We are looking for an energetic and ambitious Director to lead and serve as the driving force together with a steering group, thereby supporting all eight Danish universities and the University of the Faroe Islands.

The successful applicant should be motivated by working closely with researchers, educators, students, administrative staff and external stakeholders in an inclusive and highly collaborative manner and with ambitions to establish STRIVE U. as an alliance qualifying, accelerating, and scaling the transition of the Danish and Faroese university sectors towards more interdisciplinary, sustainability-focused and cross-institutional scopes of education.

About us

The STRIVE U. alliance consists of the following partners: University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Technical University of Denmark, University of Southern Denmark, Aalborg University, Copenhagen Business School, Roskilde University, IT University of Copenhagen and the University of the Faroe Islands. The alliance secretariat will be at the University of Copenhagen.

The overall mission of STRIVE U. is to facilitate an interdisciplinary university alliance, focusing on sustainability in education, enabling bottom-up education development and equip and encourage university students and staff to become sustainability change agents. STRIVE U. will be organized around three key initiatives:

“The Alliance” – a national collaboration between universities, where a joint Steering Committee coordinates efforts, gathers experiences, and sets the direction for the development of sustainable, interdisciplinary education.

“The Greenhouse” – a fund that supports concrete teaching projects, where instructors and students can develop and test new interdisciplinary courses and forms of collaboration in practice.

“The Pollinators’ Platform” – a learning and networking platform with courses and seminars that builds staff capacity and ensures that experiences from the projects are shared and embedded across the entire university sector.

STRIVE U. is funded by a six-year grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and will be launched on 1 September 2026. The Director will play a proactive role in establishing and developing STRIVE U. from its very beginning. This will include putting together a small secretariat and setting up an administrative framework for the full STRIVE U. funding programmes.

The position

The Director holds the overall operational responsibility for STRIVE U., and forms the foundations to fulfil the ambitions of the initiative, and will lead the partners’ joint efforts to build a unique collaboration to strengthen interdisciplinarity among students, thereby accelerating the green transition. The Director will represent STRIVE U. externally together with the chair of the Steering Committee, develop and maintain good working relations with all partners and stakeholders, and serve as the primary liaison to key stakeholders, the Advisory Board, and the Steering Committee, ensuring that activities remain aligned with STRIVE U.’s overarching goals. Furthermore, the Director will lead continuous evaluation and development of the STRIVE U.initiative, with the aim to extend and scale beyond the project’s direct impact.

The Director will play a pivotal role in STRIVE U., working in partnership with all participating universities and the administrative team in the secretariat.

The tasks will include – but are not limited to:

• Developing the administrative framework and processes for STRIVE U., including overall responsibility for all activities in the programme
• Managing the administrative team in the secretariat, incl. coordinating tasks with the nine universities
• Planning and participating in Steering Committee and Advisory Board meetings and follow-up
• Responsible for providing annual reports on STRIVE U. activities and progress to the Committee on Educational Policy under Universities Denmark
• Overseeing the administrative management of the STRIVE U. grant and the reporting to the Novo Nordisk Foundation
• Point of contact for the stakeholders of the alliance partners, including the Novo Nordisk Foundation
• Facilitating communication, dissemination of activities and results from STRIVE U. to a wider audience.

Our expectations

We expect that you will:

• Have an academic degree at PhD level, preferably with well-established research experience within sustainability and education
• Have substantial transferable/relevant experience in a management role, preferably from a university, and have an involving approach to leadership
• Have a proven ability to interact effectively with staff at all levels and with a wide range of internal and external contacts, commanding respect and dealing with highly complex issues
• Speak and write English fluently (non-Danish applicants will be required to demonstrate Danish skills at conversation level)
• Have experience with managing budgets and executing project deliverables
• Work independently and in a structured manner and keep an overview of ongoing issues, challenges, and opportunities
• Be proactive, flexible, have a solution-oriented mindset and excel in collaborating and creating networks and relationships across professional groups.

Salary and employment conditions

We offer an interesting and challenging job, covering a very broad range of responsibilities. The successful applicant will get the opportunity to build and develop a unique educational programme across a wide range of university partners.

The position is as a senior executive officer with responsibility for personnel in accordance with the Collective Agreement for Academics in the Danish State. It will be possible to negotiate additional supplements based on qualifications. The fixed-term position is full-time, and the average working hours are 37 hours per week.

Your employment will be at the Faculty of Science, the University of Copenhagen, Bülowsvej 17, 1870 Frederiksberg C.

The application process

If you are interested in the position, please send an electronic application with attachments (incl. CV and relevant documentation for your academic degree) via the Job Portal (click on the link "APPLY FOR THE POSITION" at the bottom of the advertisement) no later than 5 August 2026, 23:59 GMT +2.

Interviews will take place during weeks 34 and 35.

We seek to reflect the diversity of society and welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.

Further information

You can read more about STRIVE U. here.

Additional information about the position is available upon request from Associate Dean for Education, Professor Andreas de Neergaard by email adn@science.ku.dk or telephone +45 2443 4331.

The University of Copenhagen gives its approx. 10,000 employees the opportunity to fully utilise their talent in an ambitious, informal environment. We ensure a traditional and modern framework for education and independent research at a high international level. We seek answers and solutions to common problems and make new knowledge accessible and useful to others.

Lyder det som noget for dig? Så håber vi, at du har lyst til at læse nærmere!

Om stillingen
Det nye kompetencecenter skal hjælpe universitetet med at beregne, hvad vores avancerede forskningsinfrastruktur koster at anvende, fx vores dyre mikroskoper, samt sikre, at prissætningen er korrekt og gennemsigtig. Det er vigtigt, fordi en stor del af KU's forskning er finansieret af eksterne bevillingsgivere som fx EU, der stiller høje krav til dokumentation.

Du bliver leder af en ny enhed, som organisatorisk placeres i Koncernøkonomi. Enheden vil bestå af kompetencecentret for omkostningsberegning samt tværgående analyseopgaver på økonomiområdet. Du får personaleansvar for ca. seks medarbejdere – både nuværende medarbejdere og nye medarbejdere, som du er med til at rekruttere. Samtidig får du en central rolle i at udvikle økonomiske analyser og beslutningsgrundlag, som understøtter universitetets ledelse og den fortsatte udvikling af økonomistyringen. Vi har blandt andet fokus på, hvad det koster for KU at tage imod ekstern finansiering til vores forskningsprojekter samt på udviklingen i vores administrationsomkostninger.

I Koncernøkonomi bliver du en del af en enhed med ca. 25 medarbejdere fordelt på to sektioner. Kompetencecentret bliver en ny tredje sektion, og du indgår i ledelsesteamet sammen med sektionsleder Maria Hinnerup Fjallstein og koncernøkonomichef Susanne Heunicke.

Du bliver en del af et stærkt fagligt miljø med engagerede kolleger og får gode muligheder for både faglig og personlig udvikling. Samtidig tilbyder vi fleksible arbejdsvilkår og en arbejdsplads, hvor samarbejde, udvikling og trivsel prioriteres højt.

Dine vigtigste ansvarsområder
En stor del af dit arbejde kommer til at bestå af at skabe stærke relationer og samarbejder på tværs af hele universitetet. Du får derfor en bred kontaktflade på hele universitetet og skal kunne navigere i krydsfeltet mellem faglige, økonomiske og organisatoriske hensyn.

Du får blandt andet ansvar for at:

• etablere og udvikle det nye kompetencecenter, herunder rekruttering og ledelse af medarbejdere
• udvikle modeller og metoder til økonomiske beregninger
• udarbejde økonomiske analyser og beslutningsgrundlag til ledelsen
• udvikle fælles processer og arbejdsgange på tværs af universitetet
• sikre høj kvalitet i universitetets økonomiske datagrundlag

Om dig
Du står stærkt i din økonomifaglighed og motiveres af at opbygge og udvikle noget nyt. Måske er du et spirende ledelsestalent, eller måske har du allerede erfaring med personaleledelse. Det vigtigste for os er, at du trives i en rolle med både ledelse og hænderne nede i den faglig udvikling.

Vi forestiller os, at du:

• har erfaring med omkostningsberegninger, prissætning eller datadrevet økonomisk analyse – gerne fra andre politisk styrede organisationer
• kan skabe klarhed om roller, ansvar og samarbejdsflader
• kan skabe struktur, retning og fremdrift i komplekse opgaver
• er en stærk formidler - både mundtligt og skriftligt
• kan opbygge stærke samarbejdsrelationer på tværs af organisationen
• har en relevant videregående uddannelse, fx cand.polit.

Din nye arbejdsplads
Københavns Universitet er et af Europas største universiteter med ca. 10.000 medarbejdere, 36.000 studerende og en årlig omsætning på omkring 12 mia. kr. Universitetet er kendetegnet ved forskning og uddannelse på højeste internationale niveau og spiller en central rolle i udviklingen af ny viden til gavn for samfundet.

Løn- og ansættelsesvilkår
Ansættelse sker som chefkonsulent med personaleansvar efter gældende overenskomst. Tillæg forhandles efter kvalifikationer.

Stillingen forventes besat 1. november eller snarest derefter. Ansættelse og aflønning sker i henhold til Cirkulære om overenskomst for akademikere i staten mellem Finansministeriet og Akademikerne, med indplacering som chefkonsulent med personaleansvar. Du kan forhandle tillæg, afhængigt af dine kompetencer og erfaring.

Yderligere oplysninger
Samtaler forventes afholdt i uge 36 og 37

Kontakt endelig koncernøkonomichef Susanne Heunicke på tlf. 51 71 43 51 hvis du er nysgerrig på at høre mere!

Københavns Universitet ønsker at afspejle det omgivende samfund og opfordrer alle uanset personlig baggrund til at søge stillingen.

Ansøgning
Send din ansøgning, cv og eksamensbevis elektronisk via jobportalen senest den 26. august. Vi modtager kun elektroniske ansøgninger.

Vi ønsker at afspejle det omgivende samfund og opfordrer alle uanset personlig baggrund til at søge stillingen.

Vi ser frem til at modtage din ansøgning!

Københavns Universitet har etableret en ny fælles administrativ organisering, som fortsat implementeres. Det indebærer løbende forandringer og udvikling af bl.a. arbejdsgange og samarbejdsflader.