• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $135,000 - $145,000

Position Summary

The Associate Director, Risk and Threat Analysis is responsible for overseeing the monitoring, assessment, and mitigation of potential threats to campus safety, security, and reputation identified through open-source intelligence and other sources. Reporting to the Deputy Vice President for Operations and Investigations, this role will lead a team in tracking and analyzing digital threats, supporting emergency response efforts, and ensuring proactive risk management strategies are in place. The supervisor will collaborate with university leadership, law enforcement, IT Security, Public Relations, and Student Affairs to address real-time and emerging risks affecting the institution.

Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Management

• Supervise and provide guidance to the Risk Analyst and any additional staff assigned to threat intelligence.
• Develop protocols and standard operating procedures for risk monitoring using open-source intelligence and other sources and response.
• Ensure compliance with university policies and applicable laws and regulations.
• Provide ongoing training and professional development for the risk analysis team.

Threat Monitoring & Risk Mitigation

• Oversee real-time monitoring for security threats, reputational risks, and policy violations using open-source intelligence and other sources.
• Lead the assessment and prioritization of threats, determining appropriate action plans in coordination with Campus Safety and law enforcement.
• Utilize intelligence tools and analytics software to track trends and identify potential safety risks.
• Establish workflows for incident escalation and response, ensuring swift action on critical threats.

Collaboration & Crisis Response

• Serve as the primary liaison between Public Safety, IT Security, Public Relations, and law enforcement regarding threats and crisis management.
• Provide intelligence reports to university leadership during emergencies or reputational crises.
• Work closely with Student Affairs to address concerns related to student safety, well-being, and misconduct.
• Support event security planning by identifying potential risks in advance of large campus gatherings and major campus activities.

Reporting & Policy Development

• Develop and maintain dashboards and reports tracking risks and campus safety trends.
• Working closely with the Deputy Vice President, advise university leadership on best practices for online threat detection and mitigation.
• Draft policies related to risk and threat assessment and management.
• Maintain detailed records of incidents, responses, and intelligence findings for institutional, investigative and legal purposes.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor?s degree required in Criminal Justice, Intelligence Studies, Cybersecurity, Risk Management, Communications, or a related field.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in risk and threat intelligence, law enforcement, or campus security.
• Proven experience in threat assessment and risk analysis, particularly in a university or government setting.
• Strong leadership and team management skills.
• Proficiency in relevant analytics and intelligence-gathering tools (e.g., Brandwatch, Meltwater, Sprinklr, Talkwalker).
• Knowledge of emergency management, public safety, and digital forensics.
• Excellent communication, crisis response, and decision-making skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master?s degree in a relevant field.
• Law enforcement, military, or intelligence agency background.
• Familiarity with higher education regulations such as the Clery Act, FERPA, and Title IX.
• Experience collaborating with cybersecurity teams on digital threat mitigation.

Other Requirements

• Requires flexibility to respond to urgent threats outside of normal business hours, including evenings, weekends and holidays as necessary.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

About Columbia University

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

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