including academic research activities and student research training needs to effectively design, implement, and operate programs that match these needs.
• Must have experience working with the federal agencies, laboratories, and organizations involved in education and academic research in order to understand the issues and trends in academic studies and research.
• Must have knowledge of research training and experience needs of students, postgraduates, and university/college faculty; the unique needs at non-R-1 universities related to cultivating and nurturing faculty and student research; and how laboratories may provide research training/experience opportunities for university faculty, students, postgraduates, and postdoctoral fellows.
• Must possess the ability to develop effective working relationships with students, a wide array of participant types, mentors, sponsors, federal agencies, and professional organizations.
• Must have a knowledge of policies, requirements, and procedures involved in the recruiting, application processing, and selection of applicants as well as the administrative tasks related to providing payments to or support to participants.
• Extensive knowledge of effective, cost-efficient methods including web and social media tools to recruit large numbers of highly qualified, diverse applicants is required.
• Must have a proficiency and understanding of a variety of different Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools tailored to solve complex business challenges.
• In-depth knowledge of technology tools for data management, modeling, forecasting, and reporting purposes is desired.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, customer relations/customer service skills and advanced computer skills (proficient in the use of MS Office Applications including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint; and knowledge of Web publishing, SharePoint and database applications) is required.
• Must be familiar with the various tasks in science education/research experience participant programs, including program evaluation and assessment.
• Limited travel (5-10 times a year) may be required.

*The candidate’s starting salary will be determined upon hire and ORAU will use salary survey data, internal comparators, and the candidate’s qualifications to determine salary.

TOTAL REWARDS:

ORAU has a strategic approach to providing total rewards to employees through a fair, equitable, and competitive total compensation package. The goal of our total rewards system is to integrate compensation, benefits, work-life balance, performance, recognition, development, and career opportunities to attract, engage, and retain the talent required to achieve ORAU’s business objectives. The benefit component of our total rewards program supports business goals by offering the following benefits based on employee eligibility:

• Legally required benefits
• Group Health insurance including: Medical, Prescription, Dental, and Vision
• Retirement plan contribution matching
• Disability insurance
• Group life insurance
• Travel Accident Insurance
• Section 125 reimbursement accounts
• Other voluntary employee paid benefit and insurance offerings

The ORAU total reward package also promotes work-life balance. Mindful of the need for employees to care for themselves and their families, ORAU offers the following additional work-life benefits based on employee eligibility:

• Telework
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Paid Holidays
• Flexible work schedules or compressed work weeks
• Occupational Health and Wellness Programs
• Employee Assistance Program