Job Description

Position Summary

Columbia Business School’s Climate Business Initiative will expand climate curricula for future business leaders, convene industry leaders, and advance knowledge to rapidly accelerate the decarbonization of the global economy. The initiative, housed within the Tamer Center, will accelerate the impact of business practitioners and thought leaders through the development and dissemination of novel tools and resources for teaching as well as an online platform with actionable, bold recommendations for achieving net zero emissions across sectors.

The Climate Business Initiative is seeking a strategic administrative director to partner with the faculty co-directors and the managing director of the Tamer Center, where the initiative is housed. The administrative director will work closely with both internal and external constituencies to build a strong operational foundation for an initiative that is poised to grow substantially in the near term.

Responsibilities

1. Partner with key leadership at CBS and the Tamer Center to execute a strategic operational plan for the initiative.
   • Implement an operational plan focusing on targeted academic, extracurricular and industry-linked objectives aimed at building, unifying, and stewarding the initiative’s various constituencies.
   • Assist faculty, students and staff in organizing, managing, and implementing projects and programming that aligns with the Center and the School’s business and climate change goals.
   • Partner with faculty and staff on the Climate Knowledge Initiative (CKI, an innovative online platform that maps the full landscape of emissions sources, abatement technologies, economic sectors, and policy scenarios, and then arms business leaders with the tools and research-backed insights to invest in implementing solutions whose long-term benefits outweigh their short-term costs) to ensure strong support and integration with the Climate Business Initiative and CBS more broadly.
2. Manage the planning and execution of the Climate Curriculum Initiative, working with faculty and centers at leading business schools to share and open-source curricular materials in order to accelerate business and climate change teaching and course development.
   • Manage online resources that assist teachers to gather and assess syllabi, cases and course materials from leading business schools to develop custom business and climate change course materials aligned with individual learning objectives. Work with in-house and external web and generative AI developers and vendors to develop, curate and maintain high quality online resources for faculty.
   • Communicate and promote the Climate Curriculum website and its offerings to internal and external audiences, including communications and onboarding of new faculty and schools, relevant media channels, other external groups working on related curricular initiatives and online sites.
   • Monitor and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the curriculum website and its tools and resources, on faculty and student engagement, learning outcomes, and climate action.
   • Manage the logistics of faculty training workshops and meetings related to cross school curricular and teaching initiatives.
   • Support faculty co-director and faculty across CBS developing and using curricular materials, cases, and tools in courses. Work with faculty and relevant staff across the school to assist and monitor climate-related core curriculum development, and work with elective course faculty and divisional support staff on facilitating course logistics.
3. Manage communications and programming across CBS’ climate-related initiatives. Collaboratively work with Tamer Center staff on climate change events and programming, especially for major events involving industry professionals, alumni, students, faculty and researchers.
   • Work with faculty and staff to plan and execute expert workshops and related events, including travel and events logistics. Manage the logistics of faculty training workshops and convenings.
   • Support outreach and communications efforts where needed including maintaining the Center’s contact database for climate initiatives; proofread and edit letters, invitations, emails and other communication materials for external audiences.
   • Manage operations and scheduling-related requests by climate faculty, researchers, student workers and Center staff with other areas of the School including ITG and Operations; support meeting and scheduling with climate working groups, speakers, researchers, and other stakeholders; support hiring of student workers and related HR processes.
4. Manage the administrative operations for CBS’ climate-related initiatives.
   • Develop a multi-year budget for climate-related initiatives that covers funds from operating sources as well as substantial philanthropic giving and grants. Partner with the managing director and the School’s Financial Planning Office to ensure appropriate budget structure, planning, spending, and reconciliation.
   • Manage general administration for events and programs, including vendor management and payment processes.
   • Partner with Tamer leadership and Human Resources to plan and execute on future hiring for the Initiative in line with available funding and needs.
5. Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required. Minimum 5-7 years related experience required.
• Proven ability to manage both people and programs with a proactive and collaborative leadership style. Demonstrated ability to work with and accurately estimate deadlines and juggle competing priorities. Must be an efficient, detail-oriented team player, able to work cooperatively in a group as well as independently. Must be able to exercise tact and discretion when interacting with faculty, staff, students and external stakeholders.
• Must possess a high level of initiative, enthusiasm, and commitment to gaining familiarity with business and climate change topics, concepts, frameworks, and challenges in relevant sectors, as well as teaching and curricular initiatives.
• Must be technically proficient, including with innovative online tools.
• Must have excellent communication, grammar and writing skills, as well as attention to detail with financial numbers and processes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in an academic environment is preferable.
• Experience working on sustainability or climate change initiatives and/or conducting research or analysis on business education or climate change topics.
• Proficient in using generative AI tools for content creation.
• Experience in using web development tools or platforms for creating and maintaining websites or online programs.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

How to Apply

Job Categories: Climate Change. Job Types: Full-Time. Salaries: 100,000 and above.

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