Provost & Chief Academic Officer

California Lutheran University; Thousand Oaks (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

California Lutheran University seeks a Provost & Chief Academic Officer to lead academic strategy, accreditation, and shared governance. Reporting to the President, this role sets the academic vision across colleges and departments and partners with faculty and senior leaders to advance student success and long-term sustainability.

The Provost will oversee budgeting, program development, interdisciplinary initiatives, and external engagement with accrediting bodies, funders, and community

Qualifications

• Earned doctorate or terminal degree from an accredited institution.
• At least ten years of senior academic leadership experience.
• Experience with accreditation, budgeting, and student success initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Provide executive leadership for Academic Affairs and colleges, schools, and departments.
• Lead strategic planning, institutional priorities, and shared governance.
• Advance student success, diversity, inclusion, and community engagement.
• Oversee budgeting, financial planning, and resource allocation for Academic Affairs.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Academic governance

Budgeting & resource allocation

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Doctoral degree in higher education or related field

Job description

Provost & Chief Academic Officer

Position Category: Staff (Exempt)

FLSA: Exempt

FTE: 1

Location: Thousand Oaks

University Background

The mission of California Lutheran University is to educate leaders for a global society who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and vocation, and committed to service and justice. Founded in 1959 in beautiful Ventura County, the university has an enrollment of about 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students who come from across the nation and around the world from a diversity of backgrounds, cultures and faiths. As a federally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution, Cal Lutheran is looking for candidates with a dedication to and success in working in diverse communities. The university is committed to an inclusive learning and work environment that values individual differences and respects each person's dignity.

Basic Function

Reporting directly to the President, the Provost & Chief Academic Officer serves as the University's Chief Academic Officer and a key member of the President's Executive Council of the Cabinet. The Provost provides visionary leadership for the University's academic enterprise and partners with the President, faculty, and senior leadership to advance academic excellence, student success, institutional transformation, and long-term sustainability in support of the University's mission and strategic priorities.

The Provost leads the development and execution of the University's academic strategy by fostering innovation, shared governance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and continuous improvement while positioning the University to respond to the evolving landscape of higher education.

Representative Duties

Executive Leadership and Institutional Strategy

• Serve as a strategic partner to the President, shaping and advancing the University's academic vision, institutional priorities, and long-term strategic direction.
• Lead the University's academic enterprise by aligning academic priorities, institutional resources, enrollment strategy, and institutional initiatives to advance the University's mission, strategic plan, and long-term sustainability.
• Lead institutional transformation by anticipating emerging trends in higher education, positioning the University to respond to changing student expectations, workforce needs, technological innovation, and demographic shifts.
• Cultivate a culture of trust, transparency, collaboration, and shared governance by engaging faculty and academic leaders in meaningful dialogue, building consensus around institutional priorities, and fostering timely, informed decision-making.
• Champion organizational excellence by fostering innovation, adaptability, evidence-informed decision-making, and continuous improvement across Academic Affairs.
• Partner with the President, Executive Council of the Cabinet, Cabinet, Board of Regents, faculty leadership, and administrative leaders to advance institutional priorities and achieve strategic institutional goals.
• Serve as a visible ambassador for the University by cultivating strategic relationships with accrediting agencies, governmental organizations, educational associations, community partners, donors, and other external stakeholders to advance the University's academic reputation, mission, and strategic priorities.

Academic Leadership

• Provide executive leadership for the University's colleges, schools, academic departments, libraries, academic support units, and other areas reporting to Academic Affairs.
• Shape the University's academic vision by leading the strategic evolution of its academic portfolio, ensuring programs remain mission-centered, academically rigorous, responsive to evolving student and workforce needs, and aligned with institutional priorities and long-term sustainability.
• Position the University's academic enterprise to strengthen its academic distinction, institutional reputation, and long-term competitiveness within an evolving higher education landscape.
• Guide strategic decisions regarding the growth, redesign, consolidation, and discontinuation of academic programs to strengthen academic distinction, enrollment competitiveness, and long-term institutional sustainability.
• Champion excellence in teaching, scholarship, creative activity, research, and service that advances the University's academic distinction and student success.
• Advance interdisciplinary collaboration, emerging instructional models, and innovative educational practices that strengthen student learning and institutional competitiveness.
• Recruit, develop, empower, and retain a high-performing faculty while fostering a culture of academic excellence, innovation, accountability, and professional growth.
• Ensure compliance with accreditation standards, academic policies, and applicable federal and state regulations.

Student Success and Educational Excellence

• Champion a student-centered academic culture that promotes student success, persistence, graduation, career readiness, and lifelong learning.
• Provide strategic leadership for the University's academic support functions, including academic advising, registrar services, academic accessibility, global education, and undergraduate research.
• Promote equitable access to educational opportunities and support services that enable students to achieve their academic and professional goals.
• Advance experiential learning, internships, undergraduate research, global engagement, service learning, and other high-impact educational experiences.
• Utilize institutional assessment, performance metrics, and predictive analytics to improve student outcomes and guide continuous improvement.
• Partner with Enrollment Management and Student Affairs to align academic strategy, enrollment planning, and student success initiatives across the University.

Academic Innovation and Strategic Growth

• Lead the University's academic innovation strategy by advancing new academic programs, instructional models, certificates, microcredentials, executive education, lifelong learning, and online and hybrid educational opportunities that support institutional priorities.
• Advance the thoughtful integration of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, to enhance teaching, learning, scholarship, and administrative effectiveness.
• Align academic planning with enrollment strategy, workforce needs, and emerging market opportunities to strengthen institutional competitiveness and long-term sustainability.

Strategic Partnerships, Research, and External Engagement

• Advance faculty scholarship, research, creative activity, and sponsored programs in ways that enhance the University's academic distinction and public impact.
• Cultivate strategic partnerships that advance academic excellence, workforce development, innovation, philanthropy, community engagement, and institutional reputation.
• Develop partnerships with K-12 schools, community colleges, employers, healthcare organizations, nonprofit organizations, and community partners to expand educational pathways and strengthen regional impact.
• Partner with University Advancement to cultivate philanthropic investments that advance academic priorities, faculty excellence, student success, and institutional growth.
• Represent the University in regional, national, and international academic partnerships that enhance institutional reputation, influence, and strategic opportunities.
• Leverage strategic partnerships to expand experiential learning, applied research, workforce development, community engagement, and opportunities that advance the University's mission and regional and national impact.

Financial Stewardship and Organizational Effectiveness

• Provide executive leadership for Academic Affairs budgeting, financial planning, resource allocation, operational effectiveness, and long-term sustainability.
• Ensure responsible stewardship of the University's financial, human, physical, technological, and academic resources.
• Align academic investments and resource allocation with institutional priorities by evaluating academic initiatives, organizational performance, and financial, enrollment, and assessment data to support strategic decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Identify, evaluate, and pursue opportunities to diversify revenue through grants, strategic partnerships, philanthropy, continuing education, research, and innovative academic initiatives.
• Recruit, develop, mentor, and evaluate senior academic leaders while fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, and high performance.
• Perform other related duties as assigned.

Knowledge Of

• Principles and practices of higher education administration, governance, and shared governance.
• Academic program planning, curriculum development, accreditation, institutional effectiveness, and assessment.
• Strategic planning, organizational development, and change management.
• Student success, retention, persistence, and completion strategies.
• Enrollment trends, market analysis, workforce development, and emerging higher education models.
• Faculty affairs, including recruitment, evaluation, promotion, tenure, and professional development.
• Sponsored research, grants administration, and academic partnerships.
• Federal and state laws, accreditation standards, and regulations governing higher education.
• Emerging technologies and innovative instructional delivery models.
• Executive leadership, organizational effectiveness, higher education finance, budgeting, financial management, and resource allocation.

Ability To

• Provide visionary, strategic, and operational leadership that advances the University's mission and institutional priorities.
• Lead organizational transformation and foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
• Build collaborative relationships with faculty, staff, students, trustees, alumni, donors, and community partners.
• Develop innovative academic programs that respond to student demand and workforce needs.
• Lead complex organizations through change while maintaining trust, transparency, and accountability.
• Analyze institutional data and make strategic, evidence-based decisions.
• Effectively communicate with diverse internal and external constituencies.
• Manage competing priorities while exercising sound judgment and maintaining the highest ethical standards.
• Develop, mentor, and inspire senior academic leaders and faculty.
• Represent the University with professionalism and credibility before accrediting agencies, governmental organizations, community partners, donors, and other external stakeholders.
• Build consensus while making timely, strategic, and sometimes difficult decisions in support of institutional priorities.

Minimum Qualifications

Any combination equivalent to: An earned doctorate or terminal degree from an accredited institution; qualifications sufficient for appointment at the rank of full professor; and ten (10) years of progressively responsible senior academic leadership experience in higher education, including experience as a dean, associate provost, provost, or equivalent, with demonstrated success in strategic planning, organizational transformation, faculty affairs, academic program development, accreditation, institutional effectiveness, budgeting, and student success leadership. Demonstrated experience with teaching and research, shared governance, and inclusive decision-making. Experience overseeing academic programs and partnering with faculty to develop instructional models responsive to evolving market demand. Commitment to liberal arts education and serving students of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and faiths.

Preferred Qualifications

• Successful experience leading significant academic restructuring within a complex higher education environment.
• Demonstrated record of academic innovation, including online education, alternative instructional delivery models, or other innovative approaches to academic programming.
• Experience aligning academic strategy with enrollment growth and long-term institutional sustainability.
• Experience developing strategic partnerships with business, industry, healthcare, nonprofit, governmental, or community organizations.
• Demonstrated success securing external funding, grants, philanthropic support, or other sources of external support.
• Experience serving at a private, comprehensive, or faith-based institution.
• Experience leading comprehensive student success initiatives with measurable improvements in retention, persistence, graduation, or post-graduate outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to lead effectively through ambiguity and institutional complexity.

Licenses and Other Requirements

N.A.

Physical Abilities

Detect to understand appropriate written correspondence; operate a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer; communicate to exchange information in person, in writing, on the telephone and by email; stationary position for extended periods of time; move or transport light objects; position self to store and/or retrieve files

Working Environment

Work is performed primarily in a professional office environment with frequent interaction with faculty, staff, students, alumni, trustees, donors, and community partners. The position requires attendance at meetings, campus events, and University functions, including occasional evenings and weekends. Periodic travel is required to represent the University at professional conferences, community events, accreditation meetings, fundraising activities, and other institutional functions.

Hiring Range

$250,000-$300,000

Posting Number: Staff005582022

Open Date: 09/08/2026

Close Date: 10/29/2026

California Lutheran University is committed to providing equal opportunity in employment for all persons, regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, age, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by applicable law. No person shall be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination in any program, activity or facility of the University on the basis of these factors in a manner consistent with applicable federal and state laws, regulations, ordinances, orders and rules, and University's policies, procedures, and processes.

Upon request, reasonable accommodations in the application process can be provided to individuals with qualifying disabilities. Please contact the Human Resources Department for further information or to request an accommodation.