The posting
Job Description
Position Summary: The Associate Director for Employer & Industry Development for Engineering & Technology is a senior business development and relationship-management professional responsible for significantly expanding Vanderbilt University's corporate relationships across engineering, technology, computing, data science, manufacturing, aerospace, artificial intelligence, and other technical industries.
Working in partnership with Career Advancement & Engagement and the School of Engineering, the Associate Director will develop and steward a portfolio of strategic employer relationships that create meaningful opportunities for Vanderbilt students while strengthening Vanderbilt's visibility and reputation among leading technical organizations. The position will take an entrepreneurial, market-facing approach to employer development. Rather than focusing primarily on recruiting logistics, the Associate Director will identify organizations that align with Vanderbilt's academic strengths and student interests, develop relationships with decision-makers, understand companies' talent and innovation needs, and create multiple points of engagement between those organizations and Vanderbilt. A central priority will be expanding experiential learning opportunities. The Associate Director will work directly with companies to develop internships, employer-sponsored projects, technical challenges, site visits, mentoring, job-shadowing, co-op and other work-based learning models, while simultaneously expanding internship and full-time recruiting pipelines. The Associate Director will help transform individual employer contacts into broad institutional relationships connecting companies with Vanderbilt students, faculty, alumni, academic programs, and the broader Vanderbilt career ecosystem.
Key Functions and Expected Performance:
Strategic Employer & Business Development
- Develop and execute an aggressive employer-development strategy across priority engineering and technology industries.
- Identify, cultivate, and steward relationships with leading companies, emerging firms, startups, and other organizations employing engineering and technical talent.
- Build relationships with senior executives, engineering and technology leaders, talent leaders, recruiters, Vanderbilt alumni, and other organizational decision-makers.
- Expand Vanderbilt's employer portfolio beyond traditional campus recruiters and establish relationships with organizations that have not historically recruited Vanderbilt students.
- Develop an active prospect pipeline and systematically move organizations from initial contact to sustained institutional partnership.
- Represent Vanderbilt externally at employer meetings, industry events, professional associations, conferences, and other venues.
Experiential Learning Development
- Work directly with companies to create meaningful experiential-learning opportunities for Vanderbilt students.
- Develop internships, employer-sponsored projects, technical challenges, hackathons, job-shadowing opportunities, company visits, mentorship programs, co-op models, and other innovative forms of work-based learning.
- Identify opportunities for companies to engage students earlier in their Vanderbilt experience, allowing students to explore industries and build professional capabilities before traditional internship recruiting begins.
- Collaborate with School of Engineering faculty and Career Advancement & Engagement colleagues to ensure employer-sponsored experiences align with student interests, academic strengths, and professional-development needs.
- Develop scalable models that allow employer relationships to create opportunities for multiple students and academic programs rather than relying solely on individual placements.
Recruiting & Talent Pipeline Development
- Significantly increase the number and quality of engineering and technology internship and full-time opportunities available to Vanderbilt students.
- Develop recruiting relationships with organizations across technology, AI, computing, aerospace, manufacturing, biomedical engineering, energy, robotics, advanced materials, applied science, and other priority sectors.
- Understand employer talent strategies, recruiting cycles, skill requirements, and emerging workforce needs.
- Position Vanderbilt students effectively with employers by communicating their academic preparation, technical capabilities, experiential learning, and distinctive Vanderbilt strengths.
- Partner with recruiting colleagues to translate strategic employer relationships into internships, full-time positions, interviews, recruiting events, and other tangible student opportunities.
- Identify emerging organizations and sectors before they become established campus recruiting markets.
Strategic Account Management
- Develop comprehensive engagement strategies for priority corporate partners.
- Move employer relationships beyond single recruiting transactions toward multidimensional institutional partnerships.
- Identify opportunities for organizations to engage Vanderbilt through recruiting, experiential learning, faculty interaction, research, classroom engagement, mentoring, executive participation, and other activities.
- Coordinate with Corporate and Foundation Relations, Development and Alumni Relations, School of Engineering leadership, and other Vanderbilt partners when employer relationships have broader institutional potential.
- Ensure employer relationships are coordinated across Vanderbilt and stewarded as institutional assets.
Alumni & Industry Network Development
- Identify and activate Vanderbilt alumni working within priority engineering and technology organizations.
- Engage alumni as connectors who can open doors to companies, hiring managers, executives, technical leaders, and emerging opportunities.
- Develop relationships with industry associations, venture and startup communities, regional technology ecosystems, and other networks that can expand Vanderbilt's reach.
- Connect alumni, employers, faculty, and students through targeted programs and relationship-building opportunities.
- Help build a self-reinforcing Vanderbilt Engineering & Technology network in which alumni and employer partners increasingly create opportunities for future students.
Market Intelligence & Internal Partnership
- Serve as a source of current market intelligence regarding engineering and technology employment, emerging industries, workforce trends, skill requirements, and recruiting practices.
- Regularly communicate employer feedback and market developments to the Senior Director, School of Engineering partners, Career Advancement & Engagement colleagues, and the Associate Director for Career & Experiential Learning.
- Help identify gaps between employer demand and student preparation that can inform programming, experiential learning, and academic partnership.
- Collaborate closely with the student-facing Associate Director so that employer development and student preparation continuously inform one another.
Outcomes, Pipeline Management & Assessment
- Establish and maintain a disciplined employer-development pipeline using Vanderbilt's CRM and employer engagement systems.
- Track new employer prospects, relationship progression, experiential opportunities, recruiting activity, internships, full-time placements, and repeat engagement.
- Develop measurable goals for new employer acquisition, strategic account growth, experiential-learning creation, recruiting opportunities, and student outcomes.
- Use data to prioritize business-development activity and assess return on employer engagement efforts.
- Regularly report on employer pipeline health, market opportunities, partnership development, and resulting student outcomes.
Supervisory Relationships: This position reports administratively and functionally to the Senior Director of Engineering & Technology Career Pathways. The position works in close partnership with the Associate Director for Career & Experiential Learning, Career Advancement & Engagement's employer relations and experiential learning teams, School of Engineering leadership and faculty, Development and Alumni Relations, Corporate and Foundation Relations, and other Vanderbilt partners.
Education and Certifications
- Bachelor's degree is necessary.
- Advanced degree in business, engineering, technology, or a related field is preferred.
Experience and Skills
- 7–10+ years of progressively responsible experience in business development, corporate partnerships, employer relations, recruiting, sales, technology, engineering, workforce development, or a related field is necessary.
- Demonstrated success developing and managing significant external relationships is necessary.
- Experience building a pipeline of prospective partners and converting relationships into measurable opportunities or outcomes is necessary.
- Strong understanding of engineering, technology, or technical talent markets is necessary.
- Demonstrated ability to engage credibly with senior executives, technical leaders, talent leaders, recruiters, faculty, alumni, and other stakeholders is necessary.
- Strong consultative business-development skills, including the ability to understand organizational needs and develop mutually valuable partnerships, are necessary.
- Exceptional communication, presentation, negotiation, relationship-management, and organizational skills are necessary.
- Ability to work independently and entrepreneurially while operating effectively within a complex university environment is necessary.
- Willingness to travel regularly to meet with employers, alumni, and industry partners is necessary.
Preferred Qualifications
- Professional experience in technology, engineering, technical recruiting, corporate business development, or a related industry.
- Existing relationships within major technology, engineering, manufacturing, aerospace, AI, startup, or other relevant industry ecosystems.
- Experience developing university-industry partnerships, early-talent programs, internships, co-ops, or other workforce-development initiatives.
- Demonstrated success opening new markets or developing relationships with organizations that were not previously active partners.
- Experience working with senior corporate executives and technical leaders.
- Familiarity with experiential-learning models, including employer-sponsored projects and other alternatives to traditional internships.
- Experience leveraging alumni or professional networks for business development.
- Familiarity with CRM systems such as Salesforce and recruiting platforms such as Handshake.
- Understanding of artificial intelligence and its implications for engineering, technology, talent development, and the future of work.
About Us
At Vanderbilt University , our work - regardless of title or role - is in service to an important and noble mission in which every member of our community serves in advancing knowledge and transforming lives on a daily basis. Located in Nashville, Tennessee, on a 330+ acre campus and arboretum dating back to 1873, Vanderbilt is proud to have been named as one of “America’s Best Large Employers” as well as a top employer in Tennessee and the Nashville metropolitan area by Forbes for several years running. We welcome those who are interested in learning and growing professionally with an employer that strives to create, foster and sustain opportunities as an employer of choice.
We understand you have a choice when choosing where to work and pursue a career. We understand you are unique and have a story. We want to hear it. We encourage you to apply today so that you might become a part of our story.
Vanderbilt University 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, or status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.
