Associate Director for Community Partnerships and Strategy_UT Social Work

The University of Texas at Austin•Austin, UT

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director for Community Partnerships and Strategy serves as the operational lead for the School of Social Work’s Community Partnerships and Strategy unit and reports to the Director for Community Partnerships and Strategy. The role builds and sustains the systems, data, reporting, and processes that coordinate the School’s partnership work, and leads day-to-day execution of the unit’s objectives. The position is based in Austin, Texas, with on-site or hybrid work available per School policy. The anticipated start is January–February 2027. This is a three-year, contract-funded appointment contingent on renewal, which is anticipated but not guaranteed. The Associate Director operates and improves partnership systems, maintains consistent and usable partnership data, and translates strategy into durable processes. The role supports stewardship, recognition, and communications; equips unit liaisons; leads a cross-unit working group; and coordinates partnership operations across Development, Marketing & Communications, and Academic Affairs. It also leads reporting, dashboards, and impact measurement, and helps the Director execute the unit’s objectives and key results. The standard schedule is Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with hours and days subject to business needs and occasional evening or weekend work for partner events and recognition activities.

Requirements

Master’s degree in social work, public administration or public affairs, nonprofit management, higher education, or a related field; alternatively, a bachelor’s degree with substantial equivalent experience.
Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in partnership, program, or operations leadership; relationship or stakeholder management; or a comparable area.
Demonstrated ability to design and operate systems and processes that bring consistency to complex, decentralized work.
Strong data and information management skills, including experience with databases, CRM, or relationship-management tools and building reports that inform leadership.
Excellent written, interpersonal, and facilitation skills, with the ability to work across units and influence without direct authority.
Sound judgment and discretion in handling sensitive partner, donor, and relationship information.
Ability to work independently, set priorities, and lead execution in a small, growing team.

Nice To Haves

Experience in higher education, social work, healthcare, or nonprofit and community-partnership settings.
Experience establishing a new function, office, or system.
Familiarity with development or advancement operations, donor or partner stewardship, or community-engaged work.
Experience leading cross-functional initiatives or coordinating distributed teams.
Commitment to the School’s mission and to making partnership work visible, consistent, and sustainable.

Responsibilities

Implement, operate, and continuously improve systems supporting the School’s partnership work, including the shared inventory, partnership data structure, taxonomy, and templates.
Maintain the integrity, consistency, and usability of partnership data across the School and establish standards and practices for documenting and connecting partnerships.
Translate strategy and framework into durable operating processes that can scale across units without adding burden.
Support and oversee stewardship, recognition, and storytelling operations so priority relationships are maintained and surfaced consistently.
Partner with units and Development on stewardship and recognition processes, ensuring each priority partnership is owned and sustained over time.
Work with Marketing & Communications to turn documented partnerships into reputation, donor, and community impact.
Serve as the primary operational partner to unit liaisons, providing tools, training, and support to document and steward partnerships.
Lead the operations of a cross-unit partnership working group and drive School-wide adoption of shared partnership practices.
Align partnership operations across Development, Marketing & Communications, and Academic Affairs.
Lead partnership reporting, dashboards, and impact measurement to inform the Director, School leadership, and School planning.
Develop baseline metrics and a proof-point portfolio demonstrating partnership impact across identified partnership areas.
Translate partnership data into insight that shapes priorities and decisions.
Manage execution of the unit’s objectives and key results and its day-to-day operations.
Act for the Director on operational matters as delegated and help lead the unit as it builds out.
Perform other duties as assigned.