Academic Operations Specialist – Prague

Academic Operations Specialist 

Verto is on a mission to provide the best possible start to college. We start by making travel and experiential education a core part of every student’s first year. Our participants begin college overseas in one of six Verto locations and take fully accredited in-person classes from our Academic Provider, the University of New Haven. After completing 1-4 semesters with Verto, participants seamlessly transfer to one of 70 partner universities in the United States. Along the way, participants become more mature, empathetic global citizens who have a greater sense of purpose and direction for their lives.

Department Description

The Academic Affairs Department directs and executes all academic activities related to the student experience with a focus on teaching and learning, academic operations and academic technology. Academic Affairs is the core of what we deliver at Verto – a high quality experience for students to have a collegiate experience, both inside and outside of the classroom.  This position is located onsite and is a full-time residential role, working in one of the Verto Study Centers: 

• Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Florence, Italy
• London, England
• Prague, Czech Republic
• Seville, Spain

Position Description

This position supports the onsite implementation of local academic operational processes, academic technology, and supports teaching and learning experiences.  This position will interface directly with local faculty, staff, and students with a focus on faculty support, academic technology, and general academic administration. 

This position provides onsite support for the smooth and efficient implementation of academic operations and provides coordination of relevant academic technology at the study center. This role provides assistance to academic leadership and faculty onsite, coordinating faculty needs, classroom resources, streamlining academic processes, organizing experiential learning, and supporting academic staff in key projects and priorities.  This role is part of the larger local and global academic team and may have additional local and global responsibilities, as business needs require.

Key Responsibilities:

Academic Operations & Technology

• Assist faculty, staff, and students in navigating Academic Systems and Technology to support the pre-departure and onsite student experiences including: Canvas Learning Management System (LMS), Cengage e-textbook platforms, and other academic technology systems for attendance, assessment, evaluations, and early warning, working closely with AAHQ and onsite teams to ensure streamlined access and operational efficiency.
• Follow articulated processes for academic operations and academic technology in collaboration with AAHQ and local leaders. 
• Review and track company-wide and build out / follow local calendars and reporting, working with local program/academic teams to meet key deadlines.
• Assist with key academic operations prior to student arrival, such as monitoring course selection, assisting with course setup and auditing, and ensuring student and faculty access to online resources.
• Support the auditing of local course syllabi and Canvas sites, and make periodic administrative updates to materials for assigned courses. 
• Support faculty and academic leadership in organizing relevant academic data to support course registration or changes needed due to student placement (e.g. Math or language placement exams), flagging specific cases to ensure staff have up-to-date reports.
• Be familiar and serve as the local ‘power user’ for all academic technology and systems and how students and faculty navigate Canvas, Cengage, etc. to provide end-user support. Work closely with Verto Headquarters Academic and Technology Teams. 
• Be a member of the Academic Operations Team and provide timely resolution to Academic Operations tickets / issues.  

Faculty & Classroom Support 

• Provide general administrative support to academic staff and faculty.
• Create and maintain faculty email distribution lists and support faculty communications with the local academic leader.
• Support in and out of classroom needs from facilities to curriculum and technology for specific faculty and students’ teaching and learning needs. 
• Assist faculty in preparing course materials (e.g. printing or delivering hand-outs, worksheets, quizzes, etc.), ensuring privacy for quizzes and exams and following copyright rules, as appropriate.
• Assist faculty in recording and reporting placement exams or first-week course assessments, attending classes, and recording and reporting results, as necessary during Add/Drop and Census reporting.
• Maintain class attendance records as needed.  Assist in collecting documentation, creating attendance records, data input into appropriate reporting systems related to course attendance as relevant to the location.

Experiential Learning 

• Assist in the coordination of experiential learning activities, working with faculty to identify and document planned visits, schedule visits, purchase tickets, and ensure minimal duplication of events across courses/faculty. 
• Organize and attend relevant experiential learning activities or excursions as necessary, helping students navigate to/from the study center, or arriving early to coordinate with the local site, as needed.
• Document visits and prepare reporting as appropriate.  Assist in creating program-specific materials. 

Learning Support Services & Tutoring 

• Organize & set-up local tutoring and study spaces and schedules and faculty or student learning support spaces or review sessions as needed. 
• Support or organize make-up or proctoring schedules for individual students with accommodations; monitor and manage spaces as needed for accommodations. Manage proctoring schedules/ensure staffing availability, communicate with faculty and students to confirm relevant materials are available, and monitor spaces following faculty directions. 
• Support faculty and staff in encouraging and tracking student attendance at tutoring, study group, and other academic review sessions.  
• Coordinate tutoring availability and materials for tutors and attendees, supporting local and global tutoring programs, as needed. 

Academic Inventory & Course Materials

• Gather and prepare digital and printed course resources in collaboration with faculty for assigned sections (e.g. printing workbooks, handouts, additional support texts or readings, videos, etc.) 
• Coordinate textbook and library resources, creating a standard inventory and a ‘check-out’ system to track borrowing of local academic resources. 
• Partner with Program Ops to regularly review and report academic inventory of key onsite resources such as loaner laptops, digital cameras, etc. providing recommendations for replacements, new resource requests, and manage a “check out” system for academic equipment.
• Work with faculty and program staff to coordinate any requests for ordering necessary academic supplies for classrooms, labs, technology, or specific activities during the semester.  
• Update, print, distribute materials related to local academic events/programming.

Assist Academic Leadership and Team Needs  

• Proactively assist the local academic leadership, identifying opportunities to identify needs, find efficiencies, evaluate or improve current practices, and bring strong operational planning and support for academic operations and technology
• Assist local leaders with faculty recruitment and hiring, collect and help update CVs, gather faculty-specific materials for credentialing, background checks, etc., and assist AAHQ with faculty credentialing, systems onboarding and offboarding. 
• Assist in faculty outreach and track faculty or other academic resources (lab assistants, teaching assistants, tutors, guest speakers, etc.) availability for scheduling, activities, training, and meetings. 
• Assist in preparing student data and reporting. Support basic administrative tasks including data entry, audits, documentation, and reporting, and other tasks as assigned.  Keep student records up to date in relevant systems and reports.
• Maintain faculty meeting and workspace, coordinate faculty meetings and office hour schedules/spaces, etc. 
• Assist program leadership in organizing, clearing, and preparing the facility for students, visitors, site visits, company meetings, etc.  
• Attend academic, local, and global team meetings, as needed.  Attend company-wide or department / project meetings as directed by supervisor.  
• Assist in opening/closing the study center, providing reception coverage, attending community events, and other assigned location specific duties.
• Be responsive to feedback and contribute to creating an excellent program experience for students and positive team culture.

Global Academic Team Support 

• Serve as a member of the Academic Operations global team and monitor the ticket system, resolving or escalating issues as appropriate. 
• Work closely with academic HQ staff and global academic operations team members and the technology team, as appropriate.
• Participate in ongoing training and development as a AcaOps ‘power user’ for academic systems and technology. Contribute to pre-departure academic operations workflow processes and procedures, events and advising as needed.
• Support academic HQ and onsite academic staff with ad-hoc academic priorities, projects, and administrative tasks as needed.
• This role will work closely with the Verto headquarters academic team and as a member of a global team, may be required to provide occasional evening or weekend hours for meetings or events.  Work responsibilities may include headquarters directed work or other projects to meet business needs. 

Minimum Requirements and Qualifications

• Bachelors degree required.
• Two years of professional experience in higher education or study abroad administration 
• Must be authorized to work in-country at time of hire or determined start date. Verto does not provide visa sponsorship. 
• Strong attention to detail and excellent organizational and technical skills .
• Cross-cultural communication skills, fluent in English.
• This position is fully in-person in a Verto program location and follows the established local staffing schedule, which may vary to accommodate program and business needs. 

Preferred Requirements and Qualifications

• Master’s degree plus 2 years experience working in US study abroad or US university strongly preferred. 
• Experience working with first-year college students / 18 – 22 year olds. 
• Fluent / Advanced proficiency in local language for non-English speaking locations
• Project-management experience and training in project management software, such as Asana.
• A systematic approach to your work, with an ability to scale work for maximum effectiveness and efficiency. 
• Experience working with faculty in an academic setting. 
• Familiarity with academic and relevant technology (LMS/Canvas, Salesforce, Google, etc.) and experience with AI in academic settings.
• Ability to work independently, following established policies and procedures, with full accuracy. 
• Attitude of continuous improvement and bias toward action and progress, eager to identify efficiencies and opportunities to systematize operations and practices. 

At Verto Education we value voices of all backgrounds and experiences. We know that creating a diverse environment takes dedication and intentional hiring practices. Even if you don’t meet 100% of the above qualifications, you should still seriously consider applying. Studies show that you can still be considered for a role if you meet just 50% of the role’s requirements.