Job Description

Primary Purpose of Position
The Business Officer (BO) administers and manages a broad range of business, human resources and financial affairs (budget) of the Cato College of Education (COED) As a direct report to the Dean, the BO serves as a member of the Dean’s Office executive team. They are expected to have substantive knowledge of the academic goals of the college, Division, and University in relationship to broader higher education trends and adeptly connect strategic, tactical and change management plans and initiatives for college budget and personnel resource planning. 
 
This position supports the College in management of state resources, state funded personnel, equipment, purchases, inventory to ensure most efficient use of state funds, while applying a broad knowledge of accounting, budget, human resources, and business practices to perform a range of business-related duties associated with accounting, budgeting, personnel, auditing, risk management, compliance, grant administration and special projects/initiatives for the Dean of the Cato College of Education. The position is also responsible for training departmental staff and faculty and serves as their primary resource on budget and personnel matters.
Minimum Education/Experience
Required Minimum Qualifications:
 
Bachelor’s degree in business administration, public administration, or related business area; or equivalent combination of training and experience. All degrees must be received from appropriately accredited institutions.
 
University Preferred Qualifications:
 
Graduation from a four-year college or university with a degree in Business Administration, Public Administration or related business area and three years of administration management or business management experience; or an equivalent combination of training and experience
Essential Job Duties
The Business Officer (BO) administers and manages a broad range of business, human resources and financial affairs (budget) of the Cato College of Education (COED) As a direct report to the Dean, the BO serves as a member of the Dean’s Office executive team. They is expected to have substantive knowledge of the academic goals of the college, division, and University in relationship to broader higher education trends and adeptly connect strategic, tactical and change management plans and initiatives for college budget and personnel resource planning. 
 
The BO role requires awareness of and sensitivity to the diversity within the College in terms of its students, faculty and staff, department and college-wide organizational cultures, and expansive range of degree, research and engaged- community and engaged-scholarship programs. They works in close collaboration with college leadership, and is expected to be well- positioned to assess, organize, justify, submit, and represent its resource needs to a critical-path of division and campus leadership partners. 
 
The BO adeptly facilitates an “all funds, all resources” management approach to ensure student and faculty success through the optimization of resources. They provides current- and multi-year reports and information insights to advise leaders on actionable options that ensure sustainable program and operations. The BO is the staff lead for the cyclical budget call process and a range of ad hoc budget and personnel appointment and compensation requests submitted to or through the division of academic affairs. The BO helps weigh the resource needs for capacity-building infusions with those that are refinements to existing commitments. They serves an essential advising, communication, and implementation role during periods involving broader environment disruptions or directional changes that impact the University, College, or, program. Solutions often require a mix of short- and long-term budget planning solutions with implications for permanent or temporary funding/budget. 
 
The BO serves as the primary internal resource to interpret policies and procedures of the University and a host of authoritative entities — both internal and external —which direct or influence how campus and college leaders and teams navigate options, make decisions, and do business. They fields inquiries and researches solutions to complex challenges busy academic and staff leaders face. University compliance requirements and expectations align to a range of external sources that include the UNC System Office (SO), state and federal government offices, sponsored research and accreditation agencies, and corporate and individual donors. The BO oversees or coordinates activities associated with internal or external agency audits. 
 
The BO must be a highly effective, engaging communicator with abilities to distill, translate and share a range of technically oriented, compliance-rich “need to know” information, mandates, policies and procedures. They serves as a liaison to department chairs and other administrative faculty and staff as fiduciary and hiring manager heads and a range of employee supervisors. The BO further distributes notifications, announcements, status reports and lists, and information requests from campus partners. They serve as a liaison to department chairs and other administrative faculty and staff as fiduciary and hiring manager heads and a range of employee supervisors and program and operations managers and their teams. 
 
Business officers in the colleges, as granted by the Provost, possess delegated review and signature authority as a proxy for the Dean(s) as granted by the Provost. The foundation for this span and level of authority is to support academic leaders, college-wide, enabling them to (re)focus on academic priorities in keeping with their shared fiduciary and compliance responsibilities. This responsibility is especially important given the campus model for budgeting, human resources and business administrative actions is highly distributed. The BO directly supervises professional level employees and possesses authority for the indirect supervision of others in departments. They provide support, training, and creates and revises college-specific procedural guidance for department business services coordinators and administrative assistants, among others, involved in business administration activities.
Other Work Responsibilities
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION/INFORMATION ANALYSIS / COMMUNICATION 
The Business Officer Independently manages a variety of business functions with dynamic funding sources and a variety of functional activities, programs, and services. The BO participates and serves as an active participant in the short and long term strategic goals and planning for the college. They create a variety of reports to provide financial information to the Dean and Chairs, including the preparation and submission of the annual Delaware Project and reporting for accrediting bodies. 
 
The BO progressively innovates and standardizes the financial/budgeting, personnel and business administration work of the college in partnership with campus administrators and their teams. The BO interfaces with a variety of leaders and managers within the division Academic Affairs and in addition to other divisional and campus partners including Business Affairs, Advancement, Institutional Integrity, Research and Economic Development, and, OneIT, among others. They works in partnership with Academic Affairs Budget and Personnel (AABP) and the Office of the Provost and is a member of the division’s Business Officer Council. The BO provides essential stakeholder input associated with divisional and campus business process or systems improvement projects and broader change management initiatives to help ensure solutions are designed and implemented with the interests of the college in mind.