Assistant Director, Business Development

About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is pioneering a new model of higher education for a global world, dedicated to excellence in teaching and research and to advancing cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. Drawing on the strengths of the NYU global network, it offers an outstanding liberal arts and sciences education to students from the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and around the world, with a distinctive focus on intercultural understanding and leadership. It supports innovative research and graduate education programs that push forward the frontiers of knowledge and respond in powerful and interdisciplinary ways to vital global and local challenges.

Position summary

NYU Abu Dhabi has partnered with an executive search firm to support these appointments. All applications will be shared with the firm for consideration.

Applications should consist of a covering letter, a full CV detailing academic and professional qualifications, employment history, current remuneration, and relevant achievements. The search firm welcomes confidential exploratory conversations. Applications are welcome from all qualified candidates. In line with UAE regulations, Emirati candidates are encouraged to apply.

Role overview

New York University Abu Dhabi is seeking an accomplished commercial leader to drive the next phase of executive education growth for the Stern School of Business at NYU Abu Dhabi.

NYU is a leading global research university, with degree-granting campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai. Stern at NYUAD brings the academic strength and global reach of NYU Stern to organisations and senior leaders across the UAE and wider region.

Based within NYU Abu Dhabi's Office of Executive and Professional Education (OEPE), the Assistant Director will be dedicated to Stern at NYUAD Executive Education, working closely with the Stern at NYUAD team through a dotted-line relationship. The role combines the institutional platform and resources of NYUAD with a clear commercial mandate: to build Stern's regional client base, develop strategic relationships, and convert opportunities into sustainable partnerships.

The successful candidate will operate across Stern, NYUAD, and NYU's global network, identifying where Stern's academic and research expertise can create distinctive value for regional organisations and leading opportunities from initial engagement through solution design, proposal, negotiation, and partnership.

Key responsibilities

Develop the market, identifying and converting strategic opportunities across government, corporate, and institutional sectors

Build senior relationships and secure high-value and multi-year partnerships

Lead complex bids and proposals, including potentially multi-million-dollar opportunities

Shape and author propositions, translating faculty expertise and research into differentiated commercial solutions

Structure partnerships, including MSAs, MOUs, pricing, and commercial terms, in partnership with Finance and Legal

Mobilise the NYU network, drawing on expertise and programmes across New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai to strengthen the regional proposition

Required experience

The successful candidate will be a commercially credible business development leader with:

7+ years' experience in business development, strategic partnerships, corporate relations, or a comparable commercial environment

A demonstrable record of originating and securing high-value B2B business, ideally with government entities or major corporations

Experience personally architecting, writing, and leading complex proposals and bids, including multi-million-dollar opportunities

Strong commercial judgement across pricing, negotiation, contracting, and partnership development

The ability to translate complex academic, research, or technical expertise into clear, differentiated client propositions

Established credibility with senior government and corporate stakeholders, particularly UAE/GCC market experience

Experience in executive education, higher education, professional services, or another knowledge-intensive environment would be advantageous

Arabic is highly desirable

Other information about NYUAD

NYU Abu Dhabi is a degree-granting research university with a fully integrated liberal arts and science undergraduate program in the arts, sciences, social sciences, humanities, and engineering. NYU Abu Dhabi, NYU New York, and NYU Shanghai form the backbone of NYU’s global network university, an interconnected network of portal campuses and academic centers across six continents that enable seamless international mobility of students and faculty in their pursuit of academic and scholarly activity.

This global university represents a transformative shift in higher education, one in which the intellectual and creative endeavors of academia are shaped and examined through an international and multicultural perspective. As a major intellectual hub at the crossroads of the Arab world, NYUAD serves as a center for scholarly thought, advanced research, knowledge creation, and sharing, through its academic, research, and creative activities.