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ASSOCIATE DEAN, BUSINESS STRATEGY
Job Title: ASSOCIATE DEAN, BUSINESS STRATEGY
Job Code: 2023
FLSA: E
Job Level: 98
Revised Date: 10/16/2025
Job Family: JF 28
Occupational Summary
The Position plays an important leadership role, working with leaders across the School and University to reach agreement on initiatives and issues, while continuing to honor the unique decentralized qualities and traditions. The Position, reporting to the School of Medicine Executive Vice Dean for Administration as well as the Vice President of Finance for University based projects, will work in concert with the School and University senior management teams.
The Position serves as a key member of the leadership team, responsible for advancing the School of Medicine long term vision and priorities through the development, coordination, and execution of cross institutional strategies. This role will lead efforts to identify and oversee development, implementation, and sustainment of strategies to grow and differentiate the School and University.
The Position works collaboratively across academic, administrative, and external facing areas to ensure that initiatives are strategically sound, fiscally responsible, and operationally sustainable. The Position partners with the CFO and other senior leaders on the budgeting and resource allocation process to ensure alignment with institutional priorities.
As a senior leader, Position champions data-informed decision making, nurtures collaboration across departments, divisions, and units to solve complex problems connecting day to day activities to long-term goals, and ensures that the School of Medicine and larger University remains agile in responding to evolving needs, demands, and higher education trends.
The position drives organizational success through strategic insights, operational excellence, and transformative change. In this role, the position will partner with leaders across the organization to catalyze innovation and mobilize the community.
Work Performed
Understanding of the key missions of research, teaching and service and the importance of framing the planning process in support of academic priorities and related strategic initiatives.
Leading innovative change that will improve the use of School and University resources while maintaining the institution high degree of responsible stewardship.
Providing analytic capacity and consulting services in support of strategic initiatives and business and academic program opportunities, in collaboration with senior leadership at the divisional or University level.
Identifying and assessing new strategic business and revenue generation opportunities, including the consideration of any key risks and challenges, potential political and cultural impacts and the creation of business and communication plans for each initiative.
Assessing improvement opportunities and growth through data analysis, surveys, focus groups, and interviews.
Managing strategy implementation via programs and projects.
Facilitating group processes like visioning, process redesign, and new service delivery models.
Developing strategies to maintain operational continuity through organizational transitions.
Measuring, tracking, and reporting results and impact.
Serve as a trusted advisor and as part of the leadership team.
Actively engage senior management throughout the planning and business due diligence periods for newly developed strategies and projects.
Lead the development and due diligence of business strategies to advance the mission of the organization.
Monitor near and long term trends as well as emerging needs and interests among key stakeholders to forecast future trends and opportunities that inform strategies.
Serve as a key contributor to the budget development and strategic resource allocation processes.
Establish effective planning presentations and communications to senior leaders, and campus stakeholders.
Evaluating and developing business opportunities, potential partnerships, financial due diligence, innovative business models and programs, and research strategies.
Collaboration: Work closely with the SOM and University Senior Leadership and where appropriate the DUHS leadership team, legal team, and other key leaders to gain collaboration and buy in with new expansion opportunities. Responsible for smooth integration of legal and financial review of proposed business engagements to ensure all aspects of return and risk are appropriately heard and vetted.
Market Analysis: Linkages with strategic planning to collaborate on market research to identify potential targets and assess the competitive landscape.
Lead the end to end process of transactions, including due diligence, financial analysis, negotiation, and integration planning.
Required Qualifications at this Level
Education/Training
Bachelor degree required. An MBA, CPA, or other relevant advanced professional or graduate degree is strongly preferred or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
Experience
Work requires the ability to organize and coordinate complex, sensitive and confidential processes, programs and activities within the Provost's Office, generally acquired through six years of experience in academic administration, general business/program administration or a related field. OR AN EQUIVALENT COMBINATION OF RELEVANT EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE
Skills
Demonstrated knowledge of and experience managing financial and capital planning processes in a multi divisional environment.
Proven leadership success in establishing and maintaining productive, collaborative relationships with a full range of internal and external constituencies.
Demonstrated ability to lead strategically with vision, energy and passion in a culture of ambiguity.
A thoughtful listener, strategic thinker, strong communicator and negotiator with unquestionable integrity.
Must have strong organizational skills, a flexible work style and be able to manage multiple challenging projects simultaneously in a fast paced work environment.
Evident ability to recruit, hire and lead a talented and inclusive workforce.
The intent of this job description is to provide a representative and level of the types of duties and responsibilities that will be required of positions given this title and shall not be construed as a declaration of the total of the specific duties and responsibilities of any particular position. Employees may be directed to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description.
Duke University is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, (including pregnancy and pregnancy related conditions), sexual orientation, or military status.
Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas-an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.
Essential Physical Job Functions
Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essential job functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.
