Associate Director for Community Partnerships and Strategy_UT Social Work

University of Texas at Austin

5d•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 connect the School’s partnership work into a coordinated, School-wide approach, and leads the day-to-day execution of the unit’s objectives. The position is based in Austin, Texas, with onsite or hybrid work available under School policy. The anticipated start is January–February 2027. This is a three-year, contract-funded appointment contingent on renewal; renewal is anticipated but not guaranteed.

Requirements

Master’s degree in social work, public administration or 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 run 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 the systems supporting School 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.
Coordinate stewardship and recognition processes with units and Development, ensuring priority partnerships are owned and sustained over time.
Partner with Marketing & Communications to use documented partnerships to support reputation, donor, and community impact.
Serve as the primary operational partner to unit liaisons, providing tools, training, and support for documenting and stewarding partnerships.
Lead 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 impact across identified partnership areas.
Translate partnership data into insights that shape priorities and decisions.
Manage execution of the unit’s objectives and key results and oversee its day-to-day operations.
Act for the Director on delegated operational matters and help lead the unit as it builds out.
Perform other duties as assigned.