Position Summary

The Associate Vice President (AVP), Business & Operations, CET School is a senior leadership role responsible for shaping and driving the commercial growth, partnership, sustainability, and operational effectiveness of SIT's Continuing Education and Training (CET) business.

Reporting to the Deputy President/ Dean, the AVP is accountable for building a scalable, market-responsive, and operationally effective CET business that advances SIT’s workforce-transformation and lifelong-learning ambitions.

The AVP will lead the School’s business development, employer and industry engagement, marketing and insights, and operational functions to strengthen the School's position as a trusted partner for workforce and capability development.

Working in close partnership with the School’s peer leader for Programmes & Research, the AVP is expected to co-shape market-facing CET solutions while maintaining clear accountability for the non-academic business and operational platform of the School. The role is also expected to help establish the operating model, governance discipline, and performance culture of this unit. 

The successful candidate should possess a strong blend of commercial acumen, strategic leadership capability, and stakeholder influence, with the ability to translate emerging business, industry, and workforce needs into scalable opportunities for growth and impact.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Growth & Industry Partnerships

• • Develop and drive the CET School’s business development and partnership strategy in alignment with SIT’s CET growth agenda, institutional priorities and the School’s operating plan.
  • Build and sustain trusted relationships with senior leaders in business, HR, government agencies, sector bodies and industry partners to identify workforce, capability, and organizational development opportunities.
  • Lead the development of strategic accounts, long-term collaborations, and employer partnerships that generate sustainable value for employers, learners, and SIT.
  • Identify and pursue opportunities for growth across existing and emerging sectors relevant to SIT's strengths and strategic priorities, including stackable pathways, customized workforce solutions, executive/professional education and other CET growth platforms
  • Oversee the School’s market-facing growth engine, including business-development activity, partnership conversion, and collaboration with marketing / insights functions to strengthen SIT’s value proposition, reach, and visibility in CET.
  • Ensure the School remains responsive to changing industry, workforce, and learner needs through active market sensing, stakeholder engagement and structured pipeline review.
  • Where career-transition / career-development capabilities are formally placed within the School’s remit, integrate these with employer partnerships and CET pathways to support stronger workforce outcomes

2. Workforce Transformation & Capability Development

• • Work with employers, agencies and industry stakeholders to identify workforce transformation needs arising from technological, business, regulatory and organizational change and translate them into CET opportunities and partnership propositions.
  • Develop partnerships and initiatives that support capability development, organizational transformation, and workforce readiness.
  • Engage senior leaders on emerging trends including AI, automation, digital transformation, and productivity improvement, skills redesign, and future-of work issues, positioning SIT as a trusted partner for workforce capability development.
  • Contribute commercial and strategic input into the prioritisation of new CET offerings, sector plays, and employer solutions, ensuring they are grounded in market demand, scalable operating models, and clear partner value propositions.
  • Provide thought leadership and external representation, where appropriate, on workforce development, lifelong learning, and CET market opportunities relevant to SIT’s mission.

3. Business Operations & Organisational Effectiveness

• • Provide leadership and oversight for operational functions that enable effective delivery, scaling and continuous improvement of the School’s activities, including operations, grants administration, systems/ technology enablement, reporting and business processes.
  • Establish and maintain fit-for-purpose processes, service levels, controls, and operational rhythms to enable growth, quality delivery and organizational effectiveness.
  • Provide oversight of school-level business planning, resource deployment, operational dashboards, and management reporting to enable informed decisions and timely interventions.
  • Ensure robust grant, funding, and contract-governance discipline for CET-related activities, including timely reporting, control processes, and audit-readiness where applicable.
  • Champion effective use of systems, data, technology and digital capabilities to improve lead generation, learner-journey visibility, workflow efficiency, record-keeping, and decision-making across the CET business.
  • Drive continuous improvement, innovation and organizational effectiveness through appropriate use of technology, AI and process transformation initiatives.

4. Leadership & Change Management

• • Lead, organize and develop multidisciplinary teams across business development, marketing/insights, operations, grants, systems/technology and supporting functions.
  • Build organizational capabilities required to support the School's future growth, operational maturity and stakeholder value.
  • Drive change initiatives that strengthen collaboration, agility, innovation, and accountability across a newly established School operating in a matrix environment.
  • Create a high-performance culture grounded in clear role expectations, disciplined execution, data-informed management, and continuous improvement.
  • Coach and develop managers and key staff, including building capability in business development, account management, service delivery, systems adoption, and cross-functional collaboration.

5. Governance & Compliance

• • Ensure the CET School’s business and operational activities comply with relevant university policies, funding / grant conditions, contractual obligations, reporting requirements, and internal governance standards.
  • Put in place proportionate controls, review mechanisms, and management reporting to support audit-readiness, responsible growth, and effective risk management.
  • Ensure that business-side inputs required for CET governance and management review forums are prepared accurately and on time, and that follow-up actions are tracked to completion.
  • Work closely with relevant internal partners to maintain appropriate standards in data governance, systems integrity, learner / partner communications, and operational compliance.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• • Minimum 10 years of leadership experience in business development, workforce development, consulting, organizational transformation, professional education or related fields.
  • Proven track record leading and scaling complex business, education, consulting or professional services functions.
  • Significant experience engaging senior business leaders, HR leaders, and C-suite stakeholders, with strong partnership development, stakeholder management and consultative engagement capabilities.
  • Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and driving collaboration across diverse stakeholder groups.
  • Experience in workforce transformation, organizational development, job redesign, HR consulting, capability development or related advisory environments would be advantageous.
  • Familiarity with CET, professional education, corporate learning, workforce development, higher education or related sectors would be advantageous.
  • Strong strategic, commercial and analytical capabilities, with the ability to identify growth opportunities and translate business needs into impactful initiatives.
  • Demonstrated understanding of the workforce implications of AI, automation, digitalization and emerging industry trends.
  • Demonstrated ability to translate business strategies, transformation priorities and organizational challenges into workforce and capability-development opportunities.