Senior Associate Director, Custom Programs

Responsibilities

• Provide high-quality account management for a portfolio of existing clients in Asia and globally.
• Maintain and deepen trusted relationships through regular communication, responsiveness, and excellent service.
• Serve as a key day-to-day contact for clients on program delivery, logistics, and follow-up.
• Work with faculty to innovate and design recurring programs for existing clients.
• Project manage the key elements of strategic programs’ preparation, recruitment, and delivery, including timelines, logistics, and internal resource alignment.
• Ensure that program plans are clearly defined, communicated, and executed on schedule and to quality standards.
• Work with the Executive Director and faculty to design the curriculum and the participant journey and experiences for strategic programs.
• Monitor ongoing programs to anticipate issues, resolve problems, and ensure a consistently positive client experience.
• Act as a liaison between the commercial (business development) team and the program delivery/operations team to enable smooth execution.
• Partner with the Marketing team to develop client-facing materials and communications that support ongoing programs and relationships.
• Ensure that information flows effectively across teams so that faculty, operations, and marketing are aligned around client needs and program objectives.
• Work with other departments within Columbia Business School to align resources for executive education programs.
• Identify opportunities to improve how programs are delivered (e.g., workflows, communication, documentation, templates).
• Collect and synthesize client feedback and internal input to recommend enhancements to program design and delivery.
• Help implement improvements that increase efficiency, quality, and client satisfaction.
• Support and contribute to the full RFP lifecycle, including opportunity qualification, proposal development, commercial positioning, and follow-up.
• Participate in early-stage client conversations to understand their needs and help translate them into actionable program plans and delivery requirements.
• Partner with the Executive Director to drive proactive business development activities across assigned markets and industries.
• Conduct proactive outreach to prospective corporate clients and strategic partners to generate new opportunities.
• Create and maintain clear reports on program performance, client engagement, and key metrics.
• Use Salesforce to record and track client data, interactions, and program details to inform decision-making and relationship management.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required. Minimum of 4-6 years of related experience required.
• Bilingual in Mandarin
• Proven achievement and understanding of Account Management, and strong commercial awareness.
• Excellent project management and relationship management ability.
• Very strong communication, negotiation, and influencing skills are required.
• Excellent PowerPoint skills are essential, along with the ability to develop clear, concise, and polished written communication.
• Must have experience in both operational and commercial activities linked to managing clients and engagements.
• Needs to be a natural multi-tasker, must be reliable and able to deliver to deadlines, and must be open-minded and flexible in approach to adapt to very different faculty and client styles and expectations.
• A genuine interest in executive education and a hunger to learn continuously.
• Needs to be driven, entrepreneurial, and a genuine team player