Assistant Director, Career Exploration & Employer Engagement

Description:

About us:

Student Life connects life to learning. We believe every student should have the opportunity to participate in university life actively and find connection and community while discovering new ways of thinking and being in the world. We provide resources, support and engagement opportunities that are inclusive and accessible, ensuring every student can build experiences that set them up for a lifetime of success.

Within Student Life, the cluster of Student Life Programs and Services supports students as they achieve personal, academic, career and civic goals. We engage students throughout their learning and development with the following units: Accessibility Services, Career Exploration & Education, Centre for Learning Strategy Support, Co-Curricular Community-Engaged Learning, Clubs & Leadership Development, First Nations House-Indigenous Student Services Mentorship & Peer Programs, Multi-faith Centre, Orientation, Student Success, Transition & Engagement and TCard Services. Together with staff, faculty, students, alumni, employers and community partners, we provide an integrated and coherent path to success that reflects our students' diversity.

In support of U of T’s mission, Student Life Programs and Services is committed to creating diverse, accessible, inclusive and welcoming spaces of opportunity that foster deepened engagement, learning, personal growth, and identity development for all students. We are committed to embedding these principles into all the work we do, reducing barriers so that students from all backgrounds and lived experiences can feel a sense of belonging in the communities they find here.

We value applicants who have demonstrated a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, and we strive to hire and invest in candidates that reflect and support the diverse perspectives, experiences and identities of our students and our communities. We encourage individuals who are members of Indigenous, Black, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, persons with disabilities, and other equity deserving groups to apply.

Your Opportunity:

The Assistant Director, Career Exploration & Employer Engagement role is positioned within Career Exploration & Education – the central career services unit on St. George campus at the University of Toronto. Career Exploration & Education creates curricular and co-curricular career learning experiences at the intersection of career, equity, and wellbeing in partnership with students, recent graduates, tri-campus partners, and alumni and employer communities. Taking an ecosystem approach, we work intentionally to design and deliver career learning experiences that align with student needs and ensure graduates are future-ready and able to thrive in their careers. We are motivated by the vision that University of Toronto students and graduates will contribute to a more equitable and just world of work. In this work we strive to live the values of justice & belonging; reconciliation; learning; community; and curiosity. We are seeking an Assistant Director, Career Exploration & Employer Engagement with demonstrated knowledge of experiential and work integrated learning, labour market perspectives and industry transformations, an identity-informed praxis, collaborative partnership process, and compassionate approach to leadership.

Reporting to the Director, Career Exploration & Education the Assistant Director, Career Exploration & Employer Engagement provides strategic, relational, and operational leadership for a broad portfolio and the delivery of systems, programs and partnerships related to employer relations, career exploration, industry mentorship, and experiential and work integrated learning. This role has oversight of two teams, works across multiple campus and community partnerships in a highly decentralized environment, and supports a range of institutional programs and initiatives.

The Assistant Director guides and leads the work of professional staff across the career exploration and employer engagement portfolio whose objective is to support students and recent graduates engaged in self-directed learning that focuses on career exploration, labour market literacy, career decision-making, employment pathways, and experiential learning while building their future in a changing world. This portfolio assists students to locate and access experiential and work integrated learning opportunities, explore career possibilities, and make meaningful connections with mentors, employers and industry professionals, as they integrate and apply their insights and learnings across curricular, co-curricular experiences and in relation to their values, interests, and the ever-changing world of work.

A selection of activities this portfolio supports is employer wayfinding, career networking events, employer-led programs, job shadowing and employer site visits, industry spotlight initiatives, career fairs, and the operational and educational oversight of the University’s largest experiential learning program: Work Study. This involves the development of assessment and evaluation tools to ensure that these programs, events, services and resources are responsive and impactful.

The Assistant Director will evolve a dynamic employer and alumni engagement strategy to maintain and strengthen relationships with external partners that are reflective of the changing world of work and the diverse needs of U of T students and graduates. As a part of this strategy, the Assistant Director will be responsible for a communication and marketing plan (including digital and online resources) to build students’ awareness of employer and experiential career engagement opportunities, amplify the diverse talent, needs, and experiences of U of T students, and the reciprocal opportunities for recruitment and engagement between students and external partners. Additionally, the Assistant Director will be responsible for business processes across the portfolio, including the evaluation and use of systems and technology required for the work. They will have oversight for employer vetting, as well as data quality, mining, and reporting processes, to ensure that recommendations are informed by data, the labour market environment, and student career needs. Connected to this work, the Assistant Director must ensure that the roles and responsibilities as outlined in the tricampus career services attribution agreement are implemented and continue to enable harmonized employer engagement by liaising with tri-campus counterparts at the St. George, Scarborough and Mississauga campuses.

The Assistant Director will contribute to collaborative approaches with partners at the Experiential Learning Commons, across tri-campus career services with other academic and co-curricular partners, and student groups. This includes active work to develop and implement initiatives for students and recent graduates that support the University’s strategic goal of enhancing the student experience and preparing future ready graduates. Much of this work 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 Assistant Director is a member of the Student Life Programs and Services leadership teams in Student Life, contributes to several governance committees, and must demonstrate a commitment to the University's principles of equity, inclusion and reconciliation to ensure that all students and recent graduates, especially those who may face barriers to inclusion and equity in the workplace, have the opportunity to thrive in their careers.

Along with the Director and Assistant Director, Career Education the Assistant Director, Career Exploration & Employer Engagement will contribute to annual plans and reports, operations, and administration. The incumbent will be expected to play a lead role in the planning, delivery and evaluation of the portfolio’s key functional areas including strategic objectives, best practice business processes, service promotion, performance indicators, analysis and development. In collaboration with the Director and Assistant Director, Career Education they will ensure that Career Exploration & Education provides a wide variety of educational, experiential, interactive, and reflective opportunities that facilitates student learning and increases agency as they find community and purpose, as they define it, through meaningful exploration and connections with employers, alumni and industry partners. The successful candidate will be a creative and skilled systems thinker, keen to build a more accessible and inclusive world of work and prepared to innovate for the future of employer engagement and experiential learning preparing students and recent graduates for the complexities and realities of the labour market and ever-changing world.

Essential Qualifications:

(MINIMUM) EDUCATION:

A Master’s degree in education with a focus on adult learning, student affairs, or career development; or in business or human resource management; or a related discipline is required or any equivalent combination of graduate-level education and experience across industries.

EXPERIENCE:

Minimum 5 years of experience developing, managing and evaluating student/client-focused programs, resources, events and services across diverse populations or industries. At least 3 years of experience supervising a large team, preferably in a unionized environment, required. The ability to develop effective relationships with the employment community, alumni and university partners will be critical to the success of this role. Demonstrated experience with strategic planning and execution. Proven experience developing, managing and evaluating student/client-focused programs, resources and services, including extensive program planning, with a focus on effective resource allocation and sustainability. Strong organizational and problem-solving skills, follow-through, management of multiple projects and attention to detail. Possess excellent interpersonal skills in the areas of collaboration, team participation, creative problem-solving, conflict resolution, group planning, and shared decision-making processes. Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a team environment with commitment to the promotion of an inclusive and innovative work environment. Strong communication, networking, and relationship management skills. Ability to collaborate with campus and community partners, and external partners across industries. Demonstrated investment in fostering equitable, and inclusive engagement and learning opportunities, integrating principles of equity, inclusion, access and reconciliation. Advanced technology skills in data management & analysis, assessment & evaluation and reporting.
Knowledge of the intersection of employment/labour market realities, mental health, and identity as well as experience with anti-oppressive, and hope-centered approaches to career development.

Experience working with Indigenous and equity-deserving student communities, with a focus on intersectionality, and experience collaboratively developing programs, services, and resources to address their career needs from a strengths-based perspective.

SKILLS:

Strong ability to think analytically and strategically in a highly collaborative working environment; fostering productive working relationships is essential. Fosters a student-focused team environment of high performance, trust, collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement. Consultative skills to support partners on- and off-campus in the development and delivery of career and employment programming. Experience building and/or scaling up complex programs that required working with multiple constituent groups (e.g. students, faculty, administrators, other educational institutions, employers and community organizations, etc.).
Ability to design assessment and learning outcomes for all programs offered. Excellent management and leadership skills, ability to mentor, and the ability to effectively lead and manage change. Strong organizational skills, accuracy and attention to detail, with a proactive solutions focus. Project management skills; ability to direct large-scale projects, e.g. redevelopment of a website or selection of computer systems to completion in a fast-paced high volume environment. Superior oral and written communications skills including sound presentation, public speaking, workshop development and facilitation skills. Must be proficient with technology such as CRM management, social media, or other recruitment-related software and interested in identifying and adopting technological advances in the field.

OTHER:

Maintain expertise on current developments in higher education, industry and employment trends making recommendations based on best practices and research. Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of student development. Ability to form strong advising, mentoring, and working relationships with students of diverse backgrounds. A consummate professional, with demonstrated integrity, professional maturity, judgment, tact, diplomacy and conflict resolution skills. Must be flexible and adaptable with a high level of initiative and results orientation, and the ability to foster that expectation in others. Must have demonstrated strengths motivating and leading staff, and working as a team player with the capacity to handle a challenging workload in a calm, professional and proactive manner. Maintains a strong commitment to continuous professional learning and development.

Closing Date: 09/15/2026, 11:59PM ET
Employee Group: Salaried
Personnel Subarea: PM
Appointment Type : Budget - Continuing
Schedule: Full-Time
Pay Scale Group & Hiring Zone:  PM 3 -- Hiring Zone: $93,592 - $109,190 -- Broadband Salary Range: $93,592 - $155,985
Job Category: Student Services