Associate Dean of the Career Advancement Center

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Standard Work Schedule:
• Building:
• Salary Range: $200,000-$230,000

Position Summary

The Associate Dean of the Career Advancement Center sets the strategic direction for career support at SIPA, leading the Center in serving the School’s approximately 1,400 graduate students and its alumni across all of its degree programs. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Associate Dean is responsible for the Center’s full range of functions – employer and industry relations, advising and coaching for students and alumni, career education, market intelligence, and outcomes reporting – and for the management of its staff and budget. Working closely with employers across the sectors SIPA graduates enter, the Associate Dean strengthens recruiting and hiring and, in partnership with faculty and colleagues in admissions, student affairs, academic affairs, and alumni relations, aligns the School’s programs with the changing demands of the market. The Associate Dean serves as SIPA’s principal representative on career matters with counterparts elsewhere at Columbia, with peer schools of public and international affairs, and among the employers and organizations with which the School works.

Responsibilities

Strategic Vision: Sets the direction and priorities for career support at SIPA and designs the initiatives, programs, and partnerships that carry them out, in concert with the Chief Operating Officer and the School’s senior leadership. Articulates that vision persuasively and builds support for it among students, faculty, alumni, and staff, and represents the Center on School and University committees and working groups relevant to student career outcomes.

Employer Relations and Business Development: Leads the School’s employer engagement, both winning new recruiting partners and deepening SIPA’s established relationships with the companies, government agencies, multilateral institutions, and non-governmental and non-profit organizations that hire its students and alumni. Oversees the Directors of Employer Relations and keeps outreach, relationship management, and recruiting programming aligned across portfolios. Works to grow the internship opportunities available to students and to develop the funding to support them – through employer partnerships and, where appropriate, sponsorship or fundraising – so that promising placements remain financially feasible.

Strategic Partnerships: Helps build and steward the School’s broader relationships with corporations and other organizations – partnerships that reach beyond recruiting to encompass sponsorship, academic programming, student engagement, and philanthropy. Because these relationships seldom belong to a single office, works as part of a School-wide team, alongside colleagues in other units including development, academic affairs, student affairs, admissions, and financial aid, to develop and sustain them – representing the talent, career, and student-engagement dimensions and connecting a partner’s interests to opportunities across SIPA.

Career Education and Advising: Oversees the Center’s advising, coaching, and career-education offerings for students and its lifelong career support for alumni, from self-assessment and job-search resources through individual counseling and professional-development programming. Because an internship is required in several of SIPA’s degree programs, ensures that students are well supported in identifying and securing internships as well as full-time positions. Works with the Center’s directors and advisors to keep advising consistent and high in quality across concentrations and degree programs, and guides the creation of new services as student needs evolve.

Data and Outcomes: Directs the gathering, quality, and analysis of the Center’s career-outcomes data so that reporting is accurate, timely, and dependable for internal planning as well as for external surveys and distribution. Draws on market intelligence and outcomes data to set the Center’s priorities and to make the case for its impact with students, faculty, and School leadership.

Team, Structure, and Budget: Continually assesses whether the Center’s organization, roles, and capacity are matched to the needs of SIPA’s students and to a changing employment market, and leads the structural and staffing changes needed to keep the office well positioned for the future. Carries primary responsibility for managing the Career Advancement Center’s people, budget, and day-to-day operations; supervises the Center’s directors and, through them, its coordinators and support staff; coordinates with Human Resources on staffing and personnel matters; and partners with the School’s finance office to keep the budget on track and its reporting accurate and timely.

Institutional Engagement: Builds relationships with faculty, staff, students, and alumni throughout SIPA and Columbia to strengthen the Center’s collaboration and reach, and works with concentration and program directors to connect career programming to each academic area. Represents SIPA with peer institutions and within the wider community of career-services and employer-relations professionals.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum of ten years of progressively responsible experience in career services, employer relations, or a closely related field, including substantial leadership and management responsibility.
• Demonstrated success in developing and managing employer or client relationships and in business development.
• Strong strategic judgment and a collaborative, team-oriented leadership style, with significant supervisory and budget experience.
• Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills, with a track record of earning the trust and confidence of diverse stakeholders: students, faculty, alumni, staff, and employers.
• Ability to articulate a clear and compelling vision and to lead and inspire others toward it, representing the School credibly with senior partners inside and outside the University.
• Understanding of the sectors and employment markets SIPA graduates pursue, and of the needs of a diverse, international graduate student body.
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment; willingness to travel as needed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in a relevant field.
• Familiarity with the field of international and public affairs and with graduate professional education.
• Prior experience in a university career services or employer relations setting.
• A track record of building professional networks in an HR, sales, fundraising, or comparable capacity, ideally including an established New York network relevant to SIPA's student body.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.