Strategic Director, Master of Quantitative Economics

University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA); Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

UCLA's Economics Department seeks a Senior Executive Director to provide strategic leadership for the Master of Quantitative Economics (MQE) program and related initiatives. You will guide planning, administration, and growth, aligning academic priorities with employer engagement and student success.

Working with faculty, campus partners, and external stakeholders, you will develop partnerships and oversee budget, staff, and program assessment to ensure long-term sustainability and strong career

Qualifications

• Ten years of professional experience managing academic or professional programs.
• Strong management and supervisory experience to hire, train, oversee and evaluate staff.
• Established ability to build and sustain partnerships with employers and external organizations to support student recruitment.
• Design and implement innovative programs and engagement strategies and success cultivating partnerships.
• Cultivate, maintain and leverage alumni relationships to enhance program engagement and career pathways.
• Excellent strategic planning, leadership and visionary skills.
• Knowledge of current trends in quantitative economics, AI, data science, and graduate education.
• Project management experience launching new projects and setting priorities.
• Effective verbal communication and presentations to senior leaders and external constituencies.
• Financial management, budgeting and control to allocate resources effectively.
• Career development programming experience.
• Learning design knowledge or experience.
• Ability to understand the changing higher education landscape.
• Academic program management including curriculum coordination and student services.
• Ability to build partnerships across academia and industry.
• Strong strategic thinking and decision-making.
• Ability to work with diverse audiences and build consensus.
• Proficiency with Office, Salesforce, Slate and data management tools.
• Interpersonal skills for cooperative relationships.
• Ability to analyze data and use insights to inform decisions.
• Analytical thinking and problem solving.
• Strong verbal and written communication; diplomacy.
• Political acumen and discretion.
• Detail-oriented, goal-oriented, energetic.

Responsibilities

• Lead planning, administration, continuous improvement, and long-term growth of the MQE program.
• Provide industry engagement, experiential learning, and graduate career development leadership.
• Ensure alignment of academic priorities, employer engagement, student success, and operational excellence.
• Develop collaborative partnerships to support innovation, program growth and sustainability.
• Serve as principal liaison between the Division of Social Sciences and external organizations for internships and industry collaborations.

Skills

Program management

Supervisory experience

Industry engagement

Alumni engagement

Strategic planning

Trend analysis

Project management

Communication

Financial management

Career Development

Learning design

Stakeholder engagement

Education

PhD or equivalent in education/economics/business or related field

Tools

Microsoft Office

Salesforce

Slate CRM

Job description

UCLA's Economics Department seeks a Senior Executive Director to provide strategic leadership for the Master of Quantitative Economics (MQE) program and related initiatives. You will guide planning, administration, and growth, aligning academic priorities with employer engagement and student success.

Working with faculty, campus partners, and external stakeholders, you will develop partnerships and oversee budget, staff, and program assessment to ensure long-term sustainability and strong career