Assistant Director, Planning and Continuity

Responsibilities

• Maintains primary oversight and accountability for undergraduate academic year housing assignments for approximately 6,200 residents.
• Provides strategic direction for room selection, assignment methodologies, exception handling, and accommodation pathways, including coordination with the Office of Disability Services and other campus partners.
• Oversees summer housing assignment strategy for Columbia students and assists colleagues with assignments of interns, conferences, and special programs, ensuring accurate placement, billing alignment, and adherence to operational timeline.
• Reviews, validates, and approves assignment outputs produced by the Associate Manager, Housing Services to ensure accuracy, consistency, and compliance with housing policies.
• Identifies and responds to emerging assignment-related risks (e.g., enrollment fluctuations, space availability, policy changes) by adjusting allocation approaches and advising senior leadership accordingly.
• Serves as the primary owner of the Housing Assignments Roadmap, documenting critical processes, timelines, interdependencies, and decision points to ensure continuity during peak periods and staffing transitions.
• Proactively assesses vulnerabilities within assignment and administrative workflows and recommends improvements to reduce operational risk and service disruption.
• Led scenario planning related to enrollment changes, capacity constraints, and policy shifts impacting housing allocations.
• Translates complex assignment data and constraints into clear planning recommendations for leadership.
• Provides strategic oversight for Housing Services documentation maintained on the departmental intranet, ensuring policies, processes, and reference materials are current, accurate, and accessible.
• Establishes standards and cadence for annual review and updates of assignment-related documentation in collaboration with functional leads.
• Ensures alignment between documented processes, system functionality (e.g., StarRez, Asana), and day-to-day practices.
• Promotes documentation as a foundational tool for training, knowledge transfer, and business continuity.
• Directly supervises the Associate Manager, Housing Services, providing guidance, quality control, performance feedback, and professional development support.
• Ensures staffing models support peak housing periods and aligns with documented processes and service expectations.
• Fosters accountability, consistency, and continuous improvement within the assignments and administrative function.
• Partners with Systems & Operations, Guest Services, Residential Life, Dining, Facilities, Public Safety, and other campus stakeholders to ensure assignment decisions align with operational readiness and student experience goals.
• Convenes cross-functional discussions to collect feedback on assignment-related processes and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Leads or contributes to special projects that enhance planning, coordination, and long-term sustainability of Housing Services.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum of 4–6 years of progressively responsible experience in housing, student services, or a complex administrative environment.
• Demonstrated expertise in housing assignments, allocations, or comparable large-scale administrative planning functions.
• Strong analytical, documentation, and process-planning skills.
• Proven ability to supervise staff and guide work through review, validation, and strategic direction.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience working with housing management systems and administrative tools (e.g., StarRez, Asana, intranet platforms).
• Ability to work on-site during peak periods, emergencies, weekends, and holidays as required.