Director of Career Coaching & Education, Center for Career Development & Academic Exploration

Position Title :Director of Career Coaching & Education, Center for Career Development & Academic Exploration

Reports to :Associate Vice Provost & Executive Director

Classification: Exempt, full-time staff position

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville invites applications for the position Director of Career Coaching & Education in the Center for Career Development and Academic Exploration (CCDAE).

The University: The University of Tennessee is the state’s flagship research institution, a campus of choice for outstanding undergraduates, and a premier graduate institution. Enrolling over 38,000 students, the campus is located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and beautiful East Tennessee. As a land-grant university, it is committed to excellence in learning, scholarship, and engagement. In all its activities, the university aims to advance the frontiers of human knowledge and enrich and elevate society. The university values intellectual curiosity, pursuit of knowledge, and academic freedom and integrity.

The Division: The Division of Student Success at UT works to engage each student scholar’s experience by supporting their unique strengths and goals. It collaborates with UT faculty and staff to help each student scholar maximize their individual strengths and understand how their strengths contribute to their academic dreams, career paths, and personal well-being. As a member of Student Success, the center’s mission is empowering student scholars to create and achieve career goals by providing comprehensive career education.

Position Summar y: Reporting to the Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director, the Director of Career Coaching and Education is responsible for the overall strategic visioning, leadership and management of the career coaching, career education, and Vol Edge program portfolio within the Center for Career Development and Academic Exploration.The director will foster a welcoming and engaging environment for students to explore and prepare for their goals after college. This position includes all personnel, management, budget, and service delivery decisions related to career coaching and education.In addition, this person also serves as a consultant to the campus on issues of career development and employment as it relates to the needs of students, employers, and academic units.

Job

Executive/Administrative

Primary Location

US-Tennessee-knoxville

Organization

Center For Career Development

Schedule

Full-time

Campus/Institute

Knoxville

Job Posting

Oct 25, 2024, 5:37:02 AM

Position Responsibilities

STRATEGIC VISION

• Strategic planning and oversight of a comprehensive student ready career coaching and education team that serves 14 colleges with nearly 15,000 contacts annually. This includes budget forecasting, human resources, and day-to-day operations.
• Engage in strategic decision-making in support of the department's mission, vision and value statement.
• Guide the vision for incorporating career coaching on the Vol Success Teams, identifying opportunities for strategic outreach and engagement efforts.
• Partner with members of the CCDAE leadership team to design a seamless career engagement experience for students as they move through exploration, education, coaching, and employer engagement activities.
• Implement and interpret assessments and benchmarking to determine if career development efforts are meeting the mission and to guide decisions.
• Stay abreast of emerging trends in the industry through participation in professional associations, networking and readings.
• Fulfill public speaking responsibilities to groups, chambers of commerce, student organizations and academic classes. Primary contact for media requests on career issues.
  
  

VOL EDGE

• Oversee the ongoing development and implementation of the Vol Edge program, a new initiative designed to help students thrive in their career-readiness journey, equip graduates to articulate their competencies with confidence, and provide accessible pathways to high-impact practices for all undergraduate students.
• Develop, launch, track, and assess student engagement within the initiative's core priorities in collaboration with the campus community.
• Partner with the AVP of Student Success to ensure the long-term viability and accessibility of the Vol Edge program. This includes recommending financial resources to the VPSS and Provost and collaborating with financial aid and other units to develop a process for issuing Vol Edge Transformational Grants.
• Establish collaborative partnerships with stakeholders from multiple divisions and colleges, ensuring the program aligns with the university's strategic vision of student success. This team will include three-five full-time staff upon full implementation and oversee a multi-million-dollar budget to support transformational grants and programmatic costs.
• Educate employers on best practices related to internships
  
  

OPERATIONAL LEADERSHIP & SUPERVISION

• Provide overall personnel management for 20 professional staff and 15 paraprofessional staff. Supervise 3 direct reports including: Associate Director of Career Coaching, Associate Director of Career Readiness, and the Assistant Director of Outreach.
• Create a supportive, engaged and collaborative office culture. Provide support and guidance to direct reports and complete personnel evaluations.Strategically plan for office growth and make recommendations to Division for addition of new staff needed to meet the unit’s operational needs.
• Guide staff to ensure that center is providing innovative and effective programming, services and resources for both student and employer constituents.
• Generate revenue in partnership with Employer Relations to cover departmental operating expenses through job fairs and proprietary products.
• Partner with the AVP on the management of the first destination/career outcomes data collection process for the University and serve as compliance officer on this issue, including adherence to National Association of College and Employer (NACE) standards. Support completion of annual report writing, student user data and employer statistics.
• Review new technologies and tools in the field of career development and direct management of vendor contracts, including the photo booth. Collaborate with the AVP and OIT on the management of the 12Twenty career outcome platform.
• Engage in departmental marketing efforts that include brand management and publicizing the office to internal and external constituencies including students, faculty, university administration, alumni, employers.
• Benchmark with peer and aspirational institutions.
  
  

PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATION

• Interact with Deans, Associate Deans or Administrators from the 14 primary colleges to find means to serve their students.
• Engage regularly with career and advising partners from the colleges to foster collaboration, partner on events and outreach, and ensure a streamlined delivery of career services to all students
• Provide leadership for the development and implementation of a graduate student strategy, in partnership with the Office of Graduate Studies.
• Build and maintain relationships with campus departments such as Enrollment Management, Alumni Affairs, Alumni Career Services, Development, Office of Undergraduate Research, Academic Affairs and Division of Student Life units.
• Engage with the Center for Career Development Advisory Council in partnership with CCDAE leadership
• Provide leadership on campus initiatives related to career development, such as, 2025-2030 Academic Advising Strategic Plan; Quality Enhancement Plan Steering Committee; Internship (N) Course Designation, and career readiness competencies.
• Serve on the Student Success Leadership Team.
  
  

Qualifications

Education

Required: Master's degree in couseling, college student personnel, education, or related field

Experience

Required: Minimum of seven years’ full-time experience in career development or employment work, including progressive management experience with program development, supervision and evaluation, and budgeting

Preferred: Administrative experience in career planning or employment work on a college or university campus at the level of Associate Director or higher; Proven innovative and visionary leadership with the professional and personal acumen to create programs and services and build partnerships with constituents that exceeds the expectations of students, employers, alumni, faculty, and staff; Experience integrating assessments such as CliftonStrengths into coaching practice and career education

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

Required :

• Demonstrated ability to successfully collaborate with and engage faculty, administrators, employers and students
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and leadership skills
• Skill in preparing clear and concise reports, policies, procedures, correspondences and other written materials.
• Familiarity with career-related technology and software, including career services management systems, for service delivery, record-keeping and reporting purposes
• Knowledge of career development best practice, theories, and resources
• Ability to develop and execute assessment plans to improve service delivery
• Proven commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion with the ability to advocate for students from all backgrounds and majors
  
  

Preferred: Knowledge of career-related technology and software, including career services management systems, for service delivery, record-keeping and reporting purposes.

Salary: Minimum $90,000 and accompanied by a university benefits package.

Application Process: First review begins November 11, 2024. For full consideration, applicants must apply electronically through the TALEO SYSTEM including submission of cover letter, resume, and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of three references.