As a strategic partner to the State Director, the Associate State Director (ASD) serves as the operational architect of the Michigan Small Business Development Center (SBDC). This role serves as a bridge between high-level vision and organizational execution, working closely with the Executive Team to ensure operational excellence, mission alignment, and cultural health.
Position Summary: As a strategic partner to the State Director, the Associate State Director (ASD) serves as the operational architect of the Michigan Small Business Development Center (SBDC). This role serves as a bridge between high-level vision and organizational execution, working closely with the Executive Team to ensure operational excellence, mission alignment, and cultural health.
Primary Duties:
Operational excellence of the Michigan SBDC
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Authors operating guidelines with the State Director to ensure the SBDC’s policies, procedures, and infrastructure scale with its strategic vision.
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Operationalizes new requirements for programs.
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Maintains the operations manual, procedures, and policies.
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Stewards SBDC employee understanding and execution of grant terms and conditions through proactive training, education, and communication.
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Manages grant terms and conditions, compliance with requirements, and annual renewals.
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Promotes organizational impact, communicating the SBDC’s value to federal and state stakeholders. Leads semi-annual and annual report generation.
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Negotiates and manages stakeholder contracts. (State, Federal & Host)
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Synthesizes changes to contractual agreements, creates operational procedures, goals, and communication, and then monitors progress.
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Point person for SBA/MEDC programming or events.
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Responsible for confidentiality matters affiliated with grant requirements.
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Supports annual and 3-year strategic planning processes and develops implementation progress reports.
Operations Administration
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Empowers and mentors two direct reports.
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Assistant State Director, overseeing Technology Strategy and Operations.
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Assistant State Director overseeing Human Resources, Talent Development, and Marketing.
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Collaborates with the Executive Team to enable new programming and communication.
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Leads and oversees processes to develop, document, communicate, and administer policy, procedures, and operations of the SBDC.
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Ensures products and services are responsibly managed for compliance through guidance and validation of program impact.
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Special attention to the guidance, verification & validation of reported program impact; develops policies & performance accountability/evaluation.
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Facilitates strategy implementation by leading weekly operations and monthly leadership team meetings.
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Supports the development of grant applications and efforts to acquire additional funding aligned with organizational strategies.
Compliance, the foundation for Operational Excellence and Administration
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Co-Leads, with the State Director, the network preparation for accreditation (Next accreditation is in 2028).
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Supports the Director of Finance and Grants on matters affiliated with vendors, clients, hosts, and employees.
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Responsible for tracking grant program progress and preparing action steps to remediate any areas that are not meeting project pace or legal compliance.
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Supports audit requirements.
Other Duties
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Manages the Michigan SBDC Advisory Board.
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Partners with Client Services and Finance on grants aligned with small business technical assistance. Primary grant writer.
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Serves as Interim State Director as needed.
Required Qualifications and Education
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Bachelor’s Degree.
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8+ years of leadership experience.
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Demonstrated independent problem-solving skills.
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High-level executive presence and the ability to serve as a surrogate for the State Director.
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Experience in developing and tracking strategic plans.
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Experience negotiating, synthesizing, and implementing changes within a contractual agreement.
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Change management skills.
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Ability and willingness to travel both within Michigan and nationally.
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Experience with compliance and enforcement of stakeholder policies.
Preferred Qualifications and Education
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Master of Public Administration or Master of Business Administration or related field.
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Proven track record of cross-functional team building and consensus-building within a complex, multi-stakeholder environment. (e.g., University and Government Partnerships)
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Project/change management certification.
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Experience with Federal Grants, reporting, and management
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Experience with CRM platforms.
Working Conditions
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Normal office environment with a combination of in-office and state-wide travel.
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Physical Demands: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to satisfactorily perform each essential duty. Must have the physical stamina to work long hours and/or more than 5 days per week. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
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The listed requirements are representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities required.
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The information contained in this job description is for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) and is not an exhaustive list of the duties performed for this position. Additional duties can be performed by the individual currently holding this position, and additional duties may be assigned.
How to Apply
Apply online at GVSU Careers to be considered; applicants must upload the following (in PDF format) to the online application:
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Cover letter
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Curriculum vitae
Application Deadline: Applications will be accepted until June 8th, 2026. The position may be closed at any time at the university's discretion.
