Associate Director of Career Education, Oakland

Northeastern University•Oakland, CA

2d•$83,970 - $118,609•Onsite

About The Position

Reporting to the Director of Experiential Education and Career Development, the Associate Director of Career Education serves as a senior career specialist and team leader on the Oakland campus. A core member of the Career Education team, the Associate Director brings deep, current knowledge of the labor market to every dimension of student career development from first-year exploration through offer negotiation. This role designs and delivers high-impact programming, cultivates active employer relationships, and leverages labor market data and AI-enabled tools to give students a meaningful competitive edge. The Associate Director has a clear-eyed understanding of how AI is reshaping hiring from changes in recruiting processes and evolving skill profiles to the emergence of hybrid roles across industries, and translates that intelligence into practical, outcome-focused advising and workshops. In addition to direct student work, the Associate Director supervises and develops the Assistant Director of Career Education, serving as a coach and thought partner who builds a high-performing, student-centered advising practice. This role is ideal for an experienced career professional who is energized by helping students land meaningful experiential opportunities across some of the most sought-after career paths in the economy, and who is ready to step into a leadership role on a campus that is actively building toward its full potential.

Requirements

Substantial experience in career services or a related field
Demonstrated people management skills
Strong employer engagement instincts
Sophisticated understanding of how today's labor market is evolving
Bachelor's degree required
Minimum 4–6 years of progressive experience in career services, recruiting, workforce development, or industry, with demonstrated understanding of current hiring practices and emerging roles
Experience advising students or early-career professionals, with the ability to translate complex industry dynamics including recruiting timelines, credentialing norms, and evolving employer expectations into accessible, actionable guidance
Demonstrated experience managing others, including regular coaching and feedback, structured professional development, performance management, and the cultivation of a high-performing, student-centered advising practice
Demonstrated ability to build and sustain employer relationships and convert those relationships into experiential learning and recruiting opportunities for students
Proficiency with career management platforms (e.g., Handshake), labor market intelligence tools (e.g., Lightcast, LinkedIn Talent Insights), and AI-enabled career development tools
Data fluency: ability to interpret employment outcome data, labor market trends, and program metrics to evaluate effectiveness and continuously improve programming
Strong presentation, coaching, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to engage effectively with students across varying levels of experience and career readiness
Collaborative orientation and ability to work effectively across departments, colleges, and administrative units in a matrixed university environment
Demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, and culturally responsive advising practice

Responsibilities

Provide individualized career advising and coaching to students pursuing internships and other experiential learning opportunities across a broad range of industries and functions.
Guide students through job search strategy, resume and application development, interview preparation, and offer evaluation.
Supervise and develop up the Assistant Director of Career Education, providing coaching, structured feedback, professional development support, and ongoing guidance.
Maintain a current, sophisticated understanding of how AI is transforming early career hiring practices including AI-assisted screening, evolving skill expectations, and shifts in recruiting timelines, and incorporate that intelligence into every advising interaction.
Design, deliver, and continuously improve a calendar of career programming that addresses the full arc of the student job search: industry and career exploration, professional networking, interview preparation, career fairs and employer showcases, and offer and salary negotiation.
Develop programming in partnership with faculty, student organizations, and employer partners to ensure relevance and reach.
Evaluate program effectiveness using attendance, engagement, and downstream employment outcome data, and iterate accordingly.
Cultivate and steward relationships with a targeted portfolio of employer partners across industries and functions, with the explicit goal of generating internship and full-time opportunities for Northeastern students and graduates.
Collaborate with the Employer Partnerships team to coordinate on-campus recruiting, information sessions, and hiring events.
Track employer pipeline health and proactively identify gaps in industry coverage, functional representation, or geographic reach.
Monitor labor market trends including hiring volumes, emerging roles, compensation benchmarks, and geographic hiring hubs, and synthesize this intelligence into programming, advising content, and student-facing resources.
Maintain employment outcome data, contribute to the center's reporting cadence, and identify opportunities to improve student success rates.
Share market insights with colleagues, academic partners, and students through regular communications and resources.