Executive Education Manager

Job Title: Executive Education ManagerGrade: G7Department: Business and EnterpriseLocation: Dubai CampusFTE and Working Pattern: 1 FTE, FulltimeOrganisation Name: Business and Enterprise (Dubai), Executive Education About our School/Directorate and Team: The Business and Enterprise Directorate’s vision is to shape a better future through collaborative industry partnerships and start-up facilitation, fostering a culture that promotes and celebrates innovation and entrepreneurship whilst growing a globally connected ecosystem that delivers significant value to our students, staff, partners, and communities. By achieving this vision, we can unlock new opportunities for revenue generation and economic impact.Business and Enterprise aims to drive new opportunities and outcomes aligned to the University’s Strategy 2025 by providing the highest quality business development and commercialisation support that enables Heriot-Watt to build on its research strength, industry engagement and unlock new opportunities, funding, and investment irrespective of geographical location.The UAE has embarked on a journey of economic transformation, diversifying its economy, and reducing dependence on oil revenues. Industry engagement is critical in this process as they facilitate the exchange of expertise, technology, and investment opportunities. The ever-changing world of business requires even the most experienced leaders to adapt through new skills and ways of thinking. At Heriot-Watt University Dubai, the focus is on equipping industry and their businesses to navigate this challenging world. The University provides a portfolio of innovative courses that help organisations reach their objectives, and gain competitive advantage through targeted, online/hybrid/face to face, competency-based courses, bespoke and accredited programmes.Building on the pan-university initiative for Executive Education team established in 2024 and given the rapid growth within the last 12 months, the university is seeking to appoint a Manager with demonstrated experience in this area to lead the development and growth of the same in its second year of operations.The work undertaken in 2024/2025 with stakeholders has clearly enhanced the university's reputation, locally and now regionally, and its positioning with industry, which is set to scale up further. An excellent year of pan-university initiative with immense efforts in establishing a new unit foundation and executive education portfolio across all schools at HWUD, developing a solid pipeline from scratch of 20 + potential training opportunities across UAE, KSA and Kuwait, and securing a few major high-value wins across locations. The expectation and ambition are for the unit to become a mainstay for driving “other income” and enhancing the positioning of the university.Executive Education Department is a strategic revenue and impact engine for the University, powered by a business development mindset and with the aim to generate sustainable and recurring revenue across the University. The department is positioned to further scale executive education programs, all professional training and wider industry engagement across all Schools, aligning academic excellence and institutional goals. The department is aimed to support HWU’s impact and engagement with external stakeholders, increase global reputation of HWU in continuous learning space with industry and government.Vision of the Executive Education Department To become one of the leading Universities in the Middle East region and globally, for delivering high-quality, bespoke and agile executive education programs to empower, upskill and reskill future leaders. To have a significant impact in organizations and communities globally, whilst becoming one of the major income drivers for the University and strengthening its brand.Mission of the Executive Education Department Designing and delivering bespoke executive education programs and professional trainings for clients in public and private sectors across a variety of industries and markets, assisting them in identifying their learning needs and meeting required learning outcomes, delivered face to face, online or in a blended format by experts drawn from the Heriot-Watt global ecosystem and its strategic industry partners.Purpose of Role This role which will support and shadow the Head- Executive Education to continue shaping the executive education portfolio, taking advantages of the significant opportunities within the sector given the increased interest from wider region interest from clients. The successful candidate will be charged with developing and managing bids to take advantage of opportunities to develop partnerships with organisations that the University already engages with in other business areas, as well as identifying wider opportunities to capture significant market-share within executive education.Building on the success of 2024-2025 Exec Ed HWUD establishment and piloting within a 10-month period, the current department created a strong pipeline with a total value of AED5,2 mln, and signed contracts (Kuwait Foundation of Advanced Sciences, Asian Banking School, Legal Affairs Department, King Abdullah Financial District, Sungrow and more) the role will further expand and drive sustainable revenue, global visibility, long-term external engagement with industry and government on a larger scale.The individual must be capable of mapping out our future client-base, pro-actively create as well as win a pipeline and the ability to clearly articulate our product to develop our reach. The post-holder will be required to work closely and collaboratively closely with academic staff across the schools in Dubai and with colleagues where necessary in our global campuses in Scotland and Malaysia as well as with external stakeholders and clients.Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities: To provide a full range of confidential bid and administrative and project management support to the Head- Executive Education and through direction from the latterLead generation, follow up with leads and further client retention including owning the project management oversight for deliveries.Carry out research and analysis of the executive education landscape in the UAE and relative comparison between that of our competitors. Work closely with key academics to ensure that the education being provided is applicable and marketable to the organisations and individuals we engage with.Identify new areas of demand for skillsets and fields that have not previously been provided as part of our offering.Define and develop “products” and USPs, drawing on the university’s capabilities, strengths and capacity.Develop and manage bids and proposals to existing and prospective stakeholders by having a full overview of the existing potential to offer executive education by having a thorough understanding of academic staff skills and their areas of expertiseIdentify existing and new opportunities to develop partnerships with industryDevelop and deliver a robust sales and marketing strategy for training and consultancy offerings that will; utilise existing relationships, grow new partnerships and generate marketDevelop and manage bids and proposals to existing and prospective stakeholders by having a full overview of the existing potential to offer executive education by having a thorough understanding of academic staff skills and their areas of expertiseIdentify existing and new opportunities to develop partnerships with industryDevelop and deliver a robust sales and marketing strategy for training and consultancy offerings that will; utilise existing relationships, grow new partnerships and generate market traction.Education, Experience and Qualifications Essential Educated at the graduate level (MSc or MBA preferred)Knowledge and understanding of the executive education market (UAE and KSA preferred)End-to-end planning and delivery experience with large clientsAbility to clearly define and deliver a sales strategy and building partnerships with external organisations and being able to articulate the product offerings clearly and conciselyProven track record in developing and managing bidsExcellent at multitasking and organizing - managing resources, workloads and changing priorities.Demonstrable ability to work within a fast-changing innovation environment.Proven experience of developing propositions and securing funding agreementsExcellent communication, influencing and interpersonal skills.Demonstrated networking and stakeholder management skills.Desirable Experience of Salesforce or comparable CRM SystemExperiences working with graphics editor software programs such as Illustrator etcPast experience of working with senior academics to design programsStrong commercial and technical expertise (preferably in an R&D environment)Special FactorsMay be requirement to work at weekends or out of hoursMay be requirement to occasionally travel internationally (for example, KSA, Kuwait etc)