Assistant Director for Community & Employer Relations, Career Connections

The Assistant Director for Community & Employer Relations will initiate, develop, and sustain productive relationships with members of the civic and employer communities to create meaningful opportunities for students to integrate academic learning with work, build professional skills, and secure employment. The position will serve as the lead for community and employer engagement activities, providing strategic direction, coordination, and operational oversight for employer-facing initiatives; identify student employment opportunities including internships, part-time employment, and full-time roles; plan, promote, and execute large scale events such as career fairs, networking events, and employer visits to campus through event management, communication, and database utilization; and provide career coaching to students and alumni on a limited basis.

Primary Responsibilities

Strategically identify, cultivate, and manage relationships with local, state, and regional employers for programmatic engagement and recruitment of students and alumni

Lead the development and implementation of community and employer engagement strategies aligned with departmental and institutional priorities

Collaborate with campus partners to expand the depth, reach, and effectiveness of employer involvement

Lead and support marketing and outreach strategies that enhance employer presence on campus, including campus recruitment, job and internship postings, career fairs and networking events, resume searches, and targeted employer communications

Optimize and manage technical resources and engagement platforms (e.g., Handshake) to facilitate employer connections, streamline processes, extend outreach, and track participation and outcomes

Provide guidance and training to staff and student employees on the effective use of these systems

Provide leadership and event planning/execution of community and employer-facing programs and events, including career fairs, networking events, employer visits, tabling, interviewing, and class/student organization presentations

Develop and document processes, best practices, and protocols to ensure consistency, efficiency, and continuity across programs

Offer ready assistance to related programming efforts offered by campus colleagues

Provide individualized career coaching to students through scheduled appointments, drop-ins, and small group sessions

Maintain active and ongoing participation in various local, state, regional, and national organizations, representing the unit and aligning programming to increase the visibility of UTC

Preferred knowledge, skills and abilities

Ability to plan, promote, and manage events that serve a variety of audiences and purposes

Ability to create, review, and manage marketing communication plans to various audiences

Confident working in an independent manner (decision-making, effort, accountability for both) is essential. Experience in marketing events and negotiating timelines and deliverables from a project management framework. Familiarity with integrating technology into relationship building and documenting effort

Experience in recruiting, higher education communications, business preferred

Minimum Qualifications

One year of professional experience within a college/university or within a corporate/industrial environment (recruitment, business development, community agency, etc.) is required

Experience gained through an internship or assistantship can be considered to satisfy the experiential requirement

Preferred Qualifications

A minimum of two years of corporate industry work experience or experience in a university career services environment is preferred

Demonstrated professional experience gained in business development, staffing, or civic government environments including event management, external customer engagement, effort reporting and/or outcome reporting is especially valuable