Provost/Vice Chancellor for Learner Success & Academic Strategy

Colorado Community College System (CCCS); Denver (CO); Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

The Colorado Community College System invites applications for the position of Provost and Vice Chancellor for Learner Success and Academic Strategy. This executive role reports to the Chancellor and sits on the System Executive Leadership Team to guide academic strategy and learner experience across CCCS’s thirteen colleges.

The Vice Chancellor will drive enterprise capabilities, faculty collaboration, and data-informed decision-making to improve learner outcomes, retention, and mobility, while

Qualifications

• Earned doctorate from a regionally accredited institution of higher education.
• Minimum of five years of progressively responsible senior executive leadership within higher education or a multi-campus system.
• Demonstrated leadership spanning academic affairs, learner success, enrollment management, or related domains.
• Proven track record leading organizational or system-level change with measurable results.

Responsibilities

• Provide visionary, systems-level leadership across academic strategy, learner success, and enrollment.
• Lead enterprise approaches to program review, transfer, credit for prior learning, and credentialing.
• Advance Colorado Online and educational innovation with AI and competency-based models.
• Foster authentic governance and strong relationships with college leaders and faculty.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic planning

Change management

Stakeholder engagement

Higher education administration

Education

Doctorate (regionally accredited)

Job description

Title: Provost/Vice Chancellor for Learner Success & Academic Strategy

Position Type: Administrator Full Time

College: System Office

Division: Learner Success & Academic Strategy

Campus: Lowry Campus

Location: Denver, CO

Salary Range: $210,000 - $225,000

The Colorado Community College System (CCCS) invites applications for the position of Provost and Vice Chancellor for Learner Success and Academic Strategy.

CCCS is seeking an enterprise strategist, academic leader, relationship builder, and disciplined implementer to build and lead an integrated Learner Success and Academic Strategy (LSAS) Enterprise. Reporting directly to the Chancellor and serving as a member of the System Executive Leadership Team, the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Learner Success and Academic Strategy (Vice Chancellor) will provide strategic leadership across the academic and learner experience while building the organizational capacity necessary to connect functions that have historically operated separately.

The Vice Chancellor will join the CCCS System Executive Leadership Team at a transformative moment. Guided by the principle of the "Power of 13", the position is charged with building shared capabilities and solving enterprise challenges once so that CCCS’s thirteen colleges do not have to solve them thirteen times; all while respecting local college mission, faculty expertise, and institutional accreditation.

Key Responsibilities

The Vice Chancellor will provide visionary, systems-level leadership across several core areas:

• Academic Strategy, Quality, and Portfolio Governance: Lead a coherent academic portfolio strategy informed by learner demand, workforce intelligence, wage outcomes, and academic excellence. Oversee enterprise approaches to program review, modernization, expansion, and sunset, as well as transfer, articulation, credit for prior learning, and credential stacking.
• Learner Success, Student Services, and Strategic Enrollment: Champion enterprise-level enrollment management, onboarding, retention, advising, accessibility, and wraparound supports. Provide executive leadership for the evolution of centralized financial-aid processing to improve access, maintain regulatory compliance, and reduce institutional burden. Champion approaches that reduce unnecessary loss of learner credit, time, and momentum.
• Colorado Online & Educational Innovation: Provide executive leadership for the ongoing evolution of Colorado Online, advancing a coherent cross-college operating and governance model. Position CCCS at the forefront of emerging educational models, including artificial intelligence in learning, competency-based education, and Comprehensive Learner Records / Learning and Employment Records (CLR/LER).
• Shared Governance & College Partnership: Build authentic, trust-based relationships with college presidents, chief academic officers, student affairs leaders, and faculty. Strengthen shared governance at the system level, ensuring faculty voice and expertise actively inform academic strategy.
• Organizational Leadership, Talent, and Execution: Recruit, mentor, and empower a high-performing team. Establish clear accountability, foster a collaborative service culture, and use quantitative and qualitative data to track measurable gains in learner retention, completion, and mobility.

Learn more about the position and leadership agenda in the Provost and Vice Chancellor LSAS National Prospectus.docx.

CCCS seeks an exceptional leader whose experience and leadership approach reflect the breadth, complexity, and ambition of this role. No candidate is likely to have led every function within the Learner Success and Academic Strategy Enterprise. The successful candidate, however, must bring sufficient academic credibility, enterprise leadership experience, strategic judgment, and demonstrated execution capability to integrate these functions around a common purpose and build an exceptional team around them.

The successful candidate will bring intellectual confidence without arrogance, urgency without recklessness, and courage without unnecessary confrontation. They will be:

• curious and willing to learn;
• accessible and approachable;
• transparent and direct;
• resilient and steady through change;
• comfortable with ambiguity;
• willing to challenge assumptions, including their own;
• generous with credit and accountable for results;
• optimistic about learners and the future of community colleges; and
• deeply committed to the mission of expanding opportunity and economic mobility through education.

Above all, the Vice Chancellor must be able to hold two ideas simultaneously: that CCCS's thirteen colleges derive enormous strength from their distinct missions, communities, faculty, and identities, and that learners and Colorado can benefit enormously when those colleges act collectively where doing so creates greater value. The successful candidate will know how to protect both.

Required Qualifications:

• An earned doctorate from a regionally accredited institution of higher education.
• A minimum of five (5) years of progressively responsible senior executive leadership within higher education, a multi-campus/multi-institutional system, or a comparably complex education-focused organization.
• Demonstrated leadership experience spanning academic affairs, learner success, enrollment management, student services, or related domains.
• A record of leading significant organizational or system-level change through implementation and measurable results.

* Applicants are encouraged to keep all attached materials to no more than 10 pages in total.

Vice Chancellor candidates will be evaluated against the following qualifications & attributes:

• A documented record of translating complex strategy into operational reality, navigating change management, and achieving measurable outcomes in student progression or institutional effectiveness.
• Demonstrated success partnering authentically with faculty and academic leadership within established shared-governance structures.
• Proven capacity to bridge traditional functional silos.
• Proven track record of building, coaching, and empowering high-performing teams, establishing accountability, and fostering an inclusive, collaborative culture.
• College-level teaching experience, particularly within a community college or open-access environment.
• Executive leadership experience within a community college, multi-college district, or state system.
• Direct experience leading strategic enrollment management, enterprise financial aid operations, or large-scale online/consortial education models.
• Working knowledge of academic portfolio alignment with regional workforce data and state economic development priorities.
• Familiarity with emerging educational technologies, AI integration, competency-based learning, or skills-based credentialing models.
• Sophisticated political acumen and experience working alongside governing boards, state agencies, policymakers, and external industry partners.