Policy Development Specialist

MBZUAI (Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence); Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 260,000 - 380,000; Full time

Job summary

MBZUAI (Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence) seeks an experienced lead to develop and align faculty policies and guidelines with institutional priorities. The role drafts, structures, and revises policy documents for Associate Director review, ensuring consistency across tenure, appointments, teaching load, and governance.

You will conduct benchmarking against peers, coordinate input from Deans, Provost, HR, and senior leadership, and prepare presentations for leadership

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in public policy/guidelines, higher education administration, law, or related field.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in faculty policy development or academic leadership.
• Experience conducting benchmarking and translating findings into structured outputs.
• Strong analytical thinking, synthesis, and stakeholder coordination.
• Excellent written and oral communication at executive levels.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of faculty-related policies, including drafting, structuring, and revising policy/guidelines documents for Associate Director review and approval prior to finalization.
• Translate institutional priorities into formal policy/guidelines frameworks across tenure and promotion, faculty appointments, teaching load, and governance.
• Ensure internal consistency and alignment across faculty-related policies, identifying overlaps, gaps, and conflicts.
• Support restructuring and standardization of the University’s faculty policy/guidelines architecture, with changes routed through the Associate Director prior to implementation.
• Conduct comprehensive audits of existing faculty-related policies/guidelines across the University.
• Lead benchmarking exercises against peer institutions to inform policy/guidelines design and updates.
• Coordinate input from Deans, Provost, Academic Appointments, HR, Research Office, and Senior Leadership.
• Develop structured presentations, briefing materials, and reports for the Vice Provost for Faculty Excellence and Advancement.
• Draft communications related to faculty policy/guidelines updates, ensuring clarity and accessibility for faculty audiences.
• Collaborate with Communications/Marketing teams to align messaging and dissemination channels.
• Ensure alignment between policy/guidelines frameworks and faculty lifecycle processes (orientation, reviews, career progression).

Skills

Policy drafting

Benchmarking

Stakeholder coordination

Executive communication

Analytical synthesis

Education

Master's degree in public policy/guidelines

Job description

Lead the development, review, and institutional alignment of faculty-related policies across the University. The role is responsible for translating benchmarking insights and internal audits into clear, implementable policy/guidelines frameworks, while coordinating stakeholder input and supporting leadership decision-making through structured analysis and communication. The role operates with a high degree of day-to-day independence, while ensuring that all policy/guidelines documents and faculty-facing communications are reviewed and approved by the Associate Director prior to issuance or distribution.

Key Responsibilities:

Policy/Guidelines Development and Institutional Alignment

• Lead the development of faculty-related policies, including drafting, structuring, and revising policy/guidelines documents and guidelines, for Associate Director review and approval prior to finalization
• Translate institutional priorities into formal policy/guidelines frameworks across areas such as tenure and promotion, faculty appointments, teaching load, and faculty conduct and governance
• Ensure internal consistency and alignment across faculty-related policies, identifying overlaps, gaps, and conflicts
• Support restructuring and standardization of the University’s faculty policy/guidelines architecture (e.g., faculty handbook organization, policy/guidelines/guideline categorization), with proposed changes routed through the Associate Director prior to implementation

Policy/Guidelines Audit and Benchmarking

• Conduct comprehensive audits of existing faculty-related policies/guidelines across the University
• Identify inconsistencies, redundancies, and areas requiring revision or consolidation
• Lead benchmarking exercises against peer institutions to inform faculty policy/guidelines/guideline design and updates
• Synthesize benchmarking data into actionable recommendations for leadership
• Coordinate input and feedback from key stakeholders including Deans, Provost, Academic Appointments, HR, Research Office, and Senior Leadership
• Facilitate discussions and working sessions to refine faculty policy/guidelines direction and resolve ambiguities
• Track faculty policy/guidelines development timelines, approvals, and dependencies across functions

Leadership Communication and Decision Support

• Develop structured presentations, briefing materials, and reports for the Vice Provost for Faculty Excellence and Advancement
• Support internal approval processes through well-documented rationale and comparative analysis

Policy/Guidelines-Related Communications

• Draft communications related to faculty policy/guidelines updates, changes, and implementations, for Associate Director review and approval prior to distribution
• Ensure clarity, consistency, and accessibility of faculty policy/guidelines information for faculty audiences
• Collaborate with Communications/Marketing teams to align messaging and dissemination channels
• Develop templates and standardized formats for faculty policy/guidelines communication

Faculty Lifecycle Policy/Guidelines Integration

• Ensure alignment between faculty policy/guidelines frameworks and faculty lifecycle processes (orientation, reviews, career progression)
• Support integration of faculty policy/guidelines changes into existing faculty programs and institutional processes
• Provide faculty policy/guidelines input into faculty-facing initiatives where relevant

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in public policy/guidelines, higher education administration, law, or a related field

Professional Experience Required:

• 5 years of experience in faculty policy/guidelines development, institutional research, or academic leadership and administration
• Demonstrated experience in:
• Conducting benchmarking and translating findings into structured outputs
• Faculty policy/guidelines drafting and structuring
• Analytical thinking and synthesis
• Institutional benchmarking
• Stakeholder coordination
• Executive-level communication (written and presentation)
• Ability to translate ambiguity into structured outputs

Preferred

• Familiarity with working in higher education, international organizations and multicultural environments