City : Ottawa

Category : Regular Full Time

Industry : Education

Employer : University of Ottawa

The University of Ottawa—A crossroads of cultures and ideas
The University of Ottawa is home to a dynamic community of over 50,000 students, faculty and staff, who live, work and study in both French and English. Our campus is a crossroad of cultures and ideas, where bold minds come together to inspire game-changing ideas. We believe in the power of representation, and that increasing the diversity of our faculty and staff supports this objective. Our goal is to provide students with the best possible learning experience, in an environment that reflects the diversity of its people, their ideas, and their identities. 

We are one of Canada’s top 10 research universities—our professors and researchers explore new approaches to today’s challenges. One of a handful of Canadian universities ranked among the top 200 in the world, we attract exceptional thinkers and welcome diverse perspectives from across the globe. Our employees come together around the shared purpose of constant improvement, personal development, service excellence, teamwork and a passion for learning with a desire to make uOttawa and the world a better place. Everyone's contributions are valued, we all play a part in making uOttawa a world-class institution. Most importantly, we make it possible for you to achieve your full potential. Because at uOttawa, you belong!

Position Purpose:
Reporting to the Associate Vice-President of Student Affairs, the Director, Business Management oversees the delivery of a comprehensive suite of shared services to all Student Affairs’ business units to foster a culture of innovation and to contribute to the University and Students Affairs’ strategic and operational objectives. The role develops the strategic and operational plans for Student Affairs’ financial, human resources, communications, marketing and administrative services. The Director provides strategic leadership in the planning and management of the financial, budgetary and procurement systems across the service, including 16 unique business units. The role provides consultative and strategic advice to the business units on the development of their operational plans, provides recommendations on implementation strategies, and ensures sound business practices are adopted across the sectors. In all areas, compliance with evolving provincial and university regulations is required, as well as leading and supporting the service for contract negotiations with external stakeholder agreements, ensuring the highest value proposition for the University, Student Affairs and the business units.

The role directly manages the Financial, Human Resources, Communications, Marketing and Administrative services for Student Affairs, and provides direction across all shared services on resource optimization and continuous improvement initiatives.

In this role, you will:

• Support the development of Student Affairs strategic vision, focused on the support services model to ensure alignment of resources across the sectors. Lead complex, sensitive, and high-profile projects which include strategy, issues management, policy development, and inter-sector collaboration;
• Lead the development of the strategic plan for the Business Management sector, with a focus on enhancing the support services for the Student Affairs business units and to act as a catalyst for success across the entire sector;
• Lead the team that builds brand awareness by producing quality marketing, promotion and internal and external communication tools and develops strategies that enhance the visibility of events and services that allow each sector to achieve its mandate and ultimately contribute to the learning, engagement and academic success of students;  
• Lead the team that is accountable for the strategies, tactics and transactions of human resource management for the entire service and participates in the management of collective agreements;
• Lead the team that manages services in the areas of accounting, payroll, financial analysis, internal controls and value management for operations and capital projects.

Essential Qualifications
Hold a university degree in business administration or similar field, combined with more than 15 years of leadership experience in managing support functions for a diverse portfolio of business units
15 years of experience in most of the following areas:
o    Expert at developing, managing and controlling large complex budgets, coordinating multiple budgets and managing resource changes. Oversees all aspects of financial planning for the business units;
o    Experience in overseeing the development of marketing and communication strategies ensuring close alignment with business unit priorities;
o    Theoretical and practical knowledge of human resource management in the areas of labour relations, labour laws, leadership development, performance management, training, organizational design and equity, diversity and inclusion; 
o    Ability to read, interpret, apply and communicate information to others with respect to complex plans (business plans, space allocation plans, etc), service contract and collective agreements;
o    Acquisition of products and services and expert advice, including preparation and negotiation of major contracts;
o    Project management.
Experience in developing medium to long-term goals and a strategic vision to support the desired outcomes for the business units with a focus and attention on performance. Engages with the team around issues, risks and opening dialogue to solve problems collaboratively;
Integrating operations to optimize the use of resources; 
Demonstrated leadership and management experience in a complex environment with the proven ability to analyze, interpret, and apply management principles, best practices and techniques. Ability to exercise sound judgment;
Human resources management, including union-management relations;
Strong communication skills with advanced interpersonal and conflict resolution abilities to influence colleagues and senior management. Organizational, problem solving, negotiating and decision-making skills with expertise in clarifying and resolving conflict situations;
The ability to make decisions and work under pressure; proven ability to manage multiple and complex priorities.
Bilingualism English & French (spoken and written)

Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa: 
Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realise an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.