Director of Career Services - Sacramento

Job Description

Job Description

Company Description

As a leading healthcare education organization, Unitek Learning’s family of schools helps thousands of students launch and accelerate their careers every year. As a rapidly growing and highly successful company, Unitek is also a great place to pursue a rewarding and challenging career. We offer a competitive salary, generous benefits, a collegiate work environment, and unlimited growth potential!

Job Description

The Director of Career Services leads a high-performing, outcomes-driven Career Services team focused on graduate employment, employer partnership development, student career readiness, and compliance with institutional and accreditation requirements.

This is a working leadership role. The Director is expected to coach staff, manage performance, address conflict, reinforce accountability, and step into frontline career services advisor work when needed to support students, graduates, employers, and campus operations.

Success in this position requires urgency, strong people leadership, operational discipline, and proven ability to drive results in a fast-paced, metric-driven environment.

Job Responsibilities:

• Ensures licensure initiatives are implemented consistently across VNPN and RN programs, aligning data‑driven NCLEX preparation with student needs.
• Lead the development, preparation, and submission of complex regulatory applications for
• Lead daily Career Services operations, team productivity, graduate follow-up, employer outreach, placement activity, and service responsiveness.
• Set clear expectations, review metrics, and hold staff accountable for employment outcomes, career readiness completion, employer engagement, and documentation standards.
• Coach, develop, and motivate staff through regular feedback, observation, training reinforcement, and performance conversations.
• Address conflict, inconsistent performance, resistance to change, and unproductive behaviors quickly and professionally.
• Recruit, interview, onboard, and train new team members in partnership with campus and corporate leadership.
• Build and expand employer relationships that create externship-to-hire, clinical-to-hire, and direct hire opportunities in nursing and allied health.
• Drive business development activity through calls, email, in-person visits, community outreach, and follow-up to grow hiring pipelines.
• Learn and perform core Career Services Advisor duties and provide hands-on coverage or support as needed by business demand.
• Maintain accurate, timely, and audit-ready records related to graduate status, employment verification, employer activity, waivers, and student engagement.
• Partner with academic leadership, campus operations, externship or clinical teams, and other stakeholders to improve readiness, conversions, and employment results.
• Represent the college professionally in the community and support employer events, advisory activities, and campus events as needed.
• Regular, in-person attendance up to 5 days per week on campus/on site is an essential function of this position.
• This role requires on-site collaboration with students, faculty, and staff.
• Other duties as assigned to support the needs of the department.

Success Metrics & Performance Expectations:

The Director of Career Services is evaluated on measurable results, not activity alone. Performance expectations may vary by campus, program mix, and leadership priorities, but generally include the following:

Team Employment Outcomes: Lead the department in achieving or exceeding applicable graduate employment benchmarks established by accreditors and the institution.

Team Productivity and Execution: Drive disciplined advisor activity, follow-up, career readiness completion, and caseload management that support placement results.

Employer Partnership Development: Expand and strengthen employer relationships that create qualified hiring opportunities and support workforce partnerships.

Talent Leadership and Accountability: Build a performance culture through effective hiring, coaching, recognition, corrective action, and follow-through.

Data Integrity and Compliance: Maintain complete, accurate, and audit-ready records that support accreditation, compliance, internal reporting, and operational decisions.

Working Leadership and Collaboration: Step into frontline work when needed and partner effectively with students, employers, campus leaders, and corporate partners.

Pay Range

The annual pay range for this position is $75k (minimum), $80k (midpoint), and $85k (maximum).*

*Typical hiring range is between the minimum and midpoint of the above pay range. Actual starting base pay may vary based on factors such as education, experience, skills, location and budget.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree preferred. Equivalent combination of education, directly relevant experience, and demonstrated leadership success will be considered.
• Minimum 7 years of combined professional experience in staffing, recruiting, sales, business development, employer relations, career services, admissions, branch or campus operations, or another performance-driven environment with measurable outcomes.
• Minimum 3 years of direct people leadership experience, including hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance management, conflict resolution, and accountability for team results.
• Demonstrated success leading a metric-driven team in a fast-paced, customer-facing environment.
• Strong business development skills with the ability to build credibility with employers and convert outreach into viable hiring opportunities.
• Ability to manage difficult conversations, navigate team friction, and address attitude or engagement issues without lowering standards.
• Willingness and ability to learn and perform Career Services Advisor duties and maintain operational fluency in frontline processes.
• Strong communication, judgment, organization, follow-through, and ability to manage competing priorities and deadlines.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office required. Experience with CampusVue/CampusNexus, PowerBI, CRM, or case management systems is preferred. Postsecondary, healthcare, and ACCSC or ABHES experience is helpful but not required.
• Valid driver’s license, reliable transportation, and ability to travel locally for employer visits, community outreach, and campus-related events, if required by campus needs.

Additional Information

We Offer:

• Medical, Dental and Vision starting the 1st of the month following 30 days of employment
• 2 Weeks’ starting Vacation per year.  Increasing based on years of service with the company
• 12 paid Holidays and 2 Floating Holiday
• 401K with a Company Match
• Company Paid Life Insurance at 1x’s your annual salary
• Leadership development and training for career advancement
• Tuition assistance and Forgiveness for you and your family up to 100% depending on the program