Executive Director, Working Professionals Career Management

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Standard Work Schedule:
• Building:
• Salary Range: $155,000 - $175,000

Position Summary

Reporting to the Senior Associate Dean of the Career Management Center, the  Executive Director, Working Professionals Career Management, serves as a senior member of the Career Management Center (CMC) leadership team, providing strategic direction and programmatic oversight for career management offerings for working professionals and alumni. The Executive Director leads the development of career education, professional development programs, and online learning initiatives tailored to experienced professionals, including Executive MBA (EMBA) students, navigating internal mobility and external career transitions. The Executive Director also partners with the Career Education and Advising team, incorporating the Columbia Industry Coaches in various efforts, as well as manages select strategic projects and thought-leadership initiatives. On an ongoing basis, they advise students and alumni on various aspects of the job search process, internal career mobility, professional development, and manage select strategic projects and thought-leadership initiatives. Student and recruiter contact is an integral part of the position, which requires a high degree of executive presence, deep knowledge of business environments and talent markets, and the ability to build and sustain relationships across a broad range of internal and external stakeholders.

ABOUT CBS

For over a century, Columbia Business School (CBS) has helped develop leaders and enterprise builders who drive value for their stakeholders and society at large through our MBA, MS, PhD, and Executive Education programs. We are equally committed to cultivating new scholars and teachers and to creating and disseminating pathbreaking knowledge, concepts, and tools that advance the understanding and practice of management through our faculty research and PhD programs. Our vision is simple: to develop ideas and leaders that transform the world, from the very center of business. 

Our ever-evolving curriculum, featuring pioneering courses, STEM certification, and immersive experiential learning, prepares students to excel in key areas such as digital transformation, entrepreneurship, innovation, twenty-first-century finance, the intersection of business and society, and climate and sustainability. The CBS administration enables CBS’s educational and scholarly mission through strategic and operational guidance and support, optimizing School resources through well-designed, transparent processes, and fostering a culture of respect for all. 

Responsibilities

Leadership and Strategy

• Provides strategic leadership for the working professionals team, setting direction, establishing key metrics, and ensuring alignment with CMC vision, School priorities, and market needs.  

• Serves as a member of the CMC senior leadership team, contributing to School-wide strategic planning and decision-making.

• Supervises a team of staff supporting working professionals; may also supervise staff on select cross-functional projects. 

• Partners with the Strategic Partnerships Teams to establish employer and alumni engagement plans and ensures ongoing communication and alignment with key school partners. 

Program Development and Advising

• Conceptualizes professional development and lifelong learning offerings for alumni. Designs career education seminars and workshops for working and experienced professionals. Manages the development of online content related to these topics. 

• Advises graduate business students and alumni, both one-on-one and in groups, on various aspects of the career mobility process, including movement within a professional’s current organization as well as external job changes. In particular, focuses on best practices for career self-assessment and research, effective self-marketing including pitch and resume development, networking strategy, interviewing skills, job offer management, and socially intelligent behaviors around making career transitions, as well as the international job search.

• Advises graduate business students and alumni on professional development and career leadership issues such as navigating workplace politics and managing work relationships, effective stakeholder management, negotiating salary and performance reviews, executive presence & communicating with impact, dealing proactively with change in the workplace, and other topics related to key success factors at work.

Data Management 

• Collaborates with the Executive Director of Operations to identify and define advising, employment, and market data needs. 

• Leverages data and market intelligence to inform curriculum development and strategic planning. 

Relationship Management 

• Collaborates with internal and external stakeholders (including and not limited to, public, private and nonprofit hiring organizations, Dean’s Office, Development and Alumni Relations, Faculty, Office of Student Affairs, Admissions, Marketing and Communications, Operations, and student leadership) to support a variety of initiatives including career related programming and projects as well as School related events and outreach. 

• Partners with Strategic Partnerships team to enhance international, experienced-level job opportunities and connections with global recruiters. Participates in business development as appropriate.  

• Conceptualizes and manages Employer Networking Sessions and other employer-facing programming designed to connect the working professionals and alumni populations with hiring organizations. 

Communication

• In collaboration with Assistant Dean, Strategic Partnerships, develops and implements communication strategy to partner with Alumni Relations team and with Alumni Club leadership on all alumni career management and career leadership related programming. 

• Seeks opportunities to create  connections and synergies among alumni, EMBA, MBA, and MS student communities..

• Represents the CMC at select professional meetings, recruiter meetings, media/press interactions, and with peer schools as needed. 

Other Responsibilities 

• Performs additional duties as assigned or required to support the mission of the CMC. 

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required. At least seven years of related business experience that includes staff management and counseling, ideally within the career development, executive search, recruitment, human resources or other corporate environment.

• Demonstrated knowledge of the business environment and its various interrelationships across industry sectors and functional roles, including talent sourcing and recruitment processes. 

• Strong program and project management skills with a customer service mindset and the ability to engage effectively with a range of personality styles.

• Excellent written, oral, interpersonal, and organizational skills necessary, strong executive presence a must. 

• Ability to work flexible, long hours and early mornings on a seasonal basis and on some Saturdays. Some evening events and travel may be required.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or MA higher education or other relevant graduate degree is highly desirable. 

• Prior experience working in a career management capacity within a graduate business program. 

• Demonstrated experience with e-learning platforms and curriculum development desired.  Familiarity and engagement with companies in NYC’s emerging employment market including entrepreneurial, technology and digital media endeavors as well as a perspective on such opportunities domestically and internationally is also preferred.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

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