| Position Title: | Executive Director, Kuali Foundation |
| Reports to: | Chair, Kuali Foundation Board of Directors |
| Date of Hire: | On or about 31 March 2008 |
| Priority Deadline : | January 25, 2008 |
| Terms: | This position is full time and continuing |
| Website: | www.kuali.org |
Applicants should submit an electronic resume and letter of interest to Dr. Brad Wheeler, (c/o Julie Dreesen, jbdreese@indiana.edu), who will coordinate this process for the Kuali Foundation Board.
Search Committee Members:
- Joanne DeStefano, Cornell University
- Steve Dowdy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Cath Fairlie, University of British Columbia
- Charles Ingram, University of Arizona
- Michael Korcuska, Sakai Foundation
- Brad Wheeler, Indiana University
Confidential questions about this position may be addressed to any member of the search committee. Resumes and letters of interest for this position should be submitted by January 10, 2008.
Position Summary
The Kuali Foundation seeks an experienced, creative, mature, visionary leader to fill the position of Executive Director (ED). The Kuali Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports multiple community source administrative systems projects of its members. These presently include:
- Kuali Financial System (in release 2.0)
- Kuali Research Administration (in development)
- Kuali Student System (in development)
- Kuali Rice (in development)
The Foundation is international in scope, and is funded through contributions from both educational and corporate members through dues. The Foundation has a purposefully small staff whose role is fostering and supporting the Kuali community.
The Executive Director will lead, cultivate and facilitate the Kuali community. She or he will provide leadership to best meet the needs of the entire community and its constituent Kuali initiatives, grow participation, and orchestrate effectiveness among the community efforts.
The Executive Director is the chief operating officer of the Kuali Foundation, and will allocate the Foundation resources (budget and staff) based on goals set by the Foundation Board. He or she will represent the foundation publicly and in business negotiations.
Candidates should have a distinguished record in leading organizations and working effectively in distributed, collaborative communities. Demonstrated leadership in higher education or not-for-profit organizations is highly desired along with experience in administrative systems.
Scope of position
The Executive Director will have purview in the following areas, leading through direct action, the actions of the Foundation staff, or through facilitation of community efforts.
The ED is responsible for the successful planning and operations of the Kuali Foundation. He or she will develop priorities for the organization, create and implement plans, and coordinate programmatic initiatives, technology, and work effort across the various Kuali initiatives. He or she will develop and maintain effective partnerships with other organizations to foster interoperability and cohesion within the enterprise software development community. Also, the ED will manage the fiscal and human resources of the Foundation. The incumbent must be able to activate and organize the community in order to respond quickly to new challenges with well-conceived solutions that meet the needs of the Kuali Foundation members.
The ED will have responsibility for maintaining and increasing the Kuali Foundation revenue. This will include communication with members, recruiting new members, and retaining existing members, as well as development of grant proposals.
This position requires extensive experience in leading and cultivating communities and organizations, which may be gained through a combination of professional experience and education. This position requires excellent leadership and communication skills, understanding of the collaborative nature of the Kuali community, knowledge of software development practices, and demonstrated effectiveness in managing staff and resources.
Responsibilities
Leadership: With the Board of Directors, establish the Foundation's vision, mission, and annual goals and objectives. Develop a strategic plan for each year for technology and community development, seeking community input and engaging their support, and identifying and responding to opportunities and challenges.
Community engagement and development: Represent the Kuali Foundation publicly. Work constructively with the community to foster activities, encourage community involvement, and develop best practices for technology, process and use of the Kuali tools. Develop and execute good communication practices. Develop and maintain effective partnerships with other organizations to assure cohesion and interoperability. Actively engage community members around the world.
Technology development: Ensure a coordinated community vision around Kuali's software development efforts. The incumbent must be able to respond quickly to new technical challenges with well-conceived solutions that meet the needs of the Kuali Foundation members. Assure a high-quality, dynamic and innovative environment central to meeting the needs of a largely virtual community for software development, while respecting the need to assure the integrity of the functions performed by the Kuali software. Assure there is up-to-date information, access to resources, venues for debate, discussion and exchange on topic issues with and within the whole Kuali community. Promote the development and adoption of open standards through effective participation in standards processes and adoption.
Operational management: Assure high-level coordination for a distributed software development and deployment effort. Coordinate and facilitate the activities related to the success of the Kuali code base, usability, documentation and training. Manage the day-to day operations of the Foundation, monitoring projects and budgets ensuring that mandates are executed in an effective manner consistent with Foundation policies. Effectively balance resources with need. Manage Foundation staff and execute personnel actions.
Fundraising: Participate in development of grant proposals and other fund raising activities. Identify potential (international and national) new initiatives and partnerships to build the community and generate revenue for the purpose of enhancing the original mandate and goals of the Foundation.
Administration: Fulfill administrative requirements of the Kuali Foundation including: assuring that the By-Laws of the Foundation are adhered to; actively participating in Kuali Foundation Board meetings as a non-voting member; signing contracts and other legal documents on behalf of the Foundation; establishing all administrative policies and procedures.
Some travel required.
Qualifications
Demonstrated ability to lead, plan, and support a functionally organized, technically oriented environment, with staff working on a wide variety of technical activities. Ability to forecast, develop and implement organizational initiatives. Ability to think strategically and programmatically as well as successfully manage operations. Ability to set priorities, allocate resources, provide follow-through, assure a well-organized workforce and to provide evaluation of projects and efforts.
Excellent management skills, and demonstrated ability to lead, motivate and direct professional and technical staff. Demonstrated success in managing fiscal, technology and human resources. Excellent project management skills, including demonstrated ability to deliver software on deadline that meets functional specifications.
A demonstrated understanding of information technology in higher education and a commitment to community-based development. Experience with open source software development is desired.
Excellent oral, written and interpersonal communication skills. Ability to resolve issues quickly and make decisions that meet Kuali Foundation objectives, in a collaborative culture. Demonstrated ability to consistently, effectively and tactfully communicate with people at many levels about academic, administrative, and technical topics. Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships.
Extensive experience (8 or more years) in technology leadership and/or community development. Academic experience highly desirable. B.A./B.S. required; advanced degree highly desirable.
Hiring Logistics
Depending on the circumstances of the successful applicant, this position could be established in a number of ways, including:
- A grant to an existing organization, with an agreement to second the employee to the Kuali Foundation, if the candidate wishes to remain with his or her institution
- A personal consultancy directly to the Kuali Foundation
- Other arrangements will be considered