Director, Academic Relations

THIS ROLE CAN BE BASED IN OUR ANN ARBOR, MI CORPORATE OFFICE OR REMOTE, PREFERABLY ON THE EAST COAST TIMEZONE

ProQuest – Who we are…

The ProQuest Mission: Better research. Better learning, Better insights. ProQuest enables people to change their world.

ProQuest supports the efforts of students and researchers across the globe. Providing important research tools and curating treasure troves of content has helped ProQuest to become an industry leader in the Information Services market.

ProQuest is seeking a Director of Academic Relations for Dissertation Publishing to retain and restore university participation in the ProQuest master’s theses and PhD dissertation dissemination program among universities in North America. This will be accomplished by effectively engaging with deans of graduate studies, librarians and the supporting administrative staff in graduate programs. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Global, the world’s largest curated collection of doctoral dissertations and master’s theses, has been designated by the U.S. Library of Congress as its official offsite dissertations’ repository. This is a must-have scholarly content source for faculty, graduate students, and other researchers.

PQDT Global simplifies searching for dissertations and theses via a single access point to explore an extensive, trusted collection of 4 million graduate works, with 2 million in full text and 130,000 works added each year. PQDT is the only major publishing channel for disseminating the findings and scholarly achievement reported in dissertations and theses.

Originally created in 1939, PQDT includes works from 3,000 institutions around the world, helping the global research community disseminate their scholarly works. This collection of works makes a valuable contribution to the scholarly record, raises the profiles of institutions and their authors, and are invaluable for researchers of all fields in all countries.

Director, Academic Relations

What will I be doing?

The Director, Academic Relations is responsible for achieving our growth strategy through Academic Relations, Customer Retention and New Customer Acquisition.

In this position, you will also… Achieve our growth strategy through the following:

Academic Relations

• Expanding the profile of ProQuest in the graduate, academic communities in North America, proactively managing varied stakeholder relationships.
• Building a network of thought leaders within the graduate school and academic library community, leading efforts to enhance the relationship with the Council of Graduate Schools, its regional groups, other research councils, influential academics, national repositories, and academic consortia.
• Be the voice of the graduate research community to the business, manage Dean’s advisory board and promote the full range of ProQuest services at industry conferences.

Customer Retention

• Cultivating personal relationships, project managing account integrations with well-established (White Glove) accounts, provide input to product management on new features/functions for Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Admin; providing feedback on competitors, working with product management to prioritize critical new functionality to support submission of graduate works in electronic form.
• Proactively and creatively solve issues and answer customer questions daily including provide ETD Admin training to large customers and coordinate with Customer Services to provide ETD Admin training to other customers.

New Customer Acquisition

• Expanding university / graduate school adoption in North America of the ProQuest Dissertations Dissemination Master’s and Doctoral Degree services via the ProQuest ETD Administrator or via Harvesting to meet content acquisition objectives, working collaboratively with the Sales team to increase sales of PQDT and Digital Archiving and Access Program (DAAP) and representing the academic/graduate community in sales conversations; bridging the gaps between library and graduate schools.

Reasons you should apply...

1. You have a passion for products and an attitude to win!
2. You have a passion for solving customer problems and pushing yourself and others to exceed goals
3. You have a passion for playing an important role with connecting students to the world at large

This job may not be a fit if...

1. You’re not able to travel up to 35% of the time.
2. You struggle to navigate and work cross-functionally in a position not located in an office.
3. You don’t have strong communication and presentation skills.

Qualified Candidates must have…

• PhD desirable and a familiarity with issues and trends affecting higher education, particularly among graduate research community and a minimum of 5 years’ experience in academic dean’s office or similar university administration preferred in a graduate school.
• Sales experience desirable as well as customer-facing experience, ideally in retention and/or new customer acquisition, keen business acumen and insight; understanding of trends in scholarly communication and the higher education market.
• Strong leadership in the university sector and a comfort in effectively communicating with high level leaders in academia. Skilled in leading without authority. Ability to inspire trust and confidence with customers and team, ability to motivate performance and manage accountability in others
• Ability to travel up to 35% of time.

Superstar Candidates will ALSO have…

• Drive for results, a passion for our products and solving customer problems, steadfastly pushing self and others to exceed goals, bottom line oriented, taking initiative and ownership for outcomes.
• Ability to innovate for impact, energized by tough challenges, willing to face adversity head on, willing to challenge the status quo.
• Leadership, logic and grit, the ability to lead, influence, and motivate across teams in a global, matrix structure, without relying on hierarchy.
• An explorer mindset, quickly learning and applying new technologies to reach new audiences or to enable new business models.
• Articulate and persuasive communicator, as both a writer and a speaker, who uses data to support arguments.

More to love about becoming a PQ employee!

• Forbes Ranks ProQuest among 2018 America’s Best Mid-Size Employers
• We offer professional development opportunities with a significant focus on learning
• We hold fun on-site events
• Our employee population is smart and highly collaborative
• We have a relaxed dress code… yes, that means blue jeans (and not just on Fridays!)
• All of our employees have access to ProQuest research products including e-books, genealogy and academic journals

Other important information about this position:

• This position may be located in the ProQuest corporate office in Ann Arbor, MI or may be remote work, preferably on the east coast time zone.
• Up to 35% travel required.
• This position requires weekday (Monday - Friday) attendance with some scheduling flexibility available around core working hours.
• Every position requires certain physical capabilities. ProQuest/PQ seeks to make reasonable accommodations that enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential duties when possible.

At ProQuest, we work hard and have fun doing it. If you are a passionate professional with a drive for success, please consider joining our talented team!!

EOE/M/F/Vet/Disabled