Executive Director of External Relations and Engagement (0457U), School of Social Welfare #88417

Executive Director of External Relations and Engagement (0457U), School of Social Welfare #88417

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Departmental Overview

Berkeley Social Welfare is one of the nation's leading social work graduate programs. As part of the world's top ranked public university, the School of Social Welfare is producing new knowledge for the common good and training the next generation of social work thought leaders dedicated to serving society's most vulnerable members. Known for combining rigorous scholarship with outstanding education, the School of Social Welfare offers MSW and PhD programs as well as an undergraduate major. Since 1944, the School has prepared nearly 12,000 social work professionals for leadership positions in the public and nonprofit human service sectors. Berkeley Social Welfare graduates are dedicated to meeting the growing needs of marginalized, underserved and other vulnerable populations.

This position will assist the Dean in developing new strategic initiatives in education and scholarship. It is modeled after those held by academic program managers in federally sponsored research centers, and in some academic departments, but encompasses the additional complexity of being required to develop a significantly broader network of sponsors from agencies and other external organizations, in addition to academic institutions. Another element of this position will be connecting and translating between both external partners and faculty research priorities and/or student learning opportunities. This position supports the development of a range of scholarly and educational initiatives, including undergraduate and graduate courses, certificate programs, a range of professional education options including executive education as well as new domains for inter-professional knowledge building.

Position Summary

The Executive Director of External Relations and Engagement is a senior leadership role responsible for building and leading the School's external engagement strategy and operations. This hands-on position combines strategic vision with direct execution: the Executive Director will personally drive key initiatives while managing and developing a small team across communications, development, alumni relations, and instructional design.

The Executive Director works closely with the Dean/Associate Dean, a faculty committee focused on revenue generation, and other administrative leaders and is responsible for ensuring goals are on track and met, and may propose high-level recommendations for improvements and/or changes to enhance the School's external engagement and revenue.

Application Review Date

The First Review Date for this job is September 28, 2026. For full consideration, please apply on or before the first review date.

Responsibilities

External Engagement Strategy and Infrastructure

Acts as key thought partner to the Dean and Senate Faculty on the conception, implementation, management, and scaling of innovative initiatives that involve senior management, faculty, and external stakeholders to extend and enhance the School's reputation and impact.

• Leads initiatives with high autonomy upon approval from the Dean and Senate Faculty, ensuring alignment with School and University goals and policies.
• Develops business plans, budgets, and KPIs; assesses and reports on initiative effectiveness and recommends structural or procedural changes to optimize results for assigned programs.
• Leads the next phase of growth for the development and external engagement function.

Represents School, in coordination with or in lieu of the Dean, Senate Faculty, and other members of the School, to a network of partners, sponsors, government agencies, multilateral organizations, peer programs, foundations, private donors, alumni, and the public to cultivate and steward relationships with the key research and capacity building partners.

• Creates and manages a unified platform for existing and potential community partnerships across government, industry, foundations, and non-profit sectors in Airtable.
• Identifies and cultivates new opportunities for collaboration with peer institutions, research centers and groups, and public and private sector partners that advance the educational and research priorities of the school.
• Develops scopes of work, pitches, and budgets for new programs, working closely with finance offices and funders to secure necessary resources.
• Partners with the Dean to prioritize funding opportunities; oversees the creation and review of scopes of work, pitches, and budgets for new programs, working closely with finance offices and funders to secure necessary resources.
• Executes strategic plans for financing programmatic activities, including technical grant-writing and coordination with campus development offices.

Organizes the School's collective voice in response to legislative, judicial, and social welfare issues to inform local, national, and global policymaking and coordinates with national and global efforts to elevate the voice and impact of social welfare.

• Oversees the translation of research findings into policy-relevant knowledge, introducing evidence-based recommendations into ongoing policy dialogues. Liaises with policymakers, program implementers, and journalists to communicate key findings and elevate the School's public profile.
• Reviews and approves critical programmatic outputs, including briefing documents, donor reports, requests for proposals (RFPs), calls for abstracts, peer review protocols, surveys, event concept notes, and agendas, etc.

Revenue Generation, Community Building and Engagement and Program Development

Identifies and prepares concept briefs for new non-degree revenue-generating program ideas to faculty and school leadership, including, but not limited to, continuing education and professional certificate programs.

• Works with the instructional design and revenue generation analyst to assess market demand, competitor pricing, implementation timelines, and model multi-year revenue and expense projections for proposed and existing programs to assess viability.
• Oversees operational execution of revenue-generating programs including registration, enrollment management, and participant communications; escalates issues to Dean as appropriate.
• Tracks program performance against targets; prepares regular reporting for school leadership and recommends adjustments to pricing, format, or marketing.
• Works with instructional design and revenue generation analyst and faculty to develop marketable content.

People Management and Team Development

• Directly supervises approximately 3.5 FTE staff across communications, fundraising, revenue generation, events and alumni relations, research development, and instructional design.
• Creates cross-training opportunities and professional development plans to address the School's needs and provides ongoing coaching to build team capacity.
• Builds and sustains a high performing team culture that reflects the school's values of inclusion, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Assesses team structure and capacity; recommends and implements changes to staffing model as the function grows and matures. This includes hiring, firing, conducting performance evaluations, training, etc. in comportment with University and School policies and procedures.

Other Duties

• May participate in school-wide committees, working groups, and professional development activities as assigned.
• Other duties as assigned by Dean or Assistant Dean.

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated expertise in at least two of the following: communications/marketing, development/advancement, revenue-generating program development, government relations, or community engagement.
• Demonstrated experience building, rebuilding, or significantly transforming an external engagement program, including establishing or redesigning infrastructure and systems in a resource-constrained environment.
• Proven ability to directly supervise and build cohesive, high-performing multi-functional teams in a complex, non-profit environment (including performance assessment, goal-setting, mentoring, coaching, etc.).
• Ability to write, edit, and review external-facing communications content, such as donor correspondence, briefs, gift proposals, program pitches, and/or marketing.
• Ability to attend and contribute to cultivation events and meetings, including occasional nights and weekends; ability to represent the school professionally to external constituencies including but not limited to alumni, donors, government agencies, and community partners.
• Creative and analytical ability to identify, pitch, develop, and successfully implement new programs.
• Demonstrated interest in and/or knowledge of program development, building and maintaining relationships with employers in a community, and revenue generation.
• Strong financial acumen, including skills in budget development, expenditure monitoring, financial models, projections, in accordance with University financial policies and internal controls.
• Demonstrated experience in managing multiple concurrent functions and competing priorities in a complex environment. Strong project management and execution skills.
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills; demonstrated ability to work effectively with and build consensus among diverse populations, including faculty; demonstrated expertise building collaborations.
• Advanced critical thinking, problem identification and resolution skills; ability to synthesize data from multiple sources to develop recommendations and inform decision-making.
• High degree of emotional intelligence and political acumen; excellent ability to maintain confidentiality, objectivity, sensitivity, discretion, professionalism, and exercise good judgment and tact.
• Occasional nights/weekends/travel and ability to be onsite a few days a week when not traveling for business.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of, or experience with, applicable California state, regional, and local programs, policies, and/or environment in the field of social welfare and/or related fields preferred.
• Knowledge of, and/or ability to quickly learn, UC Berkeley protocols and administrative systems, including CalAnswers, and familiarity with donor/CRM platforms such as Raiser's Edge, Salesforce, or CADS.

Education / Training

• Bachelor's degree in communications, business, or related field, and/or equivalent experience/training. (Required)
• Advanced degree (MBA,MPA,MPP, MSSW or equivalent) in a related field and/or equivalent experience/training. (Preferred)

Salary & Benefits

For information on the comprehensive benefits package offered by the University, please visit the University of California's Compensation & Benefits website.

Under California law, the University of California, Berkeley is required to provide a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role and should not offer a salary outside of the range posted in this job announcement. This range takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to experience, skills, knowledge, abilities, education, licensure and certifications, analysis of internal equity, and other business and organizational needs. It is not typical for an individual to be offered a salary at or near the top of the range for a position. Salary offers are determined based on final candidate qualifications and experience.

The budgeted annual range that the University reasonably expects to pay for this position is $165,000.00 - $210,000.00. The full pay scale for this classification is $115,800.00 - $220,400.00.

• This is an exempt, monthly-paid position.
• This is a full-time (40 hours/week) Career position eligible for UC benefits.

How to Apply

To apply, please submit your resume and cover letter.

Other Information

• This position is eligible for up to 1 day/week remote work within the United States. Exact arrangements are determined in partnership with your supervisor to meet role responsibilities and department needs and are subject to change.

Conviction History Background

This is a designated position requiring fingerprinting and a background check due to the nature of the job responsibilities. Berkeley does hire people with conviction histories and reviews information received in the context of the job responsibilities. The University reserves the right to make employment contingent upon successful completion of the background check.

Misconduct

As a condition of employment, the final candidate who accepts a conditional offer of employment will be required to disclose if they have been subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct; received notice of any allegations or are currently the subject of any administrative or disciplinary proceedings involving misconduct; have left a position after receiving notice of allegations or while under investigation in an administrative or disciplinary proceeding involving misconduct; or have filed an appeal of a finding of misconduct with a previous employer.

"Misconduct" means any violation of the policies or laws governing conduct at the applicant's previous place of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of policies or laws prohibiting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or other forms of harassment, discrimination, dishonesty, or unethical conduct, as defined by the employer. For reference, below are UC's policies addressing some forms of misconduct:

UC Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Policy

UC Anti-Discrimination Policy

Abusive Conduct in the Workplace

Equal Employment Opportunity

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.

To apply, visit