Director, Center for Emerging Technologies
Position Type
Professional Staff
Faculty Track
Employment Status
Full Time
Months
12
Campus
Both ME Campuses
Description
The Director of the Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) provides University-wide coordination and expertise for University of New England's (UNE) work with emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), that are changing education, professional practice, research, and the workplace.
The Director's primary responsibility is to ensure that UNE students, regardless of degree program or field of study, develop the knowledge, judgment, and practical fluency needed to use these technologies, including AI, ethically and effectively. The Director works closely with faculty, professional staff, and academic leaders to understand how technological change is affecting individual disciplines and professions, and to help translate those changes into relevant student competencies and learning opportunities. The Director leads the Center's programs and resources in support of this work.
The Director supports student and faculty research and scholarship involving emerging technologies and helps the University identify promising areas for exploration, experimentation, and external partnership. As CET develops over time, this work may lead to deeper areas of research and innovation. These activities should grow from the Center's primary focus on students, faculty, and academic programs.
The CET serves as UNE's University-wide hub for this work. Through the Center and the leadership of the AI Governance Committee, the Director coordinates activity across the University and partners closely with academic programs and units, including the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), Information Technology Services (ITS), the Office of Career Readiness and Workforce Development (OCR), and the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI), among others. The Center's work is primarily academic in focus, with the Director working closely with ITS where the academic use of emerging technologies intersects with University systems, processes, data, security, and infrastructure.
About the University of New England
UNE is Maine's largest private university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study-abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible online offerings. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to positively impact a world full of challenges. We are the state's top provider of health professionals and home to Maine's only medical and dental colleges, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care programs, and nationally recognized programs in the marine sciences, the natural and social sciences, business, the humanities, and the arts.
About the Center for Emerging Technologies
The Center for Emerging Technologies (CET) prepares UNE students to thrive in professions and workplaces being transformed by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. As a University-wide hub, the CET helps students, faculty, and professional staff understand, evaluate, and use emerging technologies ethically and effectively, while supporting academic programs in responding to technological change and creating opportunities for interdisciplinary exploration, research, and innovation. As UNE's central point of coordination, the CET maintains policies, guidelines and best practices for the use of AI and emerging technologies, contributes to related University policies in partnership with other governance bodies, and provides shared resources that support responsible use of these technologies across teaching, learning, research, and University operations.
Benefits Overview

• Multiple health and dental plan options, plus vision coverage.
• Up to 8% retirement plan match.
• Generous leave time, including vacation, sick, and personal time, and 12+ holidays per year.
• Educational benefits:
  • UNE tuition waiver for employees, spouses, and domestic partners.
  • UNE tuition waiver for dependents of employees with 1 year of full-time service.
    • 50% tuition reduction if less than 1 year of full-time service.
    
    

For more information about our outstanding benefits, please visit: UNE Benefits Overview
Responsibilities
Technological Fluency and Career Readiness Among Students - Coordinate and guide UNE's University-wide efforts to prepare students for professions and workplaces increasingly shaped by emerging technologies, including AI. Responsibilities include:

• Develop and maintain a common framework for student fluency in emerging technologies, including AI.
• Work with academic programs to identify how technological change is affecting their disciplines and the capabilities their graduates will need.
• Support curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate these competencies.
• Partner with the Office of Career Readiness and Workforce Development, employers, alumni, and professional organizations to ensure that student preparation remains relevant to changing workforce expectations.
• Support advanced opportunities for students through employer projects, fellowships, research, interdisciplinary work, and other applied experiences.

Support for Faculty, Professional Staff, and Academic Leaders - Help faculty, professional staff, and academic leaders understand and respond to emerging technologies that affect teaching, disciplinary practice, professional expectations, research, and scholarship, among other things. Responsibilities include:

• Monitor emerging technologies and communicate developments relevant to UNE programs and professions.
• Provide consultation and expertise to faculty, professional staff, and academic programs considering the implications of technological change.
• Create opportunities for faculty and professional staff to explore and test relevant technologies.
• As the Center matures, support research and scholarship involving emerging technologies.
• Build connections among faculty, professional staff, external experts, employers, professional organizations, and other institutions.
• Partner with CETL when emerging technology raises questions related to pedagogy, course design, assessment, or faculty development.

Emerging Technology Exploration and Innovation - Maintain awareness of technologies that may warrant further attention from UNE and help the University make informed decisions about where to invest its time and resources. Responsibilities include:

• Establish a regular process for identifying and evaluating emerging technologies.
• Lead or coordinate appropriate exploratory projects and pilots in teaching, learning, and academic practice, in coordination with ITS when pilots involve new tools, University systems, or institutional data.
• Over time, help identify opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, external partnerships, research, and funded initiatives.
• Partner with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) when projects move toward sustained prototyping, product development, entrepreneurship, or commercialization.
• Partner with Information Technology Services on the evaluation and testing of emerging technologies for academic use, with ITS leading on security, infrastructure, procurement and licensing, data, integration, and institutional implementation.

Artificial intelligence is the initial area of emphasis, due to its immediate effect on academic practice and professional expectations. The Center's scope is deliberately broader. The specific technologies that reshape professions will change repeatedly and evolve over the course of a student's career, and the CET's work is expected to evolve accordingly.
Center Direction and Internal/External Engagement - Provide strategic and operational direction for CET and represent UNE in both internal and external conversations and collaborations related to emerging technology. Responsibilities include:

• Establish annual priorities and maintain a focused portfolio of CET initiatives, including representative use cases across the University.
• Maintain and regularly update the CET website.
• In partnership with ITS, maintain and publish the University's list of approved emerging technology tools, including AI tools. The list is developed and kept current jointly with ITS, which reviews for security and data protection, procures, licenses, secures, and administers the tools.
• Lead and coordinate the work of the AI Governance Committee.
• Serve as the University's central point of reference for guidance on the use of emerging technologies, including AI, in coordination with ITS for technical, security, and data-related guidance, and contribute perspective to University policies developed by the appropriate governance bodies.
• Manage Center budgets, projects, staff, fellows, and other resources as applicable.
• Develop relationships with employers, technology organizations, government agencies, nonprofits, professional associations, and other educational institutions.
• As the center matures, pursue grants, sponsored projects, and other sources of external support in partnership with appropriate University offices.
• Establish measures of progress and provide regular reports on CET activities and outcomes.
• Represent UNE locally, regionally, and nationally in areas related to emerging technology and higher education.

The Director works across academic and administrative units and is expected to exercise influence through collaboration, expertise, and University-wide coordination. Key partners include:

• The President, Provost, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer, and other Cabinet members
• Academic deans, faculty, professional staff, and program leaders
• Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
• Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Information Technology Services
• Office of Career Readiness and Workforce Development
• Office of Research and Innovation
• Other University offices involved in student learning, technology, research, workforce development, risk, and external partnerships

Responsibility for leading collaborative projects should generally follow the primary purpose of the work. The CET leads when the central issue is emerging technology awareness, student fluency, workforce implications, or the effect of technological change on disciplines and professions. Partner units lead when the central issue is pedagogy, course design, or faculty development (CETL); prototyping, entrepreneurship, or commercialization (CIE); sponsored research administration or research grant development (ORI); or University systems and processes, infrastructure, procurement and licensing, integration, data, security, and institutional implementation (ITS).
Qualifications
Required

• Master's degree or higher in a relevant academic discipline such as technology, science, health professions, business, or education.
• Experience working within higher education, including direct work with students, faculty, professional staff, and academic programs, and a working understanding of academic culture, including shared governance, faculty autonomy, curriculum processes, and the pace at which academic change occurs.
• Seven or more years of relevant professional experience in education, technology, innovation, or research, including substantive experience with artificial intelligence, and demonstrated engagement with emerging technologies beyond it.
• Experience developing or leading technology-related programs, projects, or initiatives, including translating emerging trends into practical uses and offerings.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex technological developments for students, faculty, professional staff, academic leaders, and other nontechnical audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to help others reason about the ethical, professional, and societal implications of new technologies.
• Strong record of collaboration and partnership building across organizational boundaries, including work that depends on influence rather than direct authority.
• Demonstrated ability to translate emerging trends into practical academic programs and initiatives.
• Strong communication, organizational, and project management skills.

Preferred

• Hands-on, applied experience with emerging technologies beyond artificial intelligence, such as immersive or simulation environments, data science, or automation.
• Experience with research and development, startups, and/or technology commercialization.
• Experience with workforce-development and/or employer engagement initiatives.
• Experience developing external partnerships, grants, or other sources of support.
• Experience managing budgets, staff, and fellows.

EEO Statement Summary
Consistent with federal and state law and University policy, the University of New England is committed to the fundamental concept of equal opportunity for all of the members of the University community. The University prohibits, and will not tolerate, discrimination in employment, the provision of academic services or in any other area of University life based on race, color, sex, physical or mental disability, religion, age, ancestry, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, ethnicity, genetic information, HIV status, or status as a veteran. Prohibited bias factors should not motivate decisions regarding students, employees, applicants for admission, applicants for employment, contractors, volunteers or participants in and/or users of institutional programs, services, and activities.
COVID Vaccination Statement (PLEASE NOTE)
Posting Number
2022PS1003P
Close Date
Open Until Filled
To apply, visit https://une.peopleadmin.com/postings/26917
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