If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.
Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.
The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
Grade: Management_Executive 610Pay Range: $126,800.00 - $228,300.00
Job Description
Job Profile Summary:
The Director, Mentor Operations is a prominent executive leader tasked with leading, developing, and supporting faculty mentoring initiatives. The mission is to offer unmatched, invaluable support to students as they navigate their paths to further opportunities. Working closely with program-level leaders and the WGU leadership team, the Director designs and implements policies, practices, and a culture of excellence to enhance student success outcomes and foster a highly engaged program mentoring faculty.
In addition to communicating clear performance expectations, the Director supports senior and front-line managers in achieving program-level performance consistent with university key performance indicators. This includes demonstrating leadership principles, upholding cultural beliefs, and ensuring accountability in meeting student support expectations. Emphasizing operational excellence, the Director relies on data to drive positive impacts on WGU's key results (Completion, Return for Graduates, and Equity) through student-centered outcomes.
With budgetary and direct line responsibilities, the Director oversees hiring, retaining, managing, and developing qualified faculty and leaders to deliver personalized mentoring support at scale. This role requires a data-driven problem solver, an innovative and trusted collaborator, an ambassador for change, and a strong culture champion dedicated to fostering a diverse and psychologically safe workplace.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities:
- Contribute to, embrace, and implement the shared vision and strategy.
- Lead personnel, processes, and innovation in Mentoring.
- Direct hiring, performance management, development, and retention of faculty and staff.
- Focus on effective workforce planning to support significant growth while optimizing unit economics.
- Exhibit sound financial stewardship to achieve successful student, program, and school/college outcomes.
- Set clear and achievable goals for mentoring based on strategic priorities.
- Ensure a culture of continuous improvement, experimentation, measurement, and learning from data to enhance mentoring quality.
- Collaborate with academic and administrative leadership, faculty, and team members across the university.
- Serve students individually and at scale to achieve key results in student success.
- Contribute to WGU's culture and practices in line with its brand, differentiation, and desired employee experience.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.
Knowledge, Skill and Abilities:
- Student focus: Always keeps the student at the center of what we do, and why we do it.
- Thinks Strategically: Applies broad strategic direction, with university-wide impact, and in a distributed organization context. Anticipates beyond short term and thinks critically.
- Executes and Achieves Results: Focused on results, not just activity. Exceptional skill and demonstrated success in delivering and improving results in a higher education senior leadership role. Strong bias for, and practical experience in, measuring and improving. Thorough understanding and commitment to competency-based education.
- Managerial Courage: Willing to tackle difficult topics and conventional thinking in a respectful and productive manner, doesn’t hold anything back that needs to be said. Authentically reflect and portray the mission of WGU, internally and externally.
- Thinks Big/Innovation: Formulates a bold vision, sees around corners, and inspires results. Fosters creativity and brings innovation successfully to fruition. Sets new standards that enhances WGU and benefit students.
- Develops Teams and Individuals: Defines success in terms of the whole team, creates a feeling of belonging. Hires and develops top talent and future WGU leaders. Inspire and motivate instructional teams to meet and exceed expectations.
- Fiscal Responsibility: Clear ownership and delivery of revenue and cost budgets. Proficiency in budgetary, workforce, and financial management.
- Leads Change: Is an agent for change, influences others to accept change. Effectively demonstrates own ability to change, shifts gears comfortably, decides and acts without having the complete picture, and comfortably handles risk and uncertainty.
- Data-Driven: Proficiency in data-driven decision making. Proven ability to analyze qualitative and quantitative data to identify trends and drive innovative process improvement. Strong problem-solving skills, including root cause analysis, countermeasure determination, and preventing systemic recurrence.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills: Effectively utilizing Microsoft Office 365 to present information clearly and concisely. Able to master new applications and/or platforms as needed.
Job Qualifications:
Minimum Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in Business, Education, or equivalent work experience
- Eight years’ experience leading a team
Preferred Qualifications:
- Advanced degree in Business or Education or content area relevant to the role
- Work experience with competency-based education
- Leadership experience with Mentoring
- Experience leading higher education programs
Additional Responsibilities:
- Additional travel will be required for Commencement Ceremonies, School Meetings, and to support networking toward innovation and thought leadership
Physical Requirements:
- May have prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
Disclaimer: This Job Description has been designed to indicate the general nature, essential duties, and responsibilities of work performed by employees within this classification. It does not contain a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications that are required of the employee to do this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice. This Job Description does not constitute a contract of employment and the University may exercise its employment-at-will rights at any time.
Position & Application Details
Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.
How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.
Additional Information
Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.
Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at [email protected].
Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.
Training