"Sr. Associate Director, Employer Engagement, Wharton MBA Career Management"

Job Description Summary

Wharton School Overview
Founded in 1881 as the world's first collegiate business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is shaping the future of business by incubating ideas, driving insights, and creating leaders who change the world. With campuses in both Philadelphia and San Francisco, Wharton has over 850 staff, a faculty population of more than 235 renowned professors, and 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students. Each year 13,000 professionals from around the world advance their careers through Wharton Executive Education's individual, company-customized, and online programs. More than 104,000 Wharton alumni form a powerful global network of leaders who transform business every day. Wharton is home to a dynamic community of staff, bringing a wide range of skills, experiences, and perspectives. To learn more, visit www.wharton.upenn.edu.

Reporting to the Director of Employer Engagement, the Senior Associate Director, Employer Engagement oversees a team of Relationship Managers and shares responsibility with the other Senior Associate Director for implementing the employer services strategy, including business development, core account management, recruiting events, and the creation of new employer services.

Job Description

Responsibilities

The role has primary responsibility for corporate relationships in one industry and secondary oversight of other industries managed by Relationship Managers, ensuring coordinated relationship building, student placement, and effective CRM use for strategic employer tracking. The Senior Associate Director sets processes, standards, and goals for business development and integrates MBA hiring trends and competitive benchmarking into strategies.

This role is responsible for continually expanding Wharton's presence in underrepresented and emerging markets (including West Coast and international), leveraging Wharton's network of alumni, faculty, and research centers, and representing the school at industry conferences, recruiting roundtables, and employer forums. The position requires approximately 12% travel to meet with employers, attend events, and represent Wharton in key recruiting markets.

Business development efforts focus on expanding relationships with current recruiting partners, cultivating new employer connections, and collaborating with alumni and Wharton colleagues such as External Affairs, Research Centers, and Faculty to strengthen partnerships. The Senior Associate Director ensures that business development meetings also serve as a key point for gathering feedback, with insights shared internally to inform strategy, improve services, and identify new opportunities.

The Senior Associate Director oversees the Employer Engagement team's marketing and communications process, including employer-targeted email campaigns, the employer website, and business development materials. The team also supports student focus groups and surveys to collect feedback on engaged employers. This feedback is analyzed and delivered back to employers during business development meetings, positioning Wharton as a responsive and forward-thinking partner.

In addition to strategic responsibilities, this position plays a critical people management role by leading, developing, and mentoring Relationship Managers to ensure high performance and professional growth. The Senior Associate Director monitors and sets individual and team goals, provides regular feedback, conducts performance reviews, and fosters a collaborative, high-achieving team culture that encourages the sharing of best practices across industries.

The Senior Associate Director also oversees the Alumni Career Expert (ACE) program, engaging alumni to support student job placement through business development outreach, maintaining consistent collaboration with active ACEs, and leading the MBA Career Management team in recruiting new alumni to sustain a strong and responsive network.

This leadership role is responsible for implementing innovative business development solutions, setting strategic direction, cultivating connected communities of employers, recruiters, alumni, and students, and driving data analysis to ensure strategies strike the right balance between new business development and maintaining existing relationships.

QUALIFICATIONS

• The ideal candidate will have strong project management skills, a high degree of technology savvy, comfort with translating business needs to technology staff, outstanding written and oral communication skills, strong detail orientation, and be a high level contributor, collaborator, and self-starter.
• A Bachelor's degree required and a minimum of 5 to 7 years of prior work experience.
• Highly motivated and dedicated individual with strong project management, customer service, presentation delivery, and interpersonal skills.
• Previous managerial experience required, along with an ability to work as a strong team player.
• Able to interact across multiple levels, and willingness to go above and beyond to achieve the required goals.
• Knowledge of business and business careers, experience in recruiting, job placement, career counseling or coaching and/or significant industry experience.
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 12% of the time to meet with employers, attend industry events, and represent Wharton in key recruiting markets.

Job Location

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Department / School

Wharton School

Pay Range

$79,500.00 - $89,242.65 Annual Rate