"Chief of Staff"

Department

Law Senior Leadership

About the Department

The University of Chicago Law School occupies a unique niche among this country's premier law schools. Located on a residential campus in one of America's great cities, UChicago Law offers a rigorous and interdisciplinary professional education that blends the study of law with the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences.

Job Summary

The University of Chicago Law School seeks a dedicated professional with an appreciation for academia to serve as Chief of Staff (COS). The COS will support various strategic projects and initiatives, with management of efforts to maximize effectiveness of the Office of the Dean, financial management, and human resources management across the Law School. The ideal candidate must be comfortable working on cross-functional priorities at a strategic and operational level, thriving in an intellectually engaging role that demands an elite level of excellence.

Reporting to the Dean, the COS will engage with administrators, faculty, and alumni of the Law School, as well as key stakeholders from the broader community. The COS will need exceptional interpersonal skills for navigating and influencing within a complex environment with varying demands and considerations. Success in this role will require an ability to quickly gain in-depth knowledge of the school and university while building trust with the Dean, staff & faculty, University leadership, and other constituencies.

Responsibilities

• Direct the Finance and Human Resources functions, working with functional leads to improve operations and strengthen systems.
• Lead comprehensive financial management for the Law School, including budget development, forecasting, variance analysis, and long-term financial planning.
• Oversee human resources strategy and operations through talent management, organizational development, and workforce planning initiatives.
• Direct all aspects of the Dean’s Office operations, including executive support, calendar management, and day-to-day coordination.
• Develop and maintain systems to organize and track the Dean’s priorities, ensuring focus of the dean’s office team remains on highest-impact activities.
• Take strategic initiatives from conception through execution in collaboration with senior leadership.
• Partner closely with Associate/Assistant Deans, Deputy Dean, and administrators to ensure operational excellence.
• Facilitate strategic management processes and provide program management for critical initiatives.
• Through supervision of the Associate Director of Data Strategy and Analysis, collect, analyze, synthesize, and report on data from across the Law School and external sources to inform Dean’s decision-making.
• Represent the Dean and Law School in campus and community interactions with professionalism and integrity.
• Prepare reports, proposals, briefings, presentations, and responses on organizational and strategic issues that frequently require sensitivity, discretion, judgment, or negotiation.
• Provides leadership and direction through managers. Establishes budgetary plans, policies and protocols to enhance the central pedagogical mission and operational goals.
• Serves as a liaison to academic, research, and administrative units within the division and of the University.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education:
Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Work Experience:
Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 10+ years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

Education:

• Juris Doctor or Master’s degree in Management, Leadership, Business Administration, or other related field.

• Progressive experience in a related field, preferably with some experience in higher education.
• Experience working in the legal profession or higher education.
• Prior experience as a Chief of Staff.

Preferred Competencies

• Act with diplomacy in an academic environment to build trusted relationships with a broad range of individuals within the Law School and across the broader University.
• Demonstrate commitment to high standards of excellence and ethics, including sound judgement, discretion, and ability to navigate highly matrixed organizations.
• Exceptional emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills, and diplomacy.
• Proven project management skills with experience managing to deadlines, ability to understand and address interdependencies and competing preferences, manage various stakeholders, and familiarity with efficient systems and processes.
• Strong writing and communication skills, with experience researching and preparing executive-level documents, reports, and presentations.
• Demonstrate analytical and problem-solving skills with an aptitude for working with quantitative data and interpreting/translating findings into meaningful narratives.
• Naturally resourceful with the ability to identify needed information; persistence in working with diverse systems and people.
• Experience with change management principles; capacity to learn quickly and adapt.
• Solid financial acumen; experience making decisions on financial budgeting, forecasting, and reporting.

Application Documents

• Resume/CV (required)
• Cover Letter (required)

When applying, the document(s) MUST be uploaded via the My Experience page, in the section titled Application Documents of the application.