SUNY Empire seeks an inaugural Vice President for Student Success and Institutional Effectiveness. This senior leadership role will be responsible for providing data-informed strategy to support a holistic strategy for student success. The individual will be responsible for two core functions: student success and institutional effectiveness. 

As the leader of student success, institutional research, and strategic plan tracking, the vice president will play a crucial role in supporting measurable improvement for student success. The vice president will report directly to the president and serve as a key member of the executive leadership team, driving evidence-based, mission-aligned innovation and continuous improvement.  In this role, the vice president will be responsible for data governance policy and programs, as well as programs and policy to enable and empower successful student outcomes.

We seek an inaugural vice president for student success who can integrate robust data analytics into our core continuous improvement functions, including strategic plan implementation, assessment, accreditation, and a broad portfolio of student success initiatives. In collaboration with stakeholders across the university, this inaugural vice president will be expected to drive further alignment between institution-wide student success efforts and our institutional research function. 

The vice president oversees a budget of $10 million (exclusive of benefits) and is responsible for the oversight and professional development of more than 100 employees.  The vice president will be supported by an AVP of Student Success and an AVP of Institutional Effectiveness (currently vacant), each of whom has a team of highly qualified professionals working under them. The AVP of Student Success leads day-to-day operations of student support services; the AVP of Institutional Effectiveness leads institutional research, reporting, dashboards, and analytics. The Vice President partners closely with the Provost/Academic Affairs (e.g., for assessment and accreditation), Enrollment Management and Marketing (e.g., for enrollment projections, retention, and persistence), the CIO (e.g., for data governance and systems integration), and Finance (e.g., for forecasting and strategic budgeting).

The university is in the third year of its strategic plan, Elevate '28, and is focused on an evidence-based approach to the core work of driving student success, academic and inclusive excellence, organizational effectiveness, and raising our public profile. As universities nationwide strive to enter the marketplace of adult learners and online learning, SUNY Empire is uniquely positioned to build on these longstanding strengths as a market leader.

Qualities

We seek a mission-aligned strategic leader who:

• Has senior leadership experience overseeing student-facing service units or initiatives with demonstrated outcomes and service quality improvements.
• Enjoys working in a fast-paced environment and demonstrates agility, flexibility, and creativity in the face of challenges.
• Has knowledge of AI and its application within an academic institution, specifically as it impacts organizational/institutional effectiveness, institutional research, and student success. 
• Has experience navigating complex employee contracts (such as those in a collective bargaining or similar environment).
• Can successfully work with internal and external stakeholders to advance the mission of the university.

Required Qualifications:

• Earned doctorate from a U.S. accredited institution.
• Minimum of 10 (ten) years of progressive leadership experience in a discipline or division focused on data-informed decision-making to drive student success and institutional effectiveness.
• Leadership experience successfully overseeing enterprise-scale student success initiatives or student-facing service functions.
• Demonstrated quantitative and technical skills commensurate with the ability to ensure accuracy, consistency, and visually compelling representation of data.
• Demonstrated success leading, managing, and/or representing Institutional Research or a similar entity with oversight over institutional data, dashboards, and/or data governance.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal abilities.
• Experience with technology-enabled student support solutions and data analytics.
• Demonstrated experience managing budgets and aligning resources to strategic priorities.

Preferred Qualifications:

• An earned doctorate from an accredited institution in data analytics, data science, mathematics, higher education, or related field or the equivalent (such as quantitatively informed publications in these fields).
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise change initiatives across multiple divisions.
• Ability to lead teams using modern analytics and visualization tools (e.g., Power BI/Tableau and SQL-based environments).
• Experience successfully applying AI-enabled analytics or automation to improve student success and/or institutional effectiveness.
• Experience navigating complex employee contracts (such as those in a collective bargaining or similar environment).

Empire State University, New York state's only public online university, is seeking a highly skilled, data-forward, student-centered leader for this inaugural Vice President for Student Success and Institutional Effectiveness position.

Founded in 1971 as the innovative campus of the State University of New York, Empire State University empowers learners from diverse backgrounds to achieve their educational goals. We have decades of experience providing educational access through online teaching and learning, individualized instruction, mentoring, and credit for prior learning. We build on our students' experiences to promote their growth and drive upward mobility and economic development in New York state and beyond.

SUNY Empire is in a chapter of dynamic growth. With a student enrollment of 18,000 students, the university is on track to serve 20,000 students by 2028.