Department Head, Skilled Trades & Professional Services

The Department Head provides strategic academic leadership and operational oversight for the curriculum and WCE program areas of Engineering & Construction, Landscape Gardening, Automotive, Aviation, and Advanced Manufacturing. The Department Head is accountable for department planning, program development, instructional quality, personnel leadership, scheduling, fiscal stewardship, compliance, student success, workforce responsiveness, and continuous improvement. The Department Head leads alignment across programs and pathways, strengthens employer and community partnerships, and advances institutional priorities while ensuring high-quality education and training responsive to student and regional workforce needs. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.
General Department Head Responsibilities
Department Leadership & Administration

• Provide strategic leadership and direction for assigned programs, including planning, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement.
• Align program offerings with student demand, workforce needs, College priorities, labor-market information, transfer or credential pathways, and stakeholder feedback.
• Analyze enrollment, retention, completion, credential or licensure outcomes, placement information, student learning outcomes, and other relevant performance indicators; implement improvement strategies as appropriate.
• Organize and chair department meetings to address priorities, operations, instructional quality, student success, collaboration, and program development.
• Participate in College-wide committees and initiatives and contribute to institutional planning, policies, procedures, and the One College model.
• Complete and support annual program review, intensive program review, assessment, and documented continuous-improvement processes for assigned programs.
• Advance Guided Pathways, articulation, crosswalks, transfer opportunities, credit for prior learning, work-based learning, and other strategies that support student access and completion, as applicable.
• Lead the development, revision, expansion, consolidation, or teach-out of programs and training in response to student, employer, community, and institutional needs.

Personnel Management & Supervision

• Recruit, hire, onboard, supervise, support, and evaluate assigned full-time and part-time faculty and staff in accordance with College procedures and applicable program requirements.
• Conduct annual evaluations, including goal setting, mid-year check-ins, and end-of-year performance feedback, and support meaningful professional-development goals.
• Mentor faculty and staff, support professional growth, and promote a positive work environment characterized by collegiality, accountability, shared responsibility, and the College Core Values.
• Monitor faculty and staff workloads, teaching assignments, contracts, staffing levels, and scheduling needs across assigned programs.
• Serve as hiring manager for assigned positions and ensure required employment, credential, licensure, and qualification documentation is complete and current.
• Address and mediate concerns involving faculty, staff, and students in a timely, fair, confidential, and professional manner, involving appropriate College offices when needed.

Curriculum, Scheduling & Instructional Quality

• Review and approve course schedules and teaching assignments in collaboration with program coordinators, directors, and faculty to support access, enrollment, and timely program completion.
• Monitor enrollment and adjust course offerings, delivery formats, locations, staffing, and resources as appropriate.
• Lead and support development, review, and revision of curricula, syllabi, instructional materials, assessments, and learning resources in accordance with College and North Carolina Community College System requirements.
• Ensure consistent instructional quality across applicable delivery formats and locations, including classroom, laboratory, online, hybrid, evening, weekend, accelerated, high-school, partner-site, clinical, field-based, and other formats.
• Support effective use of the College learning management system and instructional technologies and ensure online and hybrid offerings meet College quality expectations.
• Teach assigned courses when appropriately credentialed and in accordance with the department-specific instructional expectation listed below. Instructional overloads are not normally appropriate for this administrative role and require prior approval.

Budget, Resources, Facilities & Equipment

• Develop and manage departmental budgets; monitor expenditures; recommend resource allocations; and maintain fiscal accountability in accordance with College policies and priorities.
• Oversee procurement, inventory, maintenance, replacement, and lifecycle planning for equipment, technology, supplies, instructional materials, and other department resources.
• Coordinate the use, scheduling, readiness, safety, accessibility, and maintenance of assigned classrooms, laboratories, shops, training sites, offices, or specialized instructional facilities.
• Collaborate with Facilities, Information Technology, Purchasing, Safety, and other College offices to address operational and instructional resource needs.
• Support grant development, external funding, donations, and partnerships that strengthen instructional capacity, workforce responsiveness, and student opportunity.

Compliance, Assessment & Documentation

• Ensure compliance with College policies and procedures, North Carolina Community College System requirements, applicable laws and regulations, and department-specific accreditation, licensure, certification, safety, or third-party requirements.
• Ensure accurate and timely completion of required academic, personnel, budget, contract, travel, credentialing, assessment, and program documentation.
• Maintain appropriate records and reports to support audits, accreditation or regulatory reviews, program review, budgeting, planning, and continuous improvement.
• Coordinate department-level risk management, emergency preparedness, incident reporting, and corrective actions in collaboration with appropriate College offices and external partners, as applicable.

Student Success, Partnerships & Workforce Engagement

• Foster an environment that supports student access, learning, retention, completion, credential attainment, transfer, employment, and professional growth.
• Oversee advising and student-support practices within the department and collaborate with Student Services and other College offices to remove barriers to student success.
• Address student concerns and support consistent application of academic, conduct, safety, progression, and due-process requirements.
• Build and sustain relationships with employers, industry representatives, educational partners, K-12 systems, universities, workforce agencies, community organizations, alumni, and other stakeholders.
• Ensure program advisory committees or equivalent stakeholder groups meet regularly and contribute to program relevance, quality, workforce alignment, equipment planning, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with marketing, recruitment, Career and College Promise, Job Placement Services, and other College teams to promote programs, strengthen enrollment pipelines, and connect students with employment or further-education opportunities.
• Represent the College and assigned programs at meetings, conferences, professional associations, advisory groups, and community or industry events as assigned.

Department-Specific Responsibilities

• Provide leadership for the curriculum and WCE program areas of Engineering & Construction, Landscape Gardening, Automotive, Aviation, and Advanced Manufacturing, including the faculty, staff, program coordinators, directors, instructors, and other personnel assigned to those areas.
• Coordinate curriculum and WCE pathways, schedules, staffing, facilities, equipment, credentials, and program-development priorities across the assigned Skilled Trades & Professional Services areas.
• Ensure compliance with applicable program-specific industry, licensure, certification, aviation, automotive, construction, manufacturing, landscape/horticulture, apprenticeship, safety, and third-party requirements.
• Oversee specialized instructional environments and resources, including engineering and construction laboratories, shops, landscape and outdoor instructional areas, automotive facilities and vehicles, aviation classrooms/simulators or training sites, advanced-manufacturing laboratories, and related tools, equipment, software, and technology.
• Promote safe instructional practices and ensure appropriate procedures for tools, machinery, vehicles, aircraft-related training environments, electrical/mechanical systems, chemicals, personal protective equipment, and other program-specific hazards.
• Build and sustain strong relationships with employers, contractors, manufacturers, automotive and aviation partners, landscape/horticulture organizations, professional associations, apprenticeship sponsors, K-12 systems, and other industry or community partners.
• Support industry-recognized credentials, apprenticeships, work-based learning, internships, cooperative education, Career and College Promise, credit for prior learning, and other pathways from education to employment.
• Monitor program enrollment, completion, credential attainment, placement, employer feedback, equipment needs, and workforce demand to guide program growth, scheduling, and resource decisions.
• Teach 12-15 contact hours annually when appropriately credentialed in an assigned discipline.

Supervises assigned full-time and part-time faculty, WCE directors and instructors, program coordinators, administrative/support staff, and other employees as organizationally assigned.Required education and experience:
[Indicate requirements that are job-related and consistent with business necessity]

Master’s degree in a School Program discipline or closely related field, includes: Architecture & Construction Technologies: Architecture, Building Construction, Construction Management Engineering Technologies: Civil, Electrical, Electro-Mechanical, Environmental, Industrial, Manufacturing, Mechanical, or Geomatics Transportation, Distribution & Logistics: Automotive Systems, Aviation Management, Collision Engineering, Collision Repair & Refinishing, Professional Pilot Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources: Landscape Gardening, Turfgrass Management  Minimum of two years of successful teaching experience in a community college or postsecondary setting Experience in School industry related field

Preferred education and experience:
[Indicate requirements that are job-related and consistent with business necessity]

Master's degree in School program related field. Administrative or supervisory experience in a community college, technical college, workforce-training organization, apprenticeship program, or industry-training environment. Current or prior industry-recognized credentials, licenses, certifications, or substantial professional experience relevant to one or more assigned program areas. Experience with laboratory/shop safety, specialized equipment and facilities, industry credentialing, apprenticeships, work-based learning, or regulatory compliance in technical and skilled-trades programs.