"Associate Director Management"

JOB SUMMARY

Under the direction of the Director of the Office of Organizational and Skill Development (OSD), this position serves as a senior strategic leader responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations, managing complex projects, and driving organizational performance. This role ensures alignment between departmental initiatives and broader enterprise objectives, while fostering a culture of excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement. The Associate Director provides mentorship and guidance to staff, promoting professional development and team cohesion. Through the use of data analytics and performance metrics, the role informs decision-making, enhances operational efficiency, and identifies opportunities for scalable solutions. With a strong emphasis on project management and cross-functional collaboration, the Associate Director leads efforts that support sustainable growth, agile execution, and long-term strategic success.

GUIDELINES FOR THE POSITION

Incumbents in this position are expected to be responsible for the administration and management of a comprehensive organizational development and training services division. They are expected to act independently within the vision, mission, values and goals established by DSS, Federal and State legislation. They are expected to administer services, manage personnel, manage projects, and perform related duties as required.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide leadership in the overall administration of the Office of Organizational and Skill Development (OSD) to include the delivery of educational services in the areas of organizational development, quality improvement initiatives, change management, service integration, staffing, project management, strategic planning, and program development within the guidelines of the University’s contract with the Department of Social Services.
• Serves as a primary authority on major personnel decisions, including staffing, hiring, dismissal, evaluation, promotion, and training of OSD staff assigned to the Department of Social Services.
• Manages, evaluates, and assigns work and coordinates activities of the OSD staff. Conducts performance evaluations, handles employee disciplinary matters, and participates in the management of personnel matters.
• Writes project plans and work plans for training, change management, or organizational development, including project scope, resources, deliverables, budget, and timeline.
• Manages and is responsible for organizational development, curriculum development and delivery, project management, project leadership, change management, business process modeling, process improvement, strategic planning, and leadership.
• Ensures multicultural design, cultural competency, and other inclusive strategies are integrated into all OSD products.
• Develops, evaluates, interprets, and applies OSD policies, procedures, and strategies; has direct authority to make or approve decisions that may establish or alter policies, procedures or operations; serves as a principal source of information regarding the interpretation and application of policies and regulations governing OSD activities and programs.
• Analyzes agency requests for new training programs and OSD services. Distributes workload to OSD staff based on expertise, equitable assignment of work and timelines to ensure deliverables are met.
• Supervises OSD staff in their program creation and delivery, including identification of resources, answering questions of scope, provision of skill building, review of curricula, etc.
• Within prescribed limits of authority, acts on behalf of and makes decisions in the absence of the Director or during periods of unavailability in order to carry out responsibilities.
• Serves on various DSS executive teams like the Process Improvement Workgroup, Leadership Team and others to identify any organizational and training responses.
• Creates and monitors budgets with multiple line items for projects.
• Creates and analyzes data models to monitor and report outcomes on individual, project, and organizational performance.
• Approves budget requests, including contractual, equipment, travel, and commodities line items to support the delivery of training and organizational development.
• Meets with Centers for Medicaid and Medicare, Food and Nutrition Services and other regulatory agencies to report on Medicaid, SNAP, and other eligibility program processing, including training, organizational changes, and technology implementation.
• Manages issues related to trainee behavior and participation in sessions; determines issues and ensures proper documentation; follows up with supervisor, agency HR, CHRO, or other party. Manages issues regarding trainer delivery, training set-up, and training schedules.
• Provides direct service delivery of OSD services, including but not limited to curriculum development, training delivery, organizational development, project management and other services while managing the deliverables of staff that report to them.
• Develops and administers workshops, training programs, and conferences in accordance with DSS program goals.
• Manages applicable statutory and policy obligations like copyright, intellectual property, confidentiality, code of conduct and others.
• Other related duties as required.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

1. Bachelor’s degree in a social, behavioral science or related discipline appropriate to the services of the Office of Organizational and Skill Development, and a minimum of 3 years of relevant experience; OR a Master’s degree and two years of relevant experience.
2. Experience in organizational development, curriculum development and delivery, project management, project leadership, change management, business process modeling, process improvement, strategic planning, inclusionary practices, and leadership.
3. Experience participating in large technical project teams with scoping, structuring, and implementing change management as a responsibility.
4. Demonstrated knowledge of curriculum development, delivery, the ADDIE Model, adult learning principles, curriculum review, and mentoring training staff.
5. Demonstrated knowledge of social welfare programs and services. Social welfare programs and services programs are a range of public services provided by or funded by federal, state or local government organizations to assist the disabled, disadvantaged or elderly. Some examples of social services programs are temporary financial assistance programs, healthcare assistance programs (e.g., Medicaid, Medicare, Husky), nutritional assistance programs (e.g., SNAP), and adult care assistance programs.
6. Demonstrated administrative, organizational, and people management skills, including the ability to identify and resolve administrative and personnel problems.
7. Demonstrated written, verbal, and interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with staff and administrators as well as external agencies/groups, vendors, and the public.
8. Experience overseeing staff that perform organizational development, curriculum development and delivery, project management, project leadership, change management, business process modeling, process improvement, strategic planning, assessments/research, analyze data, and apply data to individual, group, and/or organizational settings.
9. Experience managing and leading project teams.
10. Experience and demonstrated high proficiency in MS Office Suite, specifically in Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

1. Experience in project management and the delivery of project artifacts.
2. Experience in DSS program eligibility.
3. Experience in managing computer systems environments, including the development of change requests, scheduling of builds, and working collaboratively with IT professionals on maintenance activities.
4. Experience in managing a media production team.

PHYSICAL AND/OR MENTAL DEMANDS

The physical and/or mental demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to speak, hear, sit, stand, bend, twist, stoop or crouch; use hands, fingers and wrists for repetitive motion or for handling equipment such as a computer; and to reach with hands and arms. The employee may be required to drive to locations around the state to attend meetings; to walk to various buildings; and to lift and/or move up to 10 pounds (e.g., boxes containing materials). The employee must be able to maintain his/her composure with the public, vendors and co-workers in everyday, stressful and emergency situations.

APPOINTMENT TERMS

This is an end-dated position funded under an annual contract with the University of Connecticut’s School of Social Work. This position is an annual appointment subject to renewal of the contract, performance, and departmental/project need. This is not an academic position.

This position is primarily based in the Connecticut Department of Social Services Hartford Central office location.

The University offers a competitive salary, and outstanding benefits, including employee and dependent tuition waivers at UConn, and a highly desirable work environment. For additional information regarding benefits, please visit https://hr.uconn.edu/health-benefits/ and explore the sections under the Benefits & Leaves and Engagement & Learning headers.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

Employment of the successful candidate is contingent upon the successful completion of a pre-employment criminal background check.

TO APPLY

Applicants must submit a cover letter, resume, a curriculum vitae authored by the applicant, and the names and contact information for three professional references.

Candidates selected for interview may be asked to participate in at least three interviews.

This job posting is scheduled to be removed at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on February 15, 2026.