Director, Italy Programs
Contract Type: Full Time, Permanent Contract
Location: Rome, Italy
Salary: 60,000 Euro, pa
Reports to: Global Director of Operations
At IFSA, we offer a mission-driven environment where your work has global impact. As part of our Rome and wider IFSA team, you’ll enjoy:
- Flexible work arrangements and appreciation for work/life balance
- Professional development support and opportunities to collaborate across regions
- A culture rooted in inclusive excellence, intercultural agility, and individualised learning
- The chance to shape transformative educational experiences in one of Europe’s most dynamic cities
Position Overview
Are you a life-long learner, curious about the world around you?
Are you passionate about inclusion and the profound impact of global learning?
If so, we would love to welcome you to our global community!
The Director, Italy Programs, is responsible for the leadership and coordination of all aspects of Italy program, including leading the planning and delivery of high quality IFSA designed programming, custom courses, high impact co and extracurricular activities that support learning and satisfaction outcomes, development of university and local partnerships, effective academic administration; and engaging with students and faculty to enhance their program experience and wellbeing.
This position works closely with colleagues from our sites in Europe, Australia and China, Health & Safety & Wellbeing, Academic Affairs, Institutional Engagement, and Student Engagement teams to uphold academic and operational excellence and contribute to IFSA’s mission of transformative education.
Responsibilities
Leadership
- Recruit, hire and train new staff in consultation with the Global Director and HR, ensuring alignment with team goals and organisational values
- Lead, develop and inspire staff to achieve high levels of performance and engagement and professional growth
- Cultivate and model practices and behaviours that reflect IFSA’s organisational commitments of inclusive excellence, intercultural agility, individualized learning and enduring impact
- Maintain the highest standards of academic and operational quality ensuring consistency and continuous improvement
- Contribute to the development of best practices and standard operating procedures across the organisation, and help to foster a culture of continuous improvement
- Facilitate regular team meetings to encourage communication, share ideas, implementing IFSA policies and team building initiatives
- Lead and assist in crisis management, providing support to staff during incidents ensuring adherence to established protocols
Operations
- Ensure full compliance with all IFSA policies including academic, disciplinary, health and safety, operational and fiscal policies
- Oversee and manage data related to program and program operations to ensure accuracy and integrity and timely reporting
- Lead and support academic management of program, including the course registration process, appreciative advising, and student learning plan consultations.
- Conduct appreciative advising with students, including learning plan consultations, and regularly meet with students to assess their experiences and help resolve problems
- Support and coordinate the planning of excursions, co-curricular activities, orientations and other events to enhance student engagement
- Design and implementation of intercultural programming, providing opportunities for students to engage with the local community through co-curricular and intercultural activities
- Support the development of custom program proposals, as well as the planning and delivery of awarded program
- Ensure overall quality management by regular evaluating program operations to meet the highest standards of excellence and student satisfaction
- Meet with students regularly to assess their experiences and to resolve problems, documenting advisory sessions as appropriate and per IFSA policy
- Lead and contribute to emergency response and student incident management based on established protocol, and participate in after-hours emergency phone rotation.
- Follow all policies and procedures for incident reporting and documentation.
- Manage program facilities, including premises inspections.
- Manage accommodation assignments to ensure that students are placed in safe and high-quality living environments, conducting regular quality checks and addressing any issues related to housing logistics
- Submit financial reports; support the preparation of budgets, maintain accounting records, and ensure submission of regular accounting reports.
- Maintain budgetary oversight for program related expenses, including excursion and accommodation costs, ensuring that financial resources are allocated efficiently and within the approved budgets
- Opportunity to contribute to additional projects and initiative, including remote work opportunities or travel to other sites to support organisation-wide initiatives.
Partnership Management
- Lead and support ongoing coordination with university partners in Italy related to enrolment, housing, student support, transcripts, and other issues as needed. Regular meetings and collaboration will be key to ensuring smooth operations
- Cultivate positive working relationships with both sending and host university partners to ensure effective collaboration and support growth and development goals
- Oversee the preparation for and hosting of site visits from U.S universities and partners. These visits are aimed at strengthening partnerships, sharing best practices and discussion future collaborations
- Travel to key U.S institutions as needed to meet with faculty and administrators and promote program, with the goal of increasing enrollment, represent IFSA at professional conferences.
- Demonstrate ability to build and sustain positive relationship with a range of stakeholders, leveraging strong emotional intelligence and diplomacy.
Strategic Representation
- Serve as IFSA’s ambassador in Italy, representing the organisation during site visits, conferences, and institutional meetings.
- Promote IFSA program and values to external stakeholders, including university partners, faculty, and prospective students.
- Lead and support initiatives that enhance IFSA’s visibility and reputation in Italy and globally
- Lead, support and develop relationships with local partners in support of co- and extracurricular offering, orientations, and other events and activities
Knowledge, Experience, Skills
- Minimum 5 years of work and management experience, with evidence of progression in responsibility in sectors such as higher education, tourism, event planning, or hospitality. Transferrable skills from related sectors are considered valuable.
- Evidence of exceptional verbal, superior interpersonal, presentation, and writing skills, with a demonstrated ability to communicate complex concepts to audiences of various knowledge levels and backgrounds
- Passion for working with multiple diverse stakeholders and evidence of building positive external working relationships
- Strong time management and planning skills, with the ability to work independently to execute time-sensitive tasks and duties successfully
- Strong digital competencies, including the ability to engage with multiple systems and our database platform, Salesforce
- Evidence of initiative and ability to identify and implement improvements to operational and administrative procedures
- Strong attention to detail in creating internal and external documents and in managing program and administrative data
- Proven ability to work well in a team and to engage effectively with colleagues across an organisation
- Flexibility and ability to adapt and thrive in ambiguous and changing situations and to shift focus and reprioritise work as needed
- General knowledge of university system and student life in Italy
- Crisis management experience to lead and assist staff during student incidents; an ability to respond calmly and professionally to emergency situations
- Flexibility and ability to adapt and thrive in ambiguous and changing situations
- Ability to engage with and support students with diverse lived experiences including students of color, students with mental and physical disabilities, first-generation college students, and LGBTQIA+ students
- Financial acumen, business development and budget skills
- Strong time management skills and the ability to execute time-sensitive projects successfully
- Evidence of innovation and initiative in prior work, including the ability to propose and implement strategies to support organisational priorities
- Undergraduate degree required
- The legal right to work in Italy is required, physically reside in Rome
Physical & Work Environment
- Working remotely when students are not onsite; expected to be based in Rome
- Working on a computer, placing phone/video calls, maintaining systems and files
- The role requires ability to work indoors and outdoors for extended periods in various weather conditions
- Additional occasional required travel may include within Europe, or to other IFSA sites around the world, or the USA.
- Occasional physical activities such as arranging chairs/tables in conference room settings.
- Due to the global nature of our operations, occasional work outside of standard business hours maybe required. However, flexibility is offered with time off or adjustments provided to balance additional time worked.
To Apply
Please submit your resume and cover letter via the IFSA Career’s page at https://ifsa-butler.org/careers/ In your cover letter, please highlight your experience in higher education, as well as your administrative and coordination skills.
IFSA is an equal opportunity employer, and our hiring process is inclusive of all genders and gender expressions, races and ethnicities, ages, religions and sexualities as well as veterans and people with disabilities.
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