Director, Business Operations

Director, Business Operations 

Empire AI is establishing New York as the national leader in responsible artificial intelligence. Backed by a consortium of top academic and research institutions including Columbia, Cornell, NYU, CUNY, RPI, SUNY, Rochester Schools, Mount Sinai, Simons Foundation, and the Flatiron Institute.

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By leveraging the state’s rich academic resources and research institutions, Empire AI is driving innovation in fields like medicine, education, energy, and climate change, all while giving New York’s researchers access to computing resources that are often prohibitively expensive and only available to big tech companies, fueling statewide innovation, driving economic growth, and preparing a future-ready AI workforce to tackle society’s most complex challenges.

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The initiative is funded by $500+ million in public and private investments, State Capital Grant, Academic Institutions, Simons Foundation, Flatiron Institute, and Tom Secunda (Co-Founder of Bloomberg).

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Position Summary

The Director, Business Operations of New York State’s Empire AI Consortium provides high-level programmatic, operational, and strategic support for the multi-institutional initiative aimed at building world-class artificial intelligence research capacity across New York State.

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Reporting to the Consortium’s Executive Director, this position is responsible for supporting the day-to-day operations, cross-campus coordination, state-level engagement, and communication strategy of Empire AI. The Director, Business Operations serves as a liaison among member institutions, research leadership, state partners, and external stakeholders to ensure effective governance, collaborative alignment, and forward momentum.

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Key Responsibilities:

• Coordinate daily operations and programmatic workflows across all consortium partners.
• Maintain project timelines, consortium-wide calendars, and work plans.
• Develop internal briefing documents, summary reports, and planning materials.
• Track initiative progress against defined goals and assist with priority setting.
• Act as liaison between academic institutions, New York State agencies, and public/private partners.
• Support coordination of inter-institutional meetings, working groups, and leadership briefings.
• Facilitate the sharing of best practices and foster collaboration across Empire AI nodes.
• Assist in organizing and supporting high-level stakeholder engagements and site visits.
• Draft presentations, talking points, and impact reports for leadership and legislative audiences.
• Coordinate communication efforts across campuses, including internal and external newsletters.
• Contribute to public-facing documentation that demonstrates the value and reach of Empire AI.
• Support initiative performance tracking and impact assessment.
• Assist in monitoring evolving state and federal policies on AI research, ethics, and compliance.
• Coordinate documentation related to data sharing agreements, privacy requirements, and reporting obligations.
• Work with campus research compliance officers to ensure proper implementation of data governance frameworks.
• Track spending and financial commitments across institutional subawards and joint procurements.
• Assist with contract development, vendor engagement, and inter-campus cost sharing mechanisms.
• Coordinate with campus and SUNY budget officers on expenditure reporting and forecasting.
• Manage logistics for statewide consortium convenings, workshops, and planning retreats.
• Draft agendas, coordinate speaker engagements, and oversee post-event documentation.
• Support special initiatives and time-sensitive deliverables as needed.
• Provide project support for new initiatives that emerge from the Empire AI strategic roadmap.
• Assist in responding to time-critical state or federal requests, including rapid response reporting.

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Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in public administration, policy, data science, higher education, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in research administration, program coordination, or policy implementation.
• Demonstrated success managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects or initiatives.
• Exceptional organizational and writing skills, with experience developing briefing documents, presentations, or communication plans.
• Experience working with or within higher education or state-level agencies.

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Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI research, research computing, or STEM workforce development initiatives.
• Familiarity with SUNY or New York State governance, contracts, and procurement structures.
• Knowledge of federal research funding structures, such as NSF, DOE, or NIH.
• Experience supporting grant writing, performance metrics, or multi-campus reporting.
• Experience in compliance coordination or data governance environments.

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Compensation

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several US geographic markets. The base pay and target total cash for this position range from $100,000 to $200,000. Pay is based on a number of factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.