Job Details
Schwarzman Scholars
Senior Director, Leadership
Schwarzman Scholars invites nominations and applications for the position of Senior Director, Leadership (SDL). Building on a remarkable decade of success, the inaugural SDL will serve as the head of the Schwarzman Scholars’ leadership development pillar, an integral part of the Schwarzman College program at Tsinghua University, one of the world’s most prestigious institutions.
Reporting to the Executive Director of Schwarzman Scholars (New York) and the Dean of Schwarzman College (Beijing), the SDL will be responsible for ensuring that leadership development is coherent, rigorous, experiential, and globally relevant. Based on site in Beijing, the SDL will play a critical role in translating the program’s ambition—preparing future global leaders with a deep understanding of China—into leadership learning that is intentional, integrated, and developmentally coherent.
Founded in 2013 through a partnership between Stephen A. Schwarzman and Tsinghua University, Schwarzman Scholars is a fully funded, one-year master’s degree program in global affairs designed to prepare the next generation of global leaders to shape the future. The program offers a dynamic curriculum grounded in the pillars of China, leadership, and global affairs, with learning opportunities in and beyond the classroom, including leadership training, senior mentors, high-level interactions with Chinese leaders and visiting speakers, career development guidance, and Deep Dive trips across China. Each year, 150 Scholars from around the world and a wide variety of geographies, industries, and academic backgrounds are selected from a highly competitive global applicant pool (approximately 5% admit rate). At Schwarzman College, Scholars develop the skills, mindset, and community necessary to tackle the challenges we face today and into the future.
Although now more than a decade old, Schwarzman Scholars remains a builder’s environment. Each year hosts a new cohort, faculty and international visitors cycle in and out, and the institution continues to evolve. The Senior Director, Leadership plays a central role in bringing coherence and continuity to the leadership pillar—ensuring that leadership learning is experienced not as a set of disconnected moments, but as an intentional developmental journey that integrates academic study, immersive experiences across China, and the broader lived experience of the residential community.
Central to this work is engaging thoughtfully with global leadership traditions, helping Scholars understand leadership across cultures, systems, and institutional contexts without privileging a single model. The SDL serves as a connector and translator between academic content and lived experience, working closely with senior staff, faculty, practitioners, and high-level visiting speakers to ensure quality and coherence across offerings.
The SDL will be responsible for designing, delivering, and continuously refining a leadership development framework that integrates academic and experiential components and resonates with a globally diverse cohort of Scholars. The SDL will be a practitioner-scholar: someone with lived leadership experience, strong facilitation skills, intellectual credibility, and the ability to convene and align faculty, practitioners, and visiting leaders around a shared leadership development agenda.
Schwarzman Scholars seeks a leader who combines thoughtfulness with practicality, and reflection with action. As an employee of both the Stephen A. Schwarzman Education Foundation and Tsinghua University, this position comes with a competitive salary, a fully furnished apartment and meal plan at Schwarzman College, and a comprehensive benefits package.
For more information, to submit recommendations, or if you are interested in applying to this position, please direct inquiries to: SchwarzmanEDLL@russellreynolds.com