Position Title: Executive Director, Career and Professional Development
Position Type: Regular
Salary Range:
$126,150 - $150,800; commensurate with experience
Pay Frequency: Annual
Rationale/Background
This is a critical time to work in career education in higher education. The future of work is here; today's workforce is rapidly evolving, accelerated by technological innovation, with a focus coming through the pandemic on creating more equitable pathways to opportunities in the talent marketplace. For post-secondary systems, there's urgency to address systemic challenges for a growing diversity of learners related to access to education, social capital, and economic mobility. Additionally, students are increasingly demanding affordable and flexible learning options, ROI for tuition dollars, and a clear connection between their education and access to a better future. In this new era, inequities long unaddressed and brought to the surface by COVID have become additional accelerant factors for higher education.
As a Jesuit higher learning institution in one of the most vibrant geographic regions in the world for innovation, Santa Clara University has an opportunity to generate tremendous value as part of a national post-COVID recovery process. Externally speaking, the incoming leader for the Career Center can strengthen the position of the department as an institutional partner to help bolster Santa Clara's role as an economic driver and gateway to the world and to the workforce in Silicon Valley and beyond. Internally, the Career Center and the talented team of professionals in this department are poised to advance critical institutional priorities.
Many visionary institutions have elevated the role of career services, recognizing the importance of the function and understanding its impact on student success. Developing an integrated model with high impact career education practices for all students including mentorship, access to research, internships and robust employer-student connections, life design and career readiness education for all students is both an opportunity and an ethical imperative for SCU. This is therefore not just a Career Center problem to solve, it's an institutional one as well.
To build this kind of future - a more connected and engaged experience for all students that can drive strong outcomes, and to transform and power this in a way that is imagined, timely investments from the institution at the highest levels will help secure important support for this bold objective. Elements that will support SCU's Career Center to achieve results at scale:
Buy-in from senior campus leadership and clear operational connections between the Career Center and the bold goals articulated in Santa Clara University's strategic vision.
Budget, human capital, and staffing infrastructure that align with a vision for impact.
Strategic technology, operational innovation and effectiveness, and external provider partnerships.
Access to modern student data systems and insights that can be leveraged across the campus ecosystem.
Cross-campus coordination and resource cohesion to engage and reach all students equitably.
About Santa Clara University
Santa Clara University (SCU) is a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California's Silicon Valley. SCU offers its nearly 9,000 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, theology, and engineering, plus master's and law degrees and engineering doctoral degrees. Santa Clara University is committed to the Jesuit, Catholic tradition of educating the whole person — mind, body and soul — and preparing students to create a more just, humane, and sustainable world. Engaging with the diversity, energy, and entrepreneurial spirit that are the hallmarks of Silicon Valley, SCU aspires to intensify and coordinate outreach to neighboring communities and the technology giants in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area who change the world and employ our graduates.
Opportunity
Santa Clara University invites candidates to apply for a newly created position that elevates and affirms the importance of Santa Clara's commitment to preparing undergraduate and graduate students for meaningful internship and experiential learning opportunities and postgraduate lives. Reporting to the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, the new Executive Director will both lead the Career Center and serve as a visionary and senior administrator who will provide campus-wide strategic leadership. The Executive Director will foster a "career everywhere" mentality that will empower Career Center staff as well as faculty, staff, and university affiliates to meet the unique career development needs of the SCU undergraduate and graduate student population. The new leader must be an innovator who is knowledgeable about career development best practices and possess the ability to quickly and strategically grow the operation while building strong faculty, employer and alumni relationships. This leader will value a Jesuit liberal arts education, be a vocal leader on the values of diversity, equity and inclusion, thoughtfully engage faculty and administrators, serving as a bridge between the industry/employer community needs and our academic partners, and understand the importance of collecting, tracking, and analyzing data, including career outcomes metrics that inform decisions and demonstrate the Career Center's value and impact.
A vibrant university career center is essential to meeting the expectations of stakeholders and to support hopeful students who are investing in their own futures. The successful leader for this role will need exceptional interpersonal communication skills to bring disparate stakeholders to the table, forging meaningful partnerships and collaborations that go well beyond the transactional. Together with an array of campus colleagues, the incoming leader has the potential to collaboratively catalyze dynamic and transformative changes for Santa Clara and for its students.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Vision and Leadership
Responsible for the overall planning, organization, and direction of the Career Center, including conceptualization, development, and implementation of programs and services to meet needs of undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, and employers. Establish Center's short-and long-range goals and guiding strategic themes.
Determine methods of incorporating views of users and staff into goal-setting, ensuring the program aligns with SCU's mission and vision.
Continuously strengthen relationships with faculty, deans, vice presidents, vice provosts, unit directors, other campus units, parents and student committees and clubs to achieve the goal of offering a comprehensive program of career development including education, advising, and access to internships and experiential education and connections with employers and alumni. Develop these concepts as an integral part of the university community.
Build and maintain an effective and collaborative relationship with the Vice Provost for Graduate Programs.
Establish and maintain effective network/relationships with business, industry, government, educational, and community leaders.
Lead and facilitate campus engagement related to the value of internships and experiential learning, including monitoring trends and emerging opportunities, such as micro-internships, virtual employer experiences, and exploration of expanding and enhancing on-campus internships/professional development.
Drive innovation by being responsive to market trends, benchmarking programs and services with peer and aspirational institutions, and tracking annual student benefits and outcomes.
Serve as primary spokesperson for the Career Center. Serve in leadership roles in local, regional, and national professional associations. Participate in cross-university committees, addressing topics such as data governance, alumni engagement, advancement, industry DEI pipeline programs/program development, and strategic planning committees.
Provide original written content, and participate in and make presentations, relating to career development and cutting-edge employer and industry engagement practices at professional meetings, recruitment events and other conferences.
Interpret and implement university policy and federal and state laws as they affect such services as relations with potential employers of students and graduates for both part-time and career jobs and internships. Be accountable for the Career Center's compliance with Title IX and university policy relating to employment and accessibility to records. Keeps abreast of pertinent legislation and judicial decisions which impact the equitable access to career services and employment opportunities.
Staff Supervision and Development
Oversee the management and continued growth of professional and student staff at the Career Center, including staff dedicated to career education, employer and industry connections, data and analytics, technology, marketing, and operations.
Continue to support and enhance professional roles that align with colleges and industry clusters in order to provide programs and guidance seen as credible by students, faculty, alumni, parents, and employers.
Restructure, add, and/or request proposals for positions or office units as priorities evolve and needs emerge. Create staff project teams to generate recommendations and solutions for emerging issues.
Ensure staff have access to professional development opportunities.
Provide leadership to the professional staff in creating and presenting programs including advising, workshops, career fairs, networking events, alumni/employer career discovery panels, career resources development, and graduate/professional school application resources.
The career and professional development needs of graduate students in the School of Law and the Leavey School of Business are managed by their own teams. However, it is imperative that the Executive Director see that the Career Center works with the appropriate directors in each division to ensure that there is alignment of career needs and to look for ways to work strategically together.
The career and professional development needs of graduate students in the School of Engineering, School of Education and Counseling Psychology, Jesuit School of Theology and College of Arts & Sciences are managed by staff within the Career Center.
Interact with the graduate assistant deans for their specialized needs and expectations and identify solutions which provide opportunities for collaborative strategies.
Grow Employer Engagement
With and through Career Center staff and campus partners, increase employer outreach and on-campus engagement opportunities with an overall goal of increasing access to diverse internship and employment opportunities for Santa Clara's students including CPT/OPT opportunities for international students.
With and through Career Center staff and campus partners, evaluate and support existing activities and technology tools and experiment with new career readiness engagement models, such as career fairs & expos, meet-ups, flash mentoring initiatives, networking events, and career panels.
Collaborate with the Office of Development to identify potential corporate partnerships and development opportunities to support career development initiatives and programs.
Meet revenue goals via employer engagement activities and partnership programs. Plan and grow annual revenue targets.
Partner with the SCU Alumni Office to identify potential employers for students.
Enhance advancement and employer engagement by serving as a visible leader who proactively develops relationships with campus partners and external employer and industry stakeholders.
Data and Storytelling
Provide the tools and technology necessary for career services to collaborate with Institutional Research to collect, analyze, and share data (including First Destination) broadly to support the story that needs to be told about student success at Santa Clara and beyond.
Ensure the collection of statistics relating to the use of the Career Center, job listings, referrals, and placements for both employment and graduate/professional school acceptance.
In partnership with Enrollment Management/UG Admissions, the Vice Provost for Graduate Programs, and University Marketing Communication, ensure that annual surveys and reports are developed and shared with the campus community.
Create and chair a task force for First Destination post-graduate outcomes with task force members representing units such as student success, Institutional Research, Academic Affairs, University Marketing and Communications, IT, Office of the Provost and Alumni Relations/Advancement. Ensure the university follows the National Association for Colleges and Employers (NACE) First Destination Standards and Protocols.
Once established, sit on an institution-wide Data Governance task force to promote more open data sharing. Create Tableau or other data visualization dashboards within Student Affairs and Institutional Research where First Destination aggregate feeds into dashboards that can quickly answer questions around employment by college, major, ethnicity, and other student identities and statuses. This data can also be used by undergraduate and graduate admissions offices as well as various rankings publications (US News & World Report, Poets & Quants).
Oversee and direct the development and implementation of marketing strategy, the allocation of marketing resources and promotional materials including social media campaigns, event marketing, and promotional giveaways, etc. Coordinate/integrate marketing plan with internal campus partners to leverage resources and optimize reach.
Ensure the deployment of a multi-faceted and user-centered marketing program communicates the Career Center's value propositions for different stakeholders.
Administration, Technology, and Operations
Oversee operation with multiple technological functions critical to service including a web site, an online job listing service, employer information, and other data collection systems.
Maintain up-to-date knowledge of technical advances in the field, e.g., online resources for interviewing and resume feedback.
Develop a strategic vision and plans to continue integrating technology solutions to help the Career Center create equitable student impact at scale.
Oversee efforts to help faculty infuse career readiness into classroom instruction and required activities.
Provide campus departments with information on labor market trends and statistical information regarding recruitment, SCU graduate outcomes, and salary offers.
Identify and prioritize use of campus space(s) to increase department visibility and access, sending a clear message to students, faculty, parents, employers, and alumni that Santa Clara cares about student success.
Oversee the Career Center's annual budget. Use budget to inform decisions and develop the effective use of resources. On the basis of the University's and the Career Center's mission, develop, present and defend budget proposals to campus-wide committees.
Evaluate services, programs and resources of the Career Center, considering usage and performance measures, alignment with diversity, equity and inclusion goals, to ensure quality in the delivery of services. Identify patterns and trends and modify programs as needed.
Ensure adherence to university policy and procedures in all areas of the operations including Human Resources and management of resources.
Qualifications & Competencies
Understanding and support of the Jesuit tradition of education and a commitment to the fundamental values of service to others, community, and diversity.
An advanced degree with five years or more of strategic leadership in the planning and provision of comprehensive career services for undergraduates, graduate students and alumni and/or equivalent experience.
Knowledge of cutting-edge career services practices and trends, career development theories, recruitment and employment trends, and job and internship search techniques and tools.
Ability to manage and to build a complex organization and to effectively direct and lead its staff.
Ability to involve others in the decision-making process, ability to foster effective staff relations, and to provide strong team leadership.
Ability to design and to evaluate services by using needs and program assessments and by using satisfaction measures.
Ability to build a profile of Santa Clara students' career and graduate outcomes on the basis of surveys of first destinations.
Have a strong and developed network of employer/recruiter relationships across various industry sectors.
Possess strong supervisory, training and motivational skills with the ability to inspire staff to undertake challenging assignments in spite of varying resource and staffing allocations.
Ability to identify and evaluate problems and to establish research- and data-informed, measurable, challenging, and attainable goals for the Center and individual staff members.
Expertise in budget planning, preparation, and administration. Ability to make realistic, equitable fiscal decisions, present and defend mission-based budget concerns, and prepare compelling reports.
Excellent communication skills in written, multimedia, and public speaking modes for audiences of all levels
Ability to communicate effectively to diverse audiences. Ability to interact effectively with students, staff, faculty, alumni, graduate/professional schools, parents, employers, and other members of the community.
Understanding and experience integrating DEI principles in the workplace as well as Career-Services and initiatives.
In support of Santa Clara University's commitment to Inclusive Excellence, it is vital that all candidates seeking employment not only be committed to, but also demonstrate skills, knowledge and values necessary for, serving the unique needs of our diverse campus community.
Ability to develop and conduct workshops, seminars, and other group instructional programs.
Knowledge of existing and emerging career exploration and assessment instruments.
Ability to develop and implement effective marketing programs aimed at diverse constituencies.
Knowledge of employment law and fair employment practices and means of pursuing grievances and seeking redress.
EEO Statement
​ Equal Opportunity/Notice of Nondiscrimination
Santa Clara University is an equal opportunity/equal access/affirmative action employer fully committed to achieving a diverse workforce and complies with all Federal and California State laws, regulations, and executive orders regarding non-discrimination and affirmative action. Applications from members of historically underrepresented groups are especially encouraged. For a complete copy of Santa Clara University's equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policies, see https://www.scu.edu/title-ix/policies-reports/
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
Santa Clara University does not discriminate in its employment practices or in its educational programs or activities on the basis of sex/gender, and prohibits retaliation against any person opposing discrimination or participating in any discrimination investigation or complaint process internally or externally. The Title IX Coordinator and Section 504 and ADA Coordinator is Jenna Elliott, Interim Director of Equal Opportunity and Title IX, 408-551-3043, jrelliot@scu.edu , www.scu.edu/title-ix . Inquiries can also be made to the Assistant Secretary of Education within the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
Clery Notice of Availability
Santa Clara University annually collects information about campus crimes and other reportable incidents in accordance with the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. To view the Santa Clara University report, please go to the Campus Safety Services website . To request a paper copy please call Campus Safety at (408) 554-4441. The report includes the type of crime, venue, and number of occurrences.
Americans with Disabilities Act
Santa Clara University affirms its' commitment to employ qualified individuals with disabilities within the workplace and to comply with the Americans with Disability Act. All applicants desiring an accommodation should contact the Department of Human Resources , and 408-554-5750 and request to speak to Indu Ahluwalia by phone at 408-554-5750 or by email at iahluwalia@scu.edu .
Santa Clara University annually collects information about campus crimes and other reportable incidents in accordance with the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. To view the Santa Clara University report, please go to the Campus Safety Services website . To request a paper copy please call Campus Safety at (408) 554-4441. The report includes the type of crime, venue, and number of occurrences.
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