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Associate Director

Associate Director

University of Michigan Job Location: Michigan Apply By: Open until filled Date Created: 10-04-2022

About HathiTrust Founded in 2008, HathiTrust is a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries preserving more than 17 million digitized items. HathiTrust offers reading access to the fullest extent allowable by U.S. copyright law, computational access to the entire corpus for scholarly research, and other emerging services based on the combined collection. HathiTrust members steward the collection — the largest set of digitized books managed by academic and research libraries. HathiTrust cooperatively collects, preserves, and makes accessible the scholarly and cultural record for research, teaching, and learning and serves as a vital catalyst for emerging forms in each of these areas. HathiTrust bases its work on a set of values that include trust, access, equity, diversity and inclusion, resilience, constructive and meaningful engagement, and leadership. These collective efforts have dramatically improved access to these collections, particularly for learners with print disabilities. Since 2014 HathiTrust membership has more than doubled, to over 200 member institutions, and the number of staff members has tripled. HathiTrust operates far reaching projects for preservation of the print record and develops groundbreaking services for large-scale text and data mining for computational research. The repository has become a unique preservation and access platform, supporting cutting-edge initiatives in copyright research, computational research (the HathiTrust Research Center), a broad effort to provide comprehensive access to US federal government documents, and a distributed print archive, and expansive access for users with print-disabilities.  In March 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted access to libraries, HathiTrust launched the Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS) to provide lawful continuity of collections access, ultimately supporting dozens of institutions of higher education around the world for more than 18 months. HathiTrust is administratively based in the University of Michigan Library, and its staff are employees of the University. The budget of HathiTrust is a separately maintained budget held within the University of Michigan financial system and managed by the Executive Director.  Administrative, service, and technical functions are based at Michigan, but additional metadata services are provided by the California Digital Library, and the HathiTrust Research Center is based at Indiana University and the University of Illinois. The central HathiTrust staff works closely with colleagues at all four institutions. HathiTrust seeks to enhance the work of its member libraries, which provide its core financial support, and members govern its programmatic, financial, and strategic activities. The Executive Director is accountable to the Board of Governors, which includes appointed and elected members, and which oversees the financial and strategic directions of the organization.  The Program Steering Committee advises the Board and the Executive Director on the organization’s development agenda.  Multiple working, advisory, and task-based groups further enable member libraries to participate in and guide the direction of HathiTrust.  Throughout its nearly 15-year history, HathiTrust has fostered a strong ethos of member contribution and collaboration in its governance, and in product and service development, which strengthens the organization, empowers and engages members, and yields greater resilience among the academic and research library community. For more information on HathiTrust, please visit www.hathitrust.org. The Opportunity This is an exciting time to join a growing partnership organization that serves as critical infrastructure for scholarship and learning. As the Associate Director, you will be a major contributor to HathiTrust’s ongoing success, participating in development and implementation of the next strategic plan. Reporting to the Executive Director, Mike Furlough, and supervising 3-5 team leaders and supporting staff in a hybrid workplace, you will manage, prioritize, and coordinate HathiTrust’s services and programs, integrating and focusing work undertaken by HathiTrust functional teams, working groups, and service providers. You will oversee the evaluation and assessment of HathiTrust’s programs and services, monitor progress on goals and objectives, and ensure that these are achieved. You will provide leadership, support, and advocate for the HathiTrust staff as they strengthen existing services and help position colleagues for future growth and development. As a critical partner in member engagement, you will participate in or serve as a key resource to organizational governance committees, such as the Program Steering Committee, and will  ensure alignment of HathiTrust’s messaging strategies. Serving as the Executive Director’s principal advisor regarding operations, services, and programs, you will inform policies and priorities in alignment with organizational strategy for HathiTrust’s next fifteen-year chapter and beyond. You will assume a key leadership role at a critical moment in our history as HathiTrust reaffirms its vision and commitment to long-term, durable, and equitable access to scholarship in a turbulent world. HathiTrust’s future work will entail a significant renewal of infrastructure, services, and operational processes and you will have a major role in shaping plans for new staffing and operations to ensure HathiTrust’s continued success. Essential Job Functions
  • Serve as the senior manager for day-to-day operations of HathiTrust, overseeing integrated development of HathiTrust’s programs and services, coordinating activities across the organization as needed to accomplish strategic and operational goals.
  • Lead development of and oversee HathiTrust’s services roadmap, and develop or support the development of critical operational functions, including:
    • Integrated and inclusive processes for planning, prioritization, and allocation of resources for service and program development linking these to overall organization strategies, goals, and objectives.
    • Methods and processes for evaluation and assessment, working with staff and external stakeholders to build clear understanding of HathiTrust’s impact and value.
    • Open communication regarding priorities and directions across a range of constituents, including staff, partners, and membership institutions.
    • Recruitment and hiring of staff to support the expansion of these functions.
  • Ensure effective alignment of priorities and communication with various service providers at key member institutions, e.g., the University of Michigan, Indiana University, the University of Illinois, California Digital Library.
  • Develop and monitor annual budgets with support from financial staff. Assist Executive Director with long-term financial planning.
  • Develop staffing and organizational plans, reviewing needs and outlining scenarios to support strategic goals.
  • Support the Executive Director in development and application of policies as appropriate.
  • Manage staff including functional team leaders and staff specialists providing central administrative services.
  • Represent HathiTrust externally and act in place of Executive Director as needed to internal and external audiences.
Candidate Profile While it is understood that no one candidate will bring every desired skill, personal quality, characteristic, and professional experience, the following information offers an outline of the ideal candidate profile. Successful candidates will possess the following key qualities and competencies: Leadership through Change
  • Experience communicating a shared vision across a range of constituents, including staff, partners, and membership institutions.
  • Experience prioritizing competing needs and implementing plans across an organization.
  • Experience leading transformational projects and initiatives at an organizational level.
Building Collaborative Relationships & Navigating Partnerships
  • Ability to balance inclusivity and decisive action toward collective outcomes.
  • Experience building and sustaining relationships across all levels and with a wide range of partners.
Expertise
  • Progressive leadership in a related domain such as academic librarianship, information technology, systems infrastructure, product development, digital archives, publishing, and/or other relevant experience.
Management & Fiscal Oversight
  • A vocal advocate for team needs with an empathetic understanding of the staff experience.
  • Fosters a work culture that values equity, transparency, trust, and clear communications.
  • A record of successful management of budget, planning, and operations, with the perspective to consider the financial and operational impact of decisions.
Passion for the Mission
  • A mission-oriented leader, energized by equity-centered approaches to information access and the opportunity to grow an organization seeking to adopt these approaches in its work.
  • Experience engaging colleagues and stakeholders to lead change, especially change based on their deep understanding of the critical roles of DEIA play in scholarship, education, libraries, and the workplace.
In addition, strong candidates will have:
  • Bachelor’s degree (required).
Compensation & Benefits Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience, with a minimum salary of $155,000.  We offer a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental and vision insurance, generous time off (24 vacation days per year, and 15 sick leave a year), matched retirement contributions with immediate vesting, professional development opportunities, and more. TIAA and Fidelity Investments’ retirement benefits are available. The primary office location of this position is in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Remote work arrangements are possible if the Associate Director resides in the United States. Remote employees are expected to travel to Ann Arbor 1-3 times per year. The successful candidate will be hired as an employee of the University of Michigan but 100% of their time will be devoted to HathiTrust. Contact Koya Partners, the executive search firm that specializes in mission-driven search, has been exclusively retained for this engagement. Beth Schaefer and Marisa Chock of Koya Partners have been exclusively retained for this search. To express interest in this role please submit your materials here. All inquiries and discussions will be considered strictly confidential. Koya Partners is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email NonprofitSearchOps@divsearch.com. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process. HathiTrust/University of Michigan is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, women, and LGBTQ+ applicants. About Koya Partners Koya Partners, a part of Diversified Search Group, is a leading executive search and strategic advising firm dedicated to connecting exceptionally talented people with mission-driven clients. Our founding philosophy—The Right Person in the Right Place Can Change the World—guides our work as we partner with nonprofits & NGOs, institutions of higher education, responsible businesses, and social enterprises in local communities and around the world. For more information about Koya Partners, visit www.koyapartners.com.

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