Director of Cohort-Based Learning (Life Design Lab)

Johns Hopkins University•Baltimore, MD

1d•$76,980 - $134,995•Hybrid

About The Position

Johns Hopkins University’s Life Design Lab (LDL), within Integrative Learning and Life Design (ILLD), is seeking a Director of Cohort-Based Learning to lead the design, implementation, and assessment of a progressive life design and career-preparation model for first-generation and/or limited-income (FLI) students and scholar-athletes. The model will provide structured support and clear developmental milestones from early exploration through internships and post-graduate readiness. The Director reports to the Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Life Design, with dotted-line reporting to the Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs, the Director of Athletics & Recreation, and the Executive Director for Student Success. The Director will initially supervise life design educators supporting FLI students and lead the strategy, implementation, and assessment of the FLI cohort model. The Director will also personally facilitate the scholar-athlete cohort in partnership with Athletics and Blue Jays LEAD. In collaboration with FLI and student-success partners and teams across ILLD, the Director will connect students to internship academies, Blue Jay Pathways, research, employer and alumni opportunities, and other paid experiential learning. The role may also support aligned cohort initiatives, including work connected to the Partnership for Student Success (PSS). The Director will establish baselines and annual targets with university partners and assess cohort participation and completion, career-readiness competencies, access to experiential learning, post-graduate outcomes, partner satisfaction, referral pathways, and continuous improvement. The role combines program and staff leadership, data-informed assessment, cross-functional partnership development, and direct student instruction and support. The position is classified as Associate Director Life Design. It is full-time, scheduled Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with some evenings and weekends. The work arrangement is hybrid at the Homewood Campus. The starting salary range is $76,980–$134,995 annually, with a targeted salary of $100,000, commensurate with experience.

Requirements

Master’s degree required.
Five years of related experience required; additional education may substitute for required experience, and additional related experience may substitute for education beyond a high school diploma or equivalent, subject to the JHU equivalency formula.
Skill in designing and implementing structured programs or curricula that support student learning, career readiness, or professional development.
Skill in supervising, coaching, and developing professional staff and holding teams accountable for measurable goals.
Ability to use participation, learning, and outcomes data to set priorities, assess effectiveness, and improve programs.
Ability to build productive partnerships across organizational boundaries and work effectively with students, university leaders, faculty, staff, alumni, and employers.
Excellent facilitation, advising, written communication, and presentation skills, including the ability to provide direct, engaging instruction to student cohorts.
Demonstrated commitment to expanding career-readiness access, social capital, paid experiential learning, and strong post-graduate outcomes for students from varied backgrounds.

Nice To Haves

Seven years of progressively responsible experience in career services, student success, experiential learning, athletics student development, higher education, or a closely related area.
Experience as a collegiate student-athlete or as an employee within collegiate athletics, particularly in student-athlete development, academic support, leadership development, or career readiness.
Experience developing or leading cohort-based programming for first-generation and/or limited-income students.
Experience connecting students with paid internships, research, employer-based learning, or other high-quality experiential opportunities.
Knowledge of career-readiness assessment, learning outcomes, program evaluation, and continuous-improvement practices.
Experience working within a complex, highly collaborative university environment.

Responsibilities

Develop and lead a sequenced cohort-based life design and career-readiness model for FLI students and scholar-athletes, from exploration and foundational preparation through experiential learning and successful launch.
Translate shared career-readiness expectations into student milestones, delivery plans, and intervention strategies that are consistent while responsive to each population.
Establish systems to ensure cohort students are reached, understand available support, and receive timely opportunities to develop and demonstrate readiness.
Integrate cohort work with LDL and ILLD strategy, document effective practices, and share them with the Life Design and Career Readiness and Blue Jay Pathways teams.
Develop, review, and execute objectives and key results for participation, readiness progression, experiential learning access, internships, and post-graduate outcomes.
Define and assess standards for resume quality, interviewing, professional storytelling, opportunity-search strategy, and relationship-building.
Partner with analytics, assessment, and institutional research colleagues to collect, analyze, visualize, and report disaggregated participation and outcomes data.
Use quantitative and qualitative evidence to identify gaps, target outreach and interventions, improve programs, and report progress to university leaders and campus partners.
Lead, supervise, coach, and develop life design educators supporting the Center for Student Success and FLI students, aligning portfolios and performance expectations with cohort outcomes.
Create shared operating practices, curriculum standards, outreach expectations, and case-management or tracking approaches for consistent student experiences.
Set team priorities, monitor progress, provide feedback, foster a collaborative and inclusive culture, and support staff development in partnership with LDL leadership and Human Resources.
Oversee implementation, assessment, and continuous improvement of the FLI Internship Academy and related internship preparation, placement, and support efforts.
Build structured pathways to paid internships, research, industry projects, and other high-quality experiential learning opportunities.
Partner with Blue Jay Pathways and employer engagement teams to connect students to suitable opportunities and address participation barriers.
Coordinate program timelines, staffing, communications, partner roles, and resources.
Serve as LDL’s primary partner to Athletics on scholar-athlete career readiness, integrating it into Blue Jays LEAD and developing and delivering a progressive support model with Athletics leadership, coaches, and staff.
Attend Athletics coaches and staff meetings regularly to maintain alignment, understand student needs, coordinate implementation, and strengthen shared accountability.
Develop the FLI cohort model with the Center for Student Success and FLI leaders, aligning it with student-success structures, communications, and community-based support.
Collaborate with PSS and other campus partners on aligned cohort programming and referrals.
Engage faculty, staff, alumni, employers, and experiential-learning partners to expand mentoring, skill development, and paid opportunity access.
Personally implement and facilitate the scholar-athlete cohort, providing life design and career-readiness education, advising, workshops, outreach, and targeted interventions throughout the academic year.
Conduct proactive outreach to students who have not met readiness milestones or secured an internship, research experience, or post-graduate outcome.
Provide practical and timely student support related to resumes, interviewing, professional communication, networking, opportunity search, and transition planning.
Assist the Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Life Design in setting strategic direction for work with CSS and FLI students and translate priorities into clear expectations and coordinated execution.
Represent LDL and ILLD on relevant university committees and working groups and communicate the cohort model’s purpose, progress, and impact.
Identify promising practices and contribute to national discussions on equitable career readiness, experiential learning, and cohort-based student support.