The Associate Director for Career Readiness reports to the Director for Student Success. Serving as the university career readiness SME (subject matter expert) to infuse a culture of career readiness and develop this as an institution-wide strategy in an online learning environment that meets students where they are. The Associate Director is essential to students in ensuring alignment with the academic journey, external workforce demands, changes and trends.

This position is based out of the university's home office in Albany, NY with the option of considering remote candidates. Remote employees will have mandatory occasional travel for meetings, conferences, and professional development opportunities. Remote employees are expected to be available during work hours 8:30 am - 5:00 pm Eastern time. The University will supply necessary equipment to perform the essential functions of this job (e.g., Laptop, docking station). Employees are responsible for having a workspace where they can participate in virtual meetings without multiple interruptions and noise.

Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Help collect student success outcomes as it relates to career goal attainment, employment, connections, and general engagement with career readiness team.
• Work closely with Ikey units (alumni relations, partnership and transformational teams) on annual plans for creating and maintaining experiential opportunities, cultivating new employer relationships and for strengthening current ones. Identify a set of priority employers to engage to find more points of intersection to strengthen relations.
• Coordinate, manage and collaborate logistics of specialized career-related virtual and other events and serve as the point of contact.
• Input/track student engagement activity in CRM system, monitor touch points and career development phases of engagement to ensure strategy is advancing to assist in the planning and preparation they need to reach their own unique and personal success goals. Report success based on progress and outcomes at graduation (or prior to). Industry trends; Gainful Employment; Bridge to Career Success
• Serve as the point person for student career resources and engagement initiatives as part of the Career Readiness Team; uConnect Career Rope Teams and Communities Engagement, Excelsior Connects, Mentoring initiatives, programs, career workshops, groups coaching sessions, guest speaking, panels, career-topic workshops/events and assist Industry Employer Relations Specialist as needed with employer related needs.
• Other administrative duties including program coordination, record keeping and input for tracking engagement/evaluation assessments, assistance with preparation of career-related materials and publications (Career readiness university newsletter).
• Work with team on marketing efforts in collaboration with internal staff for student success storytelling as part of enrollment and growth efforts.
• Provide day-to-day administrative leadership for the Career Readiness Team; develop annual strategic work plans; outline goals, timelines/schedules for deliverables, resource needs, and plans for assessment.
• Develop measurable outcomes-based standards/KPIs to ensure gold-standard service practices; liaise with Analytics and Decision Support for purposes of student needs assessments, data collection, and assessment of KPIs.
• Work with Director for Student Success and Executive Director for Student Affairs on annual operating budget needs.
• Update online tools, resources, and materials used by the Career Readiness Team
• Serve as point of contact for third-party vendors; maintain contracts and ensure methods in place to assess partnerships in advance of contract renewals.
• Serve as subject matter expert (SME) for career-related content for academic units, advising, alumni affairs, marketing, and public relations; develop and deliver training to appropriate staff on career readiness topics and resources, as needed.
• Work with Academic Programs, Admissions, Marketing, and others to increase awareness of Carer Readiness to university community and future students, including preparation of marketing material, webinars, etc.
• Engage in Student Affairs Meetings, Committees, and NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) Professional Association.

Qualifications: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able and willing to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Master’s degree from a regionally accredited university.
• 3 (three) years of relevant experience working in an institution of higher education in the areas of career counseling, academic advising, student affairs, student counseling, or student support services.
• Understanding of career development theory and practice.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Experience working with adult and/or online learners preferred Experience with the identification of relevant and desirable student learning and development outcomes, as related to experiential learning programs, and the establishment of measures aimed at accomplishing them.
• Project and event management experience.
• Experience in higher education career services or recruiting in a university/college setting.
• Familiarity with general industry hiring cycles and processes.
• Familiarity with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
• Familiarity with student learning styles.
• Career Coaching experience and skills.
• Creativity and resourcefulness as the primary coach within group coaching.
• Awareness of visa issues as they pertain to international students.
• Experience with career self-assessment, exploration, and counseling (including preparation for graduate school)
• Experience with military and veteran transition.
• Working knowledge of mock interviewing, job search techniques and databases, and always be ahead of the curve on emerging career-readiness technologies and platforms.

The hiring salary range for this position is $60,000.00 - $68,000.00. The hiring salary range above represents the University's good faith estimate at the time of posting.

Remote applicants please be aware that the University is required to withhold New York state income taxes from your wages, as well as the state income tax, if applicable, in the state where you perform services. This is because of New York’s “convenience of the employer” rule, which requires the University, as a New York employer, to withhold New York income tax from the wages of its employees working outside of New York if the employee’s work is performed outside of New York for the convenience of the employee, rather than out of a business necessity of the University.