Smith College has retained Helbling, a ZRG company to conduct an executive search to secure an Assistant Vice President for Facilities & Grounds.

Position Summary

• Provide a climate conducive to staff development and support and foster a cooperative working environment with staff and other campus departments;
• Ensure 24-hour contact availability for the resolution of emergencies related to facilities management;
• Perform required administrative activities related to personnel management, including performance management, and ensure clarity of objectives and performance requirements;
• Serve as the overall Facilities and Operations department’s leader in the event of the Associate Vice President’s absence or inability to fill the role; represent the department and/or serve as a proxy for the Associate Vice President on occasion in meetings or as a member of committees;
• Take appropriate actions to support a diverse workforce and participate in the College’s efforts to create a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming work environment.

For more details about this opportunity, please view the position profile by clicking on the cover image to the left.

Areas of Respsonsbility

1. Facilities Operations and Maintenance Management
2. Utility Management and Sustainability
3. Administrative Management
4. Staff Management, Supervision, and Training
5. Campus and Community Relations

Strategic/Goals

• Lead change process to improve both efficiency and effectiveness of all aspects of the operation, including stakeholders, including campus community partners, employees of the department, and the unions that represent those employees.

Metrics

• Develop a robust and understandable set of performance measurements, or “metrics,” around the work done in the department; use metrics as a tool to promote transparency, drive improvement, and celebrate collective accomplishments.

Other Functions

• All employees are expected to participate in the College’s efforts to create a respectful, inclusive, and welcoming work environment.

About Smith College

Founded in 1871, Smith College opened in 1875 with 14 students. Today, Smith is among the largest women’s colleges in the United States, with more than 2,500 undergraduate students from 46 states and 78 countries. An independent, nondenominational college, Smith remains strongly committed to the education of women at the undergraduate level but admits both men and women as graduate students.

Smith College is a distinguished liberal arts college that has changed since its founding, but throughout its history, there have been certain enduring constants: an uncompromising defense of academic and intellectual freedom, an attention to the relation between college education and the larger public issues of world order and human dignity, and a concern for the rights and privileges of women.

Today, the college continues to benefit from a dynamic relationship between innovation and tradition. And while Smith’s basic curriculum of the humanities, arts, and sciences still flourishes, the college continues to respond to the new intellectual needs of today’s women – offering majors or interdepartmental programs in engineering, the study of women and gender, neuroscience, film and media studies, Middle East studies, statistical and data sciences, and other emerging fields.

Location

Northampton, MA

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of seven to ten years supervising or managing technical staff in an operations, maintenance, or construction capacity;
• ​​Ability to provide leadership for a large unit of a complex institution;
• Experience working with individuals from diverse backgrounds;
• Experience in higher education preferred;
• Collective bargaining with multiple unions and union contract administration experience preferred.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Smith College is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

Smith College is an EO/AA/Vet/Disability Employer. Women, underrepresented racial groups, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.