Associate Director for Employer Development

Position Number: 000788

Department: University College (Adm)

Employment Type: Permanent - Full-time

Months Per Year: 12

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

The Associate Director for Employer Development strategically manages and develops employer relationships across all industries, ensuring every campus constituent who interfaces with employers — Colleges, Advancement, Alumni Relations, and other institutional partners — moves in a coordinated, unified direction. This position leads the Employer Development team, directly supervising staff responsible for industry-specific employer relationships, part-time and event-based employer engagement, and the strategic growth of new employer partnerships. The Associate Director sets employer development direction and defines employer engagement metrics, owns employer engagement reporting for campus leadership, and serves as the primary point of contact for major employer initiatives arising from across campus — including the Corporate Relations Council, University Advancement, and University Leadership. This position works in close, ongoing coordination with the Associate Director for Experiential Learning — as a peer partner, not a supervisory relationship — to ensure a unified, one-university approach to employer and internship-related opportunities. This position supervises full-time staff and carries budgetary responsibility for the Employer Development team.

Sets employer development direction and defines employer development and engagement metrics, owns employer development reporting for campus leadership, and serves as the primary point of contact for major employer initiatives arising from across campus — including the Corporate Relations Council, University Advancement, and University Leadership.

Minimum Experience / Education:

• Master’s degree in higher education administration, business, human resources, or a related field with commensurate experience.

• Progressive professional experience in employer relations, career services, business development, account/relationship management, or a comparable relationship-driven field.

• Experience directly supervising and developing staff, including performance management and goal-setting.

Preferred Education Skills and Experience:

• Experience operating with significant decision-making autonomy — able to exercise sound judgment on partnership and relationship decisions without needing frequent sign-off, while knowing when an issue genuinely warrants escalation.

• Comfort with CRM or relationship-tracking systems and building reporting dashboards; this role is expected to build and maintain its own tracking.

• Experience in a role requiring peer-level cross-functional coordination — working alongside another leader with a related but distinct mandate, without a direct reporting relationship between them.

• Familiarity working with or presenting to senior institutional leadership (e.g., cabinet-level administrators, boards, or executive councils).

• Business development instincts — comfortable proactively pursuing new relationships against a target list, not just maintaining existing ones.

• Experience operating across multiple industries or client verticals simultaneously, given the breadth of employer sectors this role touches.

• Demonstrated experience owning a major initiative with clearly defined metrics and milestones — not just contributing to one, but having accountability for setting the targets, tracking progress, and reporting outcomes to leadership.

• Proven ability to set goals, track progress against them, and move a team or group of stakeholders toward measurable results.