Director, Student Belonging and Engagement

University of Toronto • Toronto, ON

2d • CA$132,351 - CA$154,409 • Onsite

About The Position

Reporting to the Executive Director, Student Life Programs & Services, the Director provides strategic, relational and operational leadership for a broad portfolio that advances student belonging, engagement, community connection, and co-curricular learning at the University of Toronto. This role works across a highly decentralized institutional environment to strengthen student participation, equity, access, and connection, while ensuring programs, partnerships, policies, and practices are responsive to changing student needs.

The Director is expected to model visible, accessible, and relational leadership by maintaining a meaningful presence across student-facing spaces, programs, and community contexts. Through active listening, consistent follow-through, and direct engagement with students, student staff, professional staff, student organizations, and campus partners, the Director strengthens trust, surfaces emerging needs, informs strategic priorities, and ensures the portfolio remains grounded in the lived realities of students.

The Director provides direction, leadership, guidance and management to a team of professional staff specializing in enhancing student and community development through orientation and transition, graduate student life, campus organizations, mentorship, leadership development, student recognition, student programming, peer engagement, multi-faith/interfaith engagement, and co-curricular community engaged learning. They will also determine new programming initiatives, initiate and implement organizational changes as required, and will prepare and manage the overall budget across the portfolio.

Working closely with leadership within Student Life, the Director ensures programs and projects are well-coordinated, responsive to diverse students’ needs, and delivered in ways that support holistic student success. In collaboration with colleges, faculties, academic departments, other student life departments, UTM and UTSC, student organizations, equity and well-being partners, and community organizations, the Director advances integrated and cohesive co-curricular and community engaged learning experiences for undergraduate, professional and graduate students. This requires the ability to influence without direct authority, clarify roles and decision pathways, respect local context, and build partnership models that are additive rather than duplicative. The Director also plays a key role across the unit and at the wider Divisional level, providing leadership in the interpretation and application of relevant University policies and in mitigating risk in the oversight of on-campus and off-campus activities, including those which are run by student organizations.

Within the framework of the University’s academic plans, the Director plays a pivotal role in promoting sharing and collaboration between divisions and in communicating progress in enhancing the student experience to the campus community, particularly to students. The Director is a member of the senior leadership team in Student Life and demonstrates a commitment to the University’s principles of equity and inclusion. The incumbent manages relationships with multiple internal and external interest holders, partners and organizations.

As a leader and a mentor, the Director will work synergistically with student life staff within the Division and throughout the University and manage a staff of high-caliber professionals and assume overall responsibility for human resources, labour relations and financial management including dispute resolution and compliance of collective agreements. The incumbent directly manages the staff and the quality and efficiency of work, ensuring the structure and duties are meeting operational objectives in the most effective way.

Requirements

• Masters Degree in higher education, adult education, social work, public administration, community development, leadership, equity studies or a related discipline required.
• Formal training and/or education in at least two of the following areas: program assessment, group facilitation, project management, or conflict resolution.
• Minimum eight years’ experience in progressively senior student affairs positions with direct experience in the development, implementation and assessment of student-facing programs, services or initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience leading initiatives that foster belonging, equity, diversity, inclusion, engagement, dialogue and shared community across diverse undergraduate, professional, and graduate student populations.
• Experience mentoring, coaching, and supporting staff in a unionized or similarly complex policy environment, with demonstrated ability to build trust, strengthen team cohesion, support professional growth, provide clear expectations and constructive feedback, and foster a respectful, psychologically safe, and accountable team culture.
• Experience with evidence-informed planning, learning outcomes, qualitative and quantitative assessment and translating assessment findings into program improvement, strategic decision making, and compelling communication about student learning, belonging, and impact.
• Ability to translate student development and related theories into practical strategies, programs, advising approaches, learning outcomes, and assessment practices that strengthen student connection, participation, and success.
• Demonstrated people-centred leadership skills, including the ability to set clear direction, coach and mentor professional, unionized, student, and casual staff, support professional growth, strengthen team cohesion, and foster a respectful, inclusive, psychologically safe, and accountable team culture.
• Ability to lead staff through change, complexity, and ambiguity with transparency, fairness, sound judgement, and attention to workload, service continuity, and team well-being.
• Highly developed written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex decisions, policies, risks, and rationales clearly to students, staff, senior administrators, student organizations, and campus partners.
• Strong facilitation, mediation, diplomacy, conflict resolution, and relationship-building skills, with demonstrated ability to build relational trust and convene constructive conversations across different identities, experiences, roles, viewpoints, and perspectives.
• Demonstrated strategic vision, adaptability, independent problem-solving, sound judgement, and capacity to move work from consultation to decision and implementation.
• Ability to work across cultural, linguistic, faith, spiritual, accessibility, and identity differences, with a demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, accessibility, reconciliation, and student well-being in higher education.
• Ability to prioritize work in a complex, high-volume, and time-sensitive environment; exercise sound judgement in matters of sensitivity, confidentiality, risk, and institutional impact; maintain a visible student-facing presence; and work occasional evenings and weekends during peak periods or in response to emerging needs.

Responsibilities

• Provides strategic, relational and operational leadership for a broad portfolio that advances student belonging, engagement, community connection, and co-curricular learning.
• Works across a highly decentralized institutional environment to strengthen student participation, equity, access, and connection.
• Ensures programs, partnerships, policies, and practices are responsive to changing student needs.
• Models visible, accessible, and relational leadership by maintaining a meaningful presence across student-facing spaces, programs, and community contexts.
• Strengthens trust, surfaces emerging needs, informs strategic priorities, and ensures the portfolio remains grounded in the lived realities of students through active listening, consistent follow-through, and direct engagement.
• Provides direction, leadership, guidance and management to a team of professional staff specializing in enhancing student and community development.
• Determines new programming initiatives, initiates and implements organizational changes as required.
• Prepares and manages the overall budget across the portfolio.
• Ensures programs and projects are well-coordinated, responsive to diverse students’ needs, and delivered in ways that support holistic student success.
• Advances integrated and cohesive co-curricular and community engaged learning experiences for undergraduate, professional and graduate students in collaboration with various campus and community partners.
• Provides leadership in the interpretation and application of relevant University policies and in mitigating risk in the oversight of on-campus and off-campus activities.
• Promotes sharing and collaboration between divisions and communicates progress in enhancing the student experience to the campus community.
• Manages relationships with multiple internal and external interest holders, partners and organizations.
• Manages a staff of high-caliber professionals and assumes overall responsibility for human resources, labour relations and financial management including dispute resolution and compliance of collective agreements.
• Directly manages the staff and the quality and efficiency of work, ensuring the structure and duties are meeting operational objectives in the most effective way.

Benefits

• Occasional overtime during peak periods required
• Some requirement to be on-call outside regular working hours, e.g., evenings and/or weekends
• Infrequent travel out of the city

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director