In a surprise move, Andrew W. Maylor said he will resign as the state’s comptroller, less than a year after he was appointed, and will take a job as vice president and chief business officer at Merrimack College.
The move, which Maylor announced to staff in a memo Tuesday, will return him to the Merrimack Valley, where he served as North Andover’s town manager before Governor Charlie Baker tapped him last year to serve as the independent overseer of more than $60 billion in state spending and assets.
Maylor will officially resign on Feb. 21, almost exactly a year to the day after he started.
Maylor called the opportunity a surprise, even to him. He said Merrimack College, which two of his daughters attended, contacted him about the new role, and that discussions developed only in recent weeks. Maylor has also worked as an adjunct professor at the school, which straddles the Andover-North Andover town line.
“I was not applying for positions,” Maylor said Tuesday. "It really was the opportunity. The position in essence has been crafted for me to take advantage of my experience. And a growing college like Merrimack is a lot like town government. . . . It made a lot of sense.”
A spokeswoman for Baker said he would appoint a successor soon.
“Lt. Governor Polito and I are grateful for Andrew’s service to our Commonwealth and work during his time as Comptroller to bring accountability and transparency to the position,” Baker said in a statement.
Baker is a resident of Swampscott, where Maylor was town administrator, including during Baker’s three-year stretch as town selectmen.
Maylor’s comptroller tenure, while short, was unusually high-profile. He clashed with the Legislature last fall when it delayed for months passing a spending bill to close out the previous fiscal year. It prompted Maylor to warn lawmakers that he would close the state’s books himself — and move a $1 billion surplus into the state’s savings account — if they didn’t reach a deal.
The House disputed whether he had legal authority to make such a move, which Maylor acknowledged would be unprecedented, and he ultimately backed off, hours before the Legislature reached a compromise. But the dispute was a remarkable escalation in a normally mundane fiscal process.
Maylor said the situation wasn’t a factor in his decision to leave.
“It was never personal,” he said, adding that the Legislature has been supportive of the office. “It’s the opportunity that’s driving this decision.”
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout.