Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876, is America's first research university and home to nine world-class academic divisions working together as one university.
Johns Hopkins University is advancing an ambitious vision to integrate life design, career readiness, experiential learning, and mentoring throughout the undergraduate experience. The Life Design Lab (LDL), within Integrative Learning and Life Design (ILLD), helps students explore possibilities, build the skills and relationships needed to pursue them, gain meaningful experience, and successfully launch beyond Johns Hopkins.
Reporting directly to the Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Life Design, with dotted-line reporting to the Associate Vice Provost for Student Affairs, Director of Athletics & Recreation, and the Executive Director for Student Success, we are seeking a Director of Cohort-Based Learning who will lead the design, implementation, and assessment of a formal, progressive model of life design and career preparation for first-generation and/or limited-income (FLI) students and scholar-athletes. The Director will ensure that students in these cohorts receive structured support systematically and with certainty, with clear developmental milestones from early exploration through internship and post-graduate readiness.
The Director will initially supervise a team of life design educators supporting FLI students and will lead the strategy, implementation, and assessment of the FLI cohort model. The Director will personally implement and facilitate the scholar-athlete cohort, providing direct life design and career-readiness education in close partnership with Athletics and Blue Jays LEAD. Working with FLI and student-success partners and teams across ILLD, the Director will connect students to existing internship academies, Blue Jay Pathways, research, employer and alumni opportunities, and other paid experiential learning opportunities. The Director may also support aligned cohort-based initiatives, including work connected to the Partnership for Student Success (PSS), as the model develops.
The Director will establish baselines and annual targets in partnership with the Assistant Vice Provost and relevant university partners, including the Executive Director for Student Success. Measures are expected to include,
- Cohort reach and completion: the percentage of FLI students and scholar-athletes who participate in and complete defined stages of the progressive model.
- Demonstrated career readiness: the percentage of students meeting established standards for resumes, interviewing, professional storytelling, and opportunity-search preparation.
- Experiential learning access: the percentage of students securing paid internships, research, industry projects, or other qualifying experiential opportunities.
- Post-graduate outcomes: the percentage of graduates employed, enrolled in graduate or continuing education, engaged in service, or pursuing another qualifying destination within six months of graduation, including the quality, timeliness, and equity of outcomes across designated cohorts.
- Program effectiveness: evidence of student progression, partner satisfaction, effective referral pathways, and continuous improvement based on data and student feedback.
Cohort Based Strategy and Implementation
- Develop and lead a comprehensive cohort-based life design and career-readiness model for FLI students and scholar-athletes, establishing a sequenced experience that advances from exploration and foundational preparation to experiential learning and successful launch.
- Translate shared career-readiness expectations into clear student milestones, delivery plans, and intervention strategies that can be implemented consistently across cohorts while remaining responsive to the distinct experiences of each population.
- Establish systems that ensure all students in the designated cohorts are reached, understand the support available to them, and receive timely opportunities to build and demonstrate readiness.
- Integrate cohort-based work with the broader LDL and ILLD strategy while identifying, documenting, and sharing effective cohort-based practices with the Life Design and Career Readiness (LDCR) and Blue Jay Pathways teams. Build reciprocal approaches through which cohort-based learning strengthens these teams and their expertise, opportunities, and resources strengthen the cohort model.
Data-Driven, Results-Oriented Leadership
- Develop, review, and execute objectives and key results for cohort participation, career-readiness progression, access to experiential learning, and internship and post-graduate outcomes.
- Define and assess measurable standards for core readiness competencies, including resume quality, interviewing proficiency, professional storytelling, opportunity-search strategy, and the ability to build and activate relationships.
- Partner with ILLD analytics, assessment, and institutional research colleagues to collect, analyze, visualize, and report disaggregated student participation and outcomes data.
- Use quantitative and qualitative evidence to identify gaps, target outreach and interventions, improve programs, and communicate progress to university leaders and campus partners.
Staff Supervision, Development, and Accountability
- Lead, supervise, coach, and develop an initial team of life design educators working in the Center for Student Success (CSS) and FLI space, aligning individual portfolios and performance expectations with the cohort model and its measurable outcomes.
- Create shared operating practices, curriculum standards, outreach expectations, and case-management or tracking approaches that support consistent student experiences across the team.
- Set clear priorities, monitor progress, provide timely feedback, and cultivate a collaborative, inclusive, and results-oriented team culture.
- Support staff professional development and advancement in partnership with the Assistant Vice Provost, LDL leadership, and Human Resources.
High-Impact Programs and Experiential Learning
- Oversee the implementation, assessment, and continuous improvement of the FLI Internship Academy and related cohort-based internship preparation, placement, and support efforts, ensuring consistent delivery through the FLI-focused life design educator team.
- Build structured pathways that actively funnel students into paid internships, research, industry-based projects, and other high-quality experiential learning opportunities.
- Partner with the Blue Jay Pathways and employer engagement teams to connect students with opportunities aligned with their interests and to address barriers that may limit participation.
- Coordinate program timelines, staffing, communications, partner roles, and resources to ensure effective implementation and continuous improvement.
Cross-Functional Partnership Development
- Serve as the primary LDL partner to Athletics for scholar-athlete career readiness, including integrating career readiness into Blue Jays LEAD and working closely with Athletics leadership, coaches, and staff to develop and personally deliver a progressive model of support.
- Attend Athletics coaches and staff meetings on a regular basis to maintain alignment, understand emerging student needs, coordinate implementation, and strengthen shared accountability for scholar-athlete readiness and outcomes.
- Develop the FLI cohort model in partnership with the Center for Student Success and other relevant FLI leaders, ensuring alignment with existing student-success structures, communications, and community-based support.
- Collaborate with the Partnership for Student Success (PSS) and other campus partners on aligned cohort-based programming and referrals, with the precise scope determined as the portfolio is formalized.
- Engage faculty, staff, alumni, employers, and experiential-learning partners to expand mentoring, skill development, and paid opportunity access for students in the designated cohorts.
Direct Student Support
- Hold primary individual-contributor responsibility for implementing and facilitating the scholar-athlete cohort, personally providing the life design and career-readiness education, advising, workshops, outreach, and targeted interventions required throughout the academic year.
- Lead proactive outreach to students who have not met established readiness milestones or secured an internship, research experience, or post-graduate outcome.
- Ensure students receive practical, timely support related to resumes, interviewing, professional communication, networking, opportunity search, and transition planning.
Organizational Leadership
- Assist the Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Life Design in setting strategic direction for the university's work with CSS and FLI students; help advance priority initiatives as needed and translate that direction into clear expectations and coordinated execution through the CSS/FLI life design educator team.
- Represent LDL and ILLD on relevant university committees and working groups and communicate the purpose, progress, and impact of the cohort-based model to internal and external audiences.
- Identify promising practices and contribute to the national conversation on equitable career readiness, experiential learning, and cohort-based student support.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
- Skilled in designing and implementing structured programs or curricula that support student learning, career readiness, or professional development.
- Skilled in supervising, coaching, and developing professional staff and holding teams accountable for measurable goals.
- Ability to use participation, learning, and outcomes data to set priorities, assess effectiveness, and improve programs.
- Ability to build productive partnerships across organizational boundaries and work effectively with students, university leaders, faculty, staff, alumni, and employers.
- Excellent facilitation, advising, written communication, and presentation skills, with the ability to provide direct, engaging instruction to student cohorts.
- Demonstrated commitment to expanding access to career readiness, social capital, paid experiential learning, and strong post-graduate outcomes for students from varied backgrounds.
Minimum Qualifications
- Master's Degree required.
- Five years related experience required.
- Additional education may substitute for required experience, and additional related experience may substitute for required education beyond a high school diploma/graduation equivalent, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.
Preferred Qualifications
- Seven years of progressively responsible experience in career services, student success, experiential learning, athletics student development, higher education, or a closely related area.
- Experience as a collegiate student-athlete or as an employee within collegiate athletics, particularly in student-athlete development, academic support, leadership development, or career readiness.
- Experience developing or leading cohort-based programming for first-generation and/or limited-income students.
- Experience connecting students with paid internships, research, employer-based learning, or other high-quality experiential opportunities.
- Knowledge of career-readiness assessment, learning outcomes, program evaluation, and continuous-improvement practices.
- Experience working within a complex, highly collaborative university environment.
Classified Title: Associate Director Life Design
Job Posting Title (Working Title): Director of Cohort-Based
Learning (Life Design Lab)
Role/Level/Range: ACRP/04/MF
Starting Salary Range: $76,980 - $134,995 Annually ($100,000
targeted; Commensurate w/exp.)
Employee group: Full Time
Schedule: M - F 8:30 - 5 pm with some evenings/weekends
FLSA Status: Exempt
Location: Hybrid/Homewood Campus
Department name: Life Design Lab
Personnel area: University Student Services
The successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check.
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