Senior Associate, Accreditation & State Relations

Excelsior University; City of Albany (NY); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 106,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation package

Excellent health insurance

Retirement benefits

Paid time off

Job summary

Excelsior University in Albany, NY seeks a Senior Associate Accreditation and State Relations to coordinate institutional and programmatic accreditation activities and to lead state authorization, physical presence, and international regulatory compliance.

The role involves translating complex requirements into practical actions and collaborating with academic leaders, legal counsel, and compliance partners.

Qualifications

• Earned master’s degree in an Educational or Social Science field with an emphasis on assessment.
• At least three years of experience working in accreditation, compliance, or institutional research/institutional effectiveness at an institution.
• Demonstrated experience interpreting and operationalizing state authorization, physical-presence, additional-location, or distance-education requirements.
• Experience preparing regulatory or accreditation applications, reports, substantive changes, and responses to external agencies.
• Excellent research, analytical, writing, project-management, organizational, and record-management skills.
• Ability to explain complex requirements clearly and lead cross-functional work involving academic, legal, financial, operational, and student-facing partners.
• Ability to manage multiple deadlines independently while maintaining accuracy, sound judgment, discretion, and timely escalation of risk.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate institutional and programmatic accreditation submissions, monitoring reports, substantive changes, evidence requests, reviews, and site visits.
• Maintain a comprehensive inventory of approvals and obligations by state, jurisdiction, location, program, delivery activity, and affiliated entity.
• Evaluate whether instructional activity, employees, recruitment, placements, residencies, facilities, or other operations create physical presence or authorization requirements.
• Manage applications, registrations, exemptions, renewals, annual reports, fees, bonds, agents, and related documentation required by state agencies.
• Oversee compliance for additional locations, instructional sites, and operations not covered by interstate reciprocity agreements.
• Coordinate requirements imposed by foreign ministries, regulators, recognition bodies, accreditors, and quality-assurance organizations in Canada, Europe, and other jurisdictions.
• Conduct regulatory due diligence for new programs, locations, partnerships, acquisitions, teach-outs, and geographic expansion.
• Maintain authoritative compliance calendars, agency contacts, approvals, correspondence, and evidence repositories.
• Coordinate accurate consumer, complaint, professional licensure, and location-related disclosures with legal, compliance, marketing, admissions, and academic partners.
• Prepare responses to agency inquiries, complaints, audits, and information requests; coordinate corrective actions and document completion.
• Monitor regulatory and accreditation changes using Statenet, and other regulatory monitoring resources, assess institutional impact, brief leadership, and recommend policy or operational updates.
• Collaborate with LOQI team and institutional collaborators to support related accreditation and quality improvement-related initiatives.

Skills

Regulatory compliance

Accreditation

Research and analysis

Project management

Written communication

Education

Master's degree in Educational or Social Science

Job description

Excelsior University in Albany, NY seeks a Senior Associate Accreditation and State Relations to coordinate institutional and programmatic accreditation activities and to lead state authorization, physical presence, and international regulatory compliance.

The role involves translating complex requirements into practical actions and collaborating with academic leaders, legal counsel, and compliance partners.