Assistant Vice President, Facilities Operations

Department OPS Facilities Office of the AVP for Facilities About the Department The University of Chicago is a world-class institution of higher education. Its mission is to produce a caliber of teaching and research that regularly leads to advances in fields such as medicine, biology, physics, economics, critical theory, and public policy. Our Facilities Services team supports that mission through efforts to maintain and enhance the University campus and environment and provide superior client service to our community including faculty, students, staff, neighbors, and visitors. Job Information Job Summary: Reporting to the Associate Vice President of Facilities Services, the AVP is the senior operating executive accountable for the day-to-day performance of building operations and maintenance, skilled trades, grounds, work control, service partners, assigned residential properties, and Energy Programs. The Senior Director of Energy Programs reports directly to this role. This leader is accountable for service delivery, asset performance, labor-management relations, safety, emergency response, operating and utility budgets, contracts, customer experience, and continuous improvement. The role requires a visible, field-engaged leader credible with skilled-trades employees, shop and zone managers, campus customers, and University executives. The immediate mandate is to stabilize operations; evaluate and implement an effective zone model; right-size spans of control and administrative support; rebuild trust and morale; and institutionalize consistent leadership practices, SOPs, and CBA administration. A critical near-term priority is transforming how the organization uses Maximo and data-driven tools — moving from a reactive, paper-based culture toward a disciplined, technology-enabled operating model in which AI and automation actively improve decision-making, workforce deployment, and asset performance. NEAR-TERM LEADERSHIP PRIORITIES Evaluate and implement an effective campus operating model — zone structure, spans of control, decision rights, field leadership coverage, administrative support, and after-hours responsibilities. Stabilize the leadership team; fill essential supervisory, administrative, customer-service, and skilled-trades gaps; establish succession and knowledge-transfer programs for specialized technical roles. Rebuild trust, morale, and labor-management relationships through visible leadership, consistent policy application, employee engagement, and clear accountability. Transform Maximo utilization: create a plan and make measurable, significant progress towards establishing Maximo as the single authoritative platform for all work intake, prioritization, dispatch, labor and material capture, asset history, and performance reporting — eliminating shadow systems and informal workarounds. Institute daily urgent-work reviews and recurring dashboards that hold leaders accountable to data. Embed AI and analytics into daily operations: deploy approved tools for predictive maintenance, work-order routing, backlog analysis, utility anomaly detection, and executive reporting — with clear governance, data-quality standards, and human oversight. Build durable staff fluency so adoption outlasts any individual leader. In partnership with Campus Planning & Sustainability, develop a long-term asset management and deferred maintenance strategy integrating facility-condition data, asset criticality, life-cycle forecasts, FMEA findings, and available funding. Restore customer confidence through clear service standards, transparent work-order status, and disciplined service recovery. Strengthen operational readiness and formal turnover protocols for new and renovated facilities, especially complex research and laboratory buildings. Modernize procurement and contract management; conduct disciplined evaluation of in-house vs. contracted service models. Partner with the Associate Vice President to complete an…

View the full posting and apply