The Department Chair is a key leadership position within the University. The Department Chair provides the leadership for a quality student learning experience by ensuring coherence in the discipline and relevance to the practice in support of the University Mission. This leadership position contributes to a range of activities supporting student learning outcomes, program quality, discipline integrity, and faculty growth, success, and belonging, focusing on student learning, teaching excellence, and faculty and student retention. The Department Chair collaborates with other departments, including the Office of the Provost, Faculty Human Resources, Curriculum and Assessment, Instructional Design, Trefry Library, Electronic Course Materials, and the Center for Teaching and Learning, as well as operational departments such as Advising, Registrar, Marketing, Enterprise Data Office, Workforce Learning Solutions, and Military and Corporate Outreach. The Department Chair oversees the daily operations of one or more programs and faculty.

When Applying: Upload a CV and a copy of unofficial transcripts, master's degree and above. Student issued/unofficial copies are acceptable. Please do not send us official copies, unless specifically asked.

Responsibilities:

Essential operations responsibilities include the ability to:

• Articulate the department’s goals and needs to advance the department’s programs within the School, as well as outside the institution
• Confer with internal and external stakeholders and advisory groups to obtain knowledge of student, curricular, occupational, discipline, or University needs
• Collaborate with cross-functional departments and program stakeholders to develop, measure, and evaluate student learning outcomes, instructional efficacy, and student persistence and retention for continuous improvement
• Contribute to and participate in the annual strategic planning and budgeting processes
• Manage student conduct, appeals, and grievance processes
• Oversight of new programs and courses in AI, ensuring they meet current industry and standards.

Essential teaching and learning culture activities include the ability to:

• Hire, develop, support, and evaluate faculty
• Document faculty successes and improvements in teaching, research, curriculum management, and service
• Recognize faculty and colleagues for outstanding performance and accomplishments
• Assign courses / credential faculty to teach
• Assign appropriate amount of curriculum development to FTF
• Regularly communicates with faculty
• Convene regular faculty meetings
• Conduct regular curriculum reviews to ensure currency by meeting advances in AI and related fields

Essential leadership activities include the ability to:

• Develop and support faculty to ensure discipline and program continuity, currency, and relevancy
• Collaborate with faculty to ensure the program’s evolution reflects external changes in the discipline, external market, and internal changes within the University
• Empower and support faculty to create student-centric, inclusive, welcoming learning environments in which all students can succeed
• Model good engagement in the discipline
• Demonstrate excellence in teaching and share effective practices within the University community
• Uphold academic quality design by leading curriculum innovation, academic rigor, and teaching excellence

Effective leaders will possess these critical skills and professional characteristics:

• Contribute and model professionalism as a thought-leader within the discipline, the School, and the University
• Proficiency of current AI tools, technologies, and emerging trends.
• Remain current on trends and developments within academic disciplines and leadership
• Take initiative to address current challenges and opportunities with forward-thinking solutions
• Show attention to detail and accountability for deliverables while managing competing priorities
• Collaborate effectively, respectfully, and constructively with faculty and staff following the APEI employee handbook, APUS employee handbook and faculty handbook
• Coach and develop others to improve performance and achieve professional goals
• Practice emotional intelligence and coaching techniques, especially when managing stressful situations and difficult conversations
• Value the diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, strengths, and perspectives of others
• Adapt quickly to changing priorities, strategic initiatives, and industry trends
• Communicate effectively via written, oral, and visual media
•  Flexibility when need arises

Requirements:

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science or a closely related field is required from a regionally accredited institution is required.

• A track record of published research in AI or related journals
• Ten or more years’ of experience in programming in Python and/or R
• Experience with querying databases with SQL or NoSQL
• Familiarity with other programming languages such as C, C++ is preferred
• Five or more years’ experience in cloud infrastructures such as AWS, OCI, Azure and google cloud
• Experience in academic leadership roles, such as leading research groups, managing grants, or previous roles as a department chair or program director
• Five or more years’ of experience in teaching and curriculum development in AI or related fields such as data science or computer science
• Experience in securing research funding is preferred

Compensation and Benefits:

• Full-time faculty are salaried employees.
• Information regarding our faculty benefits may be found here:  https://www.apus.edu/about/careers/faculty.

Please Note: Full-time faculty members and department chairs are to consider APUS their primary employer. Full-time salaried faculty and department chairs may not be full-time employees of any university, school, college, or institution of higher education outside of APUS; this includes administrative, staff, and teaching positions.

About Us:

American Public University System (APUS) is an Online University based in Charles Town, WV. Our University has over 100,000 students.  Our emphasis is educating our nation’s military and public services communities with quality and affordable education.  APUS provides partnership and commitment in helping students realize the dream of a higher education and the opportunities that brings. 

It is the policy of American Public University System (APUS) to afford equal opportunity to all qualified persons.  We treat all qualified individuals equally as to their recruitment, hiring, assignments, advancements, compensation, and all other terms and conditions of employment.  American Public University System (APUS) does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, or physical, mental, or sensory disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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