Director of Academic AI - Academic Professional (Open Rank)

Georgia Tech prides itself on its technological resources, collaborations, high-quality student body, and its commitment to building an outstanding and diverse community of learning, discovery, and creation. We strongly encourage applicants whose values align with our institutional values, as outlined in our strategic plan. These values include academic excellence, diversity of thought and experience, inquiry and innovation, collaboration and community, and ethical behavior and stewardship. Georgia Tech has policies to promote a healthy work-life balance and is aware that attracting faculty may require meeting the needs of two careers.

About Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech is a top-ranked public research university situated in the heart of Atlanta, a diverse and vibrant city with numerous economic and cultural strengths. The Institute serves more than 45,000 students through top-ranked undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs in engineering, computing, science, business, design, and liberal arts. Georgia Tech's faculty attracted more than $1.4 billion in research awards this past year in fields ranging from biomedical technology to artificial intelligence, energy, sustainability, semiconductors, neuroscience, and national security. Georgia Tech ranks among the nation's top 20 universities for research and development spending and No. 1 among institutions without a medical school.

Georgia Tech's Mission and Values

Georgia Tech's mission is to develop leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute has nine key values that are foundational to everything we do:

1. Students are our top priority.

2. We strive for excellence.

3. We thrive on diversity.

4. We celebrate collaboration.

5. We champion innovation.

6. We safeguard freedom of inquiry and expression.

7. We nurture the wellbeing of our community.

8. We act ethically.

9. We are responsible stewards.

Over the next decade, Georgia Tech will become an example of inclusive innovation, a leading technological research university of unmatched scale, relentlessly committed to serving the public good; breaking new ground in addressing the biggest local, national, and global challenges and opportunities of our time; making technology broadly accessible; and developing exceptional, principled leaders from all backgrounds ready to produce novel ideas and create solutions with real human impact.

The Office of the Vice Provost for AI in Education at the Georgia Institute of Technology (https://provost.gatech.edu) in Atlanta, Georgia invites applications for an open-rank Academic Professional position in Academic AI. Applicants will be considered at all ranks.

The Director of Academic AI serves as the senior operating leader of the Office of the Vice Provost for AI in Education and partners closely with the Vice Provost to execute Georgia Tech's Academic AI Strategy. The position leads the office's governance architecture, directs a portfolio of initiatives from incubation through pilot implementation to institutional adoption, and oversees the reporting cycle through which progress is communicated to the Provost. The Director facilitates collaboration and shared processes with key institutional partners, including the Office of Information Technology, Communications, Legal and Compliance, Procurement, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and college leadership.

The Director provides strategic decision support related to process design, prioritization, and resource allocation within the Office of the Vice Provost and represents the office in the Vice Provost's absence. The successful candidate will contribute substantively to the intellectual and operational work of the unit by developing frameworks, authoring guidance and analyses, and building institutional capabilities that advance the effective and responsible integration of artificial intelligence in education.

Candidates are expected to demonstrate an exceptional commitment to the teaching and mentoring of students.

Georgia Tech prides itself on its technological resources, collaborations, high-quality student body, and its commitment to building an outstanding community of learning, discovery, and creation. We strongly encourage applicants whose values align with our institutional values. These values include academic excellence, freedom of expression and inquiry, innovation, collaboration, and ethical behavior and stewardship. Georgia Tech has policies to promote a healthy work-life balance and is aware that attracting faculty may require meeting the needs of two careers.

Strategic Leadership and Planning
Support implementation of the Academic AI Strategic Plan, translating goals into sequenced work with named owners, milestones, and measures of success.

Advise the Vice Provost on priorities, tradeoffs, and risks, and prepare the analysis on which consequential decisions rest.

Identify where strategy, policy, or capacity is missing and develop proposals to address it; contribute to drafting institutional guidance on academic uses of AI.

Governance Leadership
Direct the unit's governance apparatus (a Steering Committee, initiative groups, and working subcommittees on a staggered monthly cadence), setting agendas with the Vice Provost and authoring the substantive pre-reads while delegating scheduling, rosters, and production to program support staff.

Document decisions and unresolved disagreements, and drive action items to completion across units whose owners do not report to this position.

Resolve questions of process independently; escalate matters of institutional policy, novel precedent, or significant resource commitment.

Portfolio Leadership: Incubator, Accelerator, and Adoption
Manage the pipeline through which AI proposals move from inquiry to pilot to adoption, including entry criteria, stage gates, and exit decisions.

Recommend which projects receive funding, credits, staffing, or sponsorship, and make the case to governance bodies; administer microgrant and seed funding programs.

Identify appropriate metrics for pilot projects, lead evaluation sessions, and recommend continuation, scaling, or discontinuation.

Maintain the Incubator resource toolbox (credits, tooling, student talent, compliance requirements, approval pathways) so routine inquiries resolve without convening committees.

Institutional Partnership and Representation
Collaborate with counterparts in OIT, Communications, Legal and Compliance, Procurement, CTL, and college leadership, negotiating shared processes and resolving jurisdictional questions.

Represent the office in institutional committees and briefings where the Vice Provost is not present, and Georgia Tech in consortia and peer networks.

Equip college representatives for their liaison and change management roles with materials, FAQs, and consistent messaging; contribute to the professional record through presentations or practitioner publications.

Assessment and Reporting
Manage the reporting cycle through which goal and objective owners report progress to the Steering Committee and institutional leadership.

Author consolidated analyses for provost-level review that render judgment: what is working, what is not, and what should change.

Identify the measures by which the strategy is evaluated, and flag gaps, duplicated effort, and emerging risks to those positioned to act.

This position vacancy is an open rank announcement. The final job offer will be dependent on candidate qualifications in alignment with Non-tenure Track Academic Faculty ranks as outlined in section 3.2.2 of the Georgia Tech Faculty Handbook: https://www.policylibrary.gatech.edu/faculty-handbook/3.2.2-non-tenure-track-academic-faculty-members-hiring-and-promotion-guidelines

Academic Professional

Terminal degree.

Quality of performance and potential development must be recognized by peers.

Senior Academic Professional

Terminal degree.

Evidence of superior performance in the chosen field.

Recognition by peers (whether national, regional, or local).

Successful and measurable related experience.

Five (5) years or more as an Academic Professional (or equivalent rank).

Principal Academic Professional

Terminal degree.

Evidence of superior performance in the chosen field.

Recognition by peers (whether national, regional, or local).

Successful and measurable related experience supervising others' work.

Successful and measurable related experience in a position of significant responsibility and authority within a program area.

Demonstrated impact.

Six (6) years or more as a Senior Academic Professional (or equivalent rank).

Demonstrated success working across organizational units without formal authority over participants, and building programs where the structure did not previously exist rather than administering established ones

Supervisory experience, including hiring, onboarding, and managing staff or student employees

Working fluency with generative AI tools and the AI in higher education landscape sufficient to evaluate proposals and advise faculty credibly

Writing and analytic skill sufficient to produce governance documentation and institutional analysis for senior leadership with minimal revision

Experience with formal governance bodies at the institutional level

Familiarity with institutional procurement, IT security review, or research compliance processes

Experience in a startup or newly established unit within a large institution

Teaching, instructional design, or program evaluation experience

Experience managing budgets, grant programs, or seed funding portfolios

Record of external presentation or publication on AI or higher education administration

Applicants should submit CV or Resume and Cover Letter.

Application materials should be submitted as .PDF files via https://hr.gatech.edu/careers/.

Requests for information may be directed to David Joyner (david.joyner@gatech.edu).

The University System of Georgia is comprised of our 25 institutions of higher education and learning as well as the System Office. Our USG Statement of Core Values are Integrity, Excellence, Accountability, and Respect. These values serve as the foundation for all that we do as an organization, and each USG community member is responsible for demonstrating and upholding these standards. More details on the USG Statement of Core Values and Code of Conduct are available in USG Board Policy 8.2.18.1.2 and can be found on-line at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section8/C224/#p8.2.18_personnel_conduct.

Additionally, USG supports Freedom of Expression as stated in Board Policy 6.5 Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom found on-line at https://www.usg.edu/policymanual/section6/C2653.

The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. The Institute is committed to maintaining a fair and respectful environment for all. To that end, and in accordance with federal and state law, Board of Regents policy, and Institute policy, Georgia Tech provides equal opportunity to all faculty, staff, students, and all other members of the Georgia Tech community, including applicants for admission and/or employment, contractors, volunteers, and participants in institutional programs, activities, or services. Georgia Tech complies with all applicable laws and regulations governing equal opportunity in the workplace and in educational activities.

Equal opportunity and decisions based on merit are fundamental values of the University System of Georgia ("USG") and Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech prohibits discrimination, including discriminatory harassment, on the basis of an individual's race, ethnicity, ancestry, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability, genetics, or veteran status in its programs, activities, employment, and admissions. Further, Georgia Tech prohibits citizenship status, immigration status, and national origin discrimination in hiring, firing, and recruitment, except where such restrictions are required in order to comply with law, regulation, executive order, or Attorney General directive, or where they are required by Federal, State, or local government contract.

A successful candidate must be able to pass a background check. Please visit: https://usg.policystat.com/policy/19298143/latest