Associate Director, Doctoral Career Services

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Associate Director Doctoral Career Services

Core Job Summary

Associate Director Doctoral Career Services serves as a key career educator and advisor for doctoral students postdocs and alumni providing tailored career development guidance across the full spectrum of doctoral career pathways. This role is designed to meet the unique professional development needs of PhD students with a focus on those pursuing industry government nonprofit entrepreneurial and non-academic career trajectories.

The Associate Director develops deep expertise in doctoral-level career development creating and delivering programming resources and advising experiences relevant to PhD training research-intensive careers and advanced professional roles. This position collaborates closely with academic departments graduate and professional schools faculty postdoctoral affairs and external partners to embed career development throughout the doctoral experience.

All career staff contribute to the Career Centers broader mission through creative program design experiential learning initiatives and scalable on-demand resources that support doctoral students.

Salary Range: $70000-$85000

Core Job Functions

Advising and Coaching

• Provide 1:1 and group career advising and coaching for doctoral students postdocs and PhD alumni in person and virtually.

• Advise on doctoral-specific career topics including:

• • Career exploration beyond academia

• • Translating research skills to non-academic roles

• • Industry government and nonprofit job searches

• • Grant-funded fellowship-based and project-based roles

• • Professional identity development for PhD trainees
  • Academic job searches (faculty postdoc research staff)

• Support doctoral students navigating career decision-making at various stages of the PhD lifecycle.
• Manage advising notes and track appointments in career services platforms.
• Participate in drop-in advising embedded/on-location advising within academic units and center-wide doctoral career programming.

Educational Content & Resources

• Create edit and disseminate high-quality written video and digital content tailored to doctoral-level career readiness.
• Develop and manage curated resources for doctoral students addressing:

• • Academic and non-academic career pathways

• • Research-to-industry transitions

• • Professional skills and experience development opportunities

• • Organizations recruiting doctoral-level talent

• Curate current credible content from internal and external sources to support doctoral students alumni and campus partners.
• Integrate and optimize career technologies (e.g. Handshake Interstride Big Interview uConnect) to support efficient scalable doctoral student engagement.

Programming & Major Events

• Plan implement and assess doctoral-focused programs and events that support career exploration skill development and professional readiness.
• Develop initiatives aligned with key doctoral milestones (early-stage exploration candidacy completion post-PhD transitions).
• Build and sustain partnerships across University of Miami (graduate programs The Graduate School faculty graduate student organizations postdoctoral services) and externally with employers research organizations and alumni.
• Collaborate with internal marketing and events teams to ensure effective outreach to PhD students and partners.
• Collaborate with on the design implementation and evaluation of A2i programming.

Teaching & Training

• Design and deliver workshops short courses and trainings tailored to graduate students emphasizing experiential and adult-learning best practices.
• Teach topics including professional skill development research communication career strategy and job search preparation for PhDs.
• Deliver programming through multiple modalities (in-person hybrid and digital).

Alumni & Employer Relations

• In collaboration with employer engagement team maintain and strengthen relationships with PhD alumni and doctoral-level employers willing to engage through mentoring recruiting and experiential learning.
• In collaboration with Employer Engagement team identify and cultivate new employer partnerships aligned with advanced-degree hiring and research-driven career pathways.
• Support alumni engagement initiatives that enhance career readiness for current graduate students.

Operations and Assessment

• Develop and implement assessment strategies to evaluate doctoral programs initiatives and learning outcomes.
• Analyze engagement and outcomes data specific to doctoral populations.
• Prepare reports and contribute to continuous improvement efforts.

Qualifications Skills and Competencies

Required Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum Education

Work requires communications analytical and organizational skills acquired through a completion of a masters degree.

• Minimum Experience

Minimum 4 years of relevant experience required preferably in advising. Knowledge of and experience with professional development assessment and learning styles is preferred. Preferred candidate has experience working with graduate and professional students.

Or an equivalent combination of relevant education and/or experience

Strongly Preferred Experiences:

• Doctoral-level trainingand/or experience working with or advising doctoral or PhD-level students postdocs or early-career researchers.
• PhD or equivalent preferred
• Knowledge of doctoral career pathways including academic industry government and research-intensive roles.
• Ability to stay current on industry trends emerging technologies and PhD-relevant labor markets.
• Familiarity with technical and research-focused interviewing and hiring processes.

Preferred Skills and Competencies:

• Advanced communication skills to clearly and effectively communicate information to internal and external audiences including student and business correspondence as well as the ability to use current communication tools such as blogs video and social media to deliver Career Center content.
• Demonstrated experience or ability to conduct and facilitate trainings with small to large groups
• Strong advising and teaching abilities effective across a diverse and global population particularly in the realms of professional development; career exploration; decision making; and job/internship searches.
• Capacity to balance multiple and varied tasks meet deadlines and use well-developed time management and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated commitment to supporting doctoral students from diverse backgrounds identities cultures and lived experiences.
• Strong relationship-building skills with faculty graduate program staff alumni employers and campus partners.
• Experience with career services and recruiting platforms (e.g. Handshake Big Interview uConnect Interstride).
• High level of discretion in handling confidential student and academic information.
• Willingness to work occasional evenings/weekends and travel for conferences academic meetings and employer engagement.

The intent of this job description is to provide a representative outline of the type of responsibilities that will be required of positions given this title and shall not be construed as all-encompassing or as a declaration of all specific duties and responsibilities of this position. Employees may be directed to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description.

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Director