Assistant Director of Leadership Briefings

Position Description

Job Category
Fulltime Regular

ExemptOvertimeEligible
Exempt

Benefits Eligible
Benefit Based

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions and pressing societal challenges. Caltech's extraordinary faculty and students are expanding understanding of the universe and inventing the technologies of the future, with research interests from quantum science and engineering to bioinformatics and the nature of life itself, from human behavior and economics to energy and sustainability.

Caltech is small but prizes excellence and ambition. The contributions of Caltech's faculty and alumni have earned national and international recognition, including 48 Nobel Prizes. The institute manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for NASA, sending probes to explore the planets of the solar system and quantify changes on Earth; owns and operates large-scale research facilities such as the Seismological Laboratory and a global network of astronomical observatories, including the Palomar and W. M. Keck Observatories; and cofounded and comanages LIGO, which, in 2016, observed gravitational waves for the first time.

Job Summary

The purpose of Advancement and Alumni Relations (AAR) is to foster a thriving and engaged community of support for Caltech. By connecting the people who share and support Caltech’s mission and values, we will ensure the Institute receives the necessary resources to achieve Caltech’s aspirations and sustain its excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship in perpetuity.

The Assistant Director of Leadership Briefings (AD) Reports to the Deputy Director of Principal Gifts Research within the Prospect Development team in the Data and Business Intelligence group in the division of Advancement and Alumni Relations (AAR) at Caltech. The AD performs comprehensive prospect research in order to write informative briefing bios that support fundraising efforts. The AD ensures the proper management of the briefing process and creates professional briefing packets to inform Caltech’s President, the VP of AAR and other institute leadership of key information, logistics and objectives of development meetings and events. The AD maintains and tracks bios on top prospects to ensure accuracy and efficacy.

Leadership briefing packets often require information and contributions from multiple stakeholders. The ability to interface and communicate effectively with colleagues across the institute, including institute leadership, is essential to this position. The AD often collaborates with others and may assign tasks and deadlines to stakeholders and monitor activity to ensure deliverables are received on time and meet style guide and formatting standards. The AD is responsible for the final assembly of focused materials for approval and dissemination, creating unified briefing packets that meet the agreed upon institute standards and formatting requirements.

Essential Job Duties

• Perform expert biographical and financial analysis to establish prospect research ratings, document philanthropic giving, and confirm connections to Caltech insiders. Enter prospect research results and analysis into database in an accurate and efficient manner.
• Ensure briefing bio process is efficient, accurate and operating in a best-in-class manner.
• Provide comprehensively researched written bios for leadership briefings.
• Utilize pre-existing templates and following style guides to compile and organize materials to produce cohesive briefing documents for scheduled events and meetings.
• Participate in the management and upkeep of the process for developing complex briefings, including conducting intake meetings, communicating deadlines and requirements, requesting information from partners, allocating assignments, managing deadlines and the compilation of final briefing documents.
• Edit written materials from partners as needed to meet style guide and requirements. Provide feedback and support to partners, to ensure their achievement of goals and standards.
• Proactively convene regular meetings with key event stakeholders to plan for optimization of briefing preparation, especially for large events requiring multi-faceted briefings.
• Participate in AAR and Institute strategy meetings and planning activities in advance of constituent events, solicitations, and presentations in order to identify and confirm the scope of the briefing needs.
• Effectively communicate directly with the VP of AAR as well as staff in the Office of the VP of AAR and the Office of the President regarding events, scheduling and briefings requirements.
• Proactively monitor Presidential and event calendars to determine potential briefing needs.
• Participate in the management of SharePoint site and associated documents including briefings library, style guides and process guidelines, and templates available to end-users.
• Participate in training AAR staff and institute stakeholders on briefings requirements, standards and the process.
• Populate database with new information that develops as a result of briefing construction with a focus on building an actionable pipeline of prospects from event activity.
• Analyze event data and research participants to discover prospect opportunities, assigning Prospect Development follow up for research or prospect actions as needed.
• Ensure that the Institute’s policies and procedures on prospect and donor confidentiality are followed.
• Perform special projects and other duties as assigned.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent related work experience.
• Experience in research, tracking or data analysis, within higher education, political, or non-profit organizations.
• Excellent written communication skills to prepare detailed, analytical profiles for use by institution leadership.
• Impeccable attention to detail, effective time management and the ability to manage competing priorities, delegating tasks to ensure success.
• Familiarity with development research sources of data and ability to perform biographical and financial research.
• Political acumen to ensure positive and productive working relations with various offices across the Institute, maintain confidentiality and handle highly sensitive information appropriately.
• Demonstrated ability to monitor and apply policies, guidelines, and defined set of rules.
• High level of proficiency in Adobe Acrobat, especially formatting and editing PDFs.
• Proficiency with Windows environment and standard MS Office suite: Outlook, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Word, SharePoint, document sharing software, and complex databases required.
• Proven ability to deal with confidential matters and difficult situations with tact and sensitivity.
• 2 or more years of experience working in development, preferably in higher education.
• Demonstrate the ability to practice and adhere to AAR's Guiding Principles.

Preferred Qualifications

• Project management training and experience.
• Progressively responsible prospect research experience providing strategic briefing support for leadership level fundraising interactions.
• Familiarity with database systems such as Ellucian Advance, Blackbaud CRM or Raisers Edge.
• Project Management Certificate and/or PMP.
• Knowledge of Caltech policies and experience with campus systems.
• The core function of this position is project management including scheduling, managing and tracking multiple briefing deadlines as well as managing the delivery of stakeholder contributions.

Required Documents

• Resume.
• Cover Letter.

Hiring Range

$83,500 - $104,200 per year

The salary of the finalist(s) selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, internal equity, experience, education, specialty and training.

As one of the largest employers in Pasadena, CA, Caltech is committed to providing comprehensive benefits to eligible employees and their eligible dependents. Our benefits package includes competitive compensation, health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement savings plans, generous paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick time, parental leave, bereavement, etc.), tuition reimbursement, and more. Non-benefit eligible employees will have access to some benefits such as onsite counseling and sick time. Learn more about our benefits and staff perks.