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Administrative Consultant

State of Iowa

Des Moines - 50319 - Polk County, IAFull-time$79–121K/yrPosted 6 days agoStill listed 5 days ago

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At a glance

Compensation
$79–121K/yr
Location
Des Moines - 50319 - Polk County, IA
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Job overview

The Iowa Department of Education seeks an Administrative Consultant for Community Colleges to provide leadership and oversight in the Bureau of Community Colleges. The role leads academic and student affairs projects, community college reform efforts, accreditation activities, and workforce-related programs. It also coordinates policy guidance, technical assistance, and data work, and represents the bureau with statewide and national stakeholders.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

LeadershipLegislation CoordinationAdministrative Rule DevelopmentTeam CollaborationIndependent Project ManagementWritten CommunicationVerbal CommunicationRegulatory InterpretationConflict ResolutionInterpersonal SkillsStakeholder Collaboration

Qualifications

Five Years Program Administration ExperienceNine Years Education and ExperienceMaster's in Listed Field or Three Years ExperienceTwo Years Education Program Consultant ExperienceHigher Education Leadership ExperienceLarge-Scale Project Implementation ExperiencePolicy Analysis or Implementation Experience

Full job description

Iowa Department of Education’s mission is ensuring all students experience a world-class education. To accomplish our mission, we need talented, passionate people working together to build an excellent education system that empowers all students to achieve their full potential. We are looking to find a highly qualified leader to serve as the Department’s Administrative Consultant for Community Colleges in the Bureau of Community Colleges. This person will provide key leadership and oversight for the Department.

Your Responsibilities: Serve as team lead/project manager for ongoing work of the community colleges academic and student affairs team. In this lead capacity, you will collaborate and network with education consultants and leadership across Iowa working on key community college programs including concurrent enrollment, program quality, faculty support, student success and accreditation. You will also play a key leadership role with community college accreditation desk review and site visits. Coordinate and lead teams related to emerging community college reform efforts. In this lead capacity you will 1) develop the scope, timing, elements, and priority of projects assigned by bureau management; 2) develop and implement project plans including goals, objectives, procedures, and resources; 3) collaborate with management on organizational matters, evaluate/resolve operational issues, and prepare supporting rationale or documentation; 4) present data team products to stakeholders such as community college presidents, trustees, legislative committees, and at national conferences; 5) serve as liaison with statewide community college groups; 6) resolve complex program or project administration problems by analyzing a variety of information including federal and state laws, rules, and regulations and developing solutions that may be innovative; and 7) represent the bureau on national research, data sharing, and initiatives related to community colleges and workforce development. Serve as lead project manager of the Iowa Skilled Worker and Job Creation Fund (ISWJCF) Programs and activities, and other workforce related initiatives. Related duties include: 1) Collaborating and networking with education consultants and leadership across Iowa working on ISWJCF programs; 2) Providing leadership and technical support related to processes and procedures required to design and implement appropriate policy guidance, technical assistance, record keeping, and data collection and analysis for the following state programs: Workforce Training and Economic Development (WTED), Pathways for Academic Career and Employment (PACE), Gap Tuition Assistance and Accelerated Career Education (ACE) Infrastructure, and Workforce Pell. Candidates are encouraged to include detailed information about their relevant experience in their application, or submit a cover letter and resume in addition to their application.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Leadership experience in higher education.
  • Experience in large-scale project implementation.
  • Experience in policy analysis or implementation.

If you wish to review a copy of the Position Description Questionnaire, please contact [email protected]. To ensure full consideration for this position, all requested materials must be completed and uploaded through the NEOGov online application process.

Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday – Friday; some nights and weekends, occasional in-state and out-of-state travel

A successful candidate will bring or have the ability and desire to learn:

  • Passion for accomplishing common goals in pursuit of public service
  • Knowledge and experience with coordinating the development of legislation, administrative rules, and legislative proposals
  • Ability to work collaboratively on, and provide leadership for, high-performing teams
  • Ability to work independently, moving projects forward with minimal supervision
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills
  • Ability to interpret and break down highly technical and regulatory language, and present information in an understandable manner
  • Conflict resolution and interpersonal skills
  • Desire to work with diverse teams and stakeholders

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

  • Opportunities to make a widespread difference in the lives of children, their families, and Iowa communities
  • Collaborative, positive work environment
  • Talented and passionate work colleagues that will help you learn and grow
  • Opportunities to collaborate with experts from around the country
  • Employee discounts from a variety of vendors
  • Competitive salary and benefits package:

https://das.iowa.gov/sites/default/files/hr/documents/employment/Benefits_Beyond_the_Paycheck.pdf

E-Verify and Right to Work The State of Iowa participates in E-Verify, a federal program that helps employers confirm the employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. Within the required timeframe, new hires will be verified through the E-Verify system to ensure authorization to work in the United States. The State of Iowa also complies with the federal Right to Work laws, which protect employees’ rights to work without being required to join a labor organization. For more information, please visitwww.e-verify.gov.

Applicants must meet at least one of the following minimum requirements to qualify for positions in this job classification:

  1. Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university, and experience equal to five years of full-time, professional-level work in program administration, development, management, or operations.

  2. A combination of a total of nine years of education and full-time experience (as described in number one), where thirty semester hours of accredited college or university course work may substitute for one year of full-time experience.

  3. Graduation from an accredited college or university with a Master's degree in social work, law, education, engineering, or public or business administration, and experience equal to three years of full-time, professional-level work in program administration, development, management, or operations.

  4. Current, continuous experience in the state executive branch that includes two years of full-time work as an Education Program Consultant.

For additional information, please click on this link to view the job description.

How this job compares

Set against the 10,791 open Program Management jobs on Olive Jobs, counted November 4, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$79–121K/yr
  • Iowa median$123–221K/yr70 salary ranges
  • US median$127–201K/yr7,807 salary ranges

This range's midpoint, $100K, is 43% below the Iowa median midpoint ($175K) — in the lowest quarter of Program Management salary ranges in Iowa.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 85 open Program Management jobs in Iowa and 10,791 across the US. 5% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in Iowa
Experience
This posting asks for at least 2 years of experience — less than three in four Program Management postings that state a minimum ask for (median 7 years, across 9,230 postings).
Education
4,135 of the 10,791 open Program Management jobs (38%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on November 4, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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