Director, Graduate & Alumni Career Development, Pulsifer Career Development Center at Bentley University – Waltham, Massachusetts
Explore Related Opportunities
About This Position
Job Description Summary
The Director of Graduate, Professional, & Alumni Career Development is a senior, forwardlooking leader responsible for redefining how career development fuels institutional growth, employer engagement, and near & longterm career impact. Situated within Bentley’s Strategy & Innovation Division (SID), this role goes beyond traditional career services to operate at the intersection of talent, education, industry, and business development.As part of the Bentley 2030 Strategic Plan, the institution is seeking to build on its reputation as a business university known for producing world class students, by broadening its Post-Baccalaureate portfolio beyond just traditional graduate degree programs, offering more market aligned degree & non-degree programs that sit at the intersection of technology and business. Career management and industry engagement are critical in ensuring that this portfolio delivers compelling return on investments to students and alumni.
Historically, Bentley’s graduate programs have focused on early career students in specialized masters and MBA programs. Recently, with the launch of the executive PhD program and the Professional MBA, the institution has made a more concerted effort to develop programs more aligned with the working professional and executive market. The director will lead a career development team that serves early career students, experienced professionals & executives, and Bentley alumni. The next iteration of the role places a much greater emphasis on corporate and employer development, crossselling with Executive & Professional Education (EPE), and openended partnerships that leverage Bentley’s academic, research, and convening strengths. Career development is viewed not only as a student service, but as a multi-faceted connector with industry that fosters strategic growth for the university.
The Director sets vision and direction for a scalable, marketaligned career ecosystem that strengthens Bentley’s value proposition, accelerates alumni outcomes over the long arc of their careers, and deepens Bentley’s relevance with employers globally. In order to execute the vision and direction, the director will lead and manage a full-time team, currently four persons, focused on the execution of employer relations, career and professional education, and coaching strategies. The GACD also has portfolio of part-time career and professional development coaches that support delivery of the mission. In addition, the director oversees office operations and the effective management of career systems, including platforms and tools used to facilitate employer postings, track student and alumni outcomes, and ensure data-driven decision-making across all aspects of career development.
Strategic Mandate
The Director of Graduate & Alumni Career Development advances SID’s charge to drive institutional growth and transformation by:
Building durable employer and corporate relationships that support hiring, upskilling, executive education, and partnership opportunities
Translating Bentley’s academic and intellectual capital into marketrelevant talent and workforce solutions
Positioning graduate and alumni career outcomes as a differentiator for enrollment, reputation, and revenue
Operating with a futureoriented mindset shaped by AI, global labor markets, skillsbased hiring, and evolving career trajectories
Essential Duties
1. Career Strategy & Graduate/Alumni Outcomes
Provide strategic leadership for all graduate and alumni career development activities, ensuring alignment with Bentley’s mission and SID priorities
Design and continuously evolve a career and professional development model that supports career accelerators, career changers, executives & strategies, and entrepreneurial talent across fulltime, parttime, and executive populations
Oversee delivery of a comprehensive career curriculum spanning career choice, story crafting, networking, interviewing, negotiation, and longterm career navigation
Champion datainformed approaches to placement, salary outcomes, promotability, and alumni career progression
Ensure career development offerings are global, inclusive, and responsive to changing work authorization and labor market dynamics
2. Employer & Corporate Development (Expanded Focus)
Lead the development of a global, diversified employer portfolio across priority industries focused on financial services, technology, and health & life sciences
Shift employer relations from transactional recruiting toward relationshipbased partnerships that span hiring, project work, upskilling, experiential learning, and talent pipelines
Conduct regular, seniorlevel employer engagement to understand evolving workforce needs and identify new collaboration opportunities
Partner with alumni leaders to activate employer access, advocacy, and sponsorship
Position Bentley as a trusted partner for talent, innovation, and applied business problemsolving
3. CrossSelling & RevenueAligned Collaboration
Work closely with Executive & Professional Education (EPE) to identify, cultivate, and crosssell opportunities that connect employer relationships with custom programs, open enrollment offerings, and executive credentials
Support SIDled business development efforts by contributing market intelligence, employer access, and talent insights
Collaborate with graduate programs, academic leadership, and research centers to surface employerdriven opportunities for new programs, partnerships, and grants
Think entrepreneurially about openended business development opportunities that extend beyond traditional career services
4. Scalable Career Operations & Data
Lead, develop, and inspire a highperforming team of career professionals across coaching, employer engagement, operations, and global career readiness
Foster a culture of innovation, experimentation, empathy, and accountability
Oversee career systems, platforms, and technologies to ensure scalability, insight generation, and excellent user experience
Ensure rigorous collection, analysis, and reporting of placement, salary, satisfaction, and engagement data
Serve as a visible thought partner to SID leadership on workforce trends, employer behavior, and career ROI
5. Career and Professional Education Programming and Coaching
Design and deliver a scalable portfolio of career and professional development workshops, short courses, and cohort-based programs aligned to high-demand skills (e.g., AI-enabled work, analytics, leadership, and industry-specific competencies)
Support students and alums with coaching that helps maximize career outcomes and impact and critical inflection points of the career lifecycle
Develop a coaching model that blends 1:1 advising, group coaching, and digital resources, with differentiated pathways for early-career, experienced professional, executive, and alumni populations
Build a coaching pool with a diverse range of industry (predominantly Financial Services, Technology, and Life Sciences & Health), career, and professional development expertise and perspective
Partner with faculty, EPE, alumni, and employers to integrate career readiness and professional skill-building into program experiences, and to source speakers, mentors, and applied learning opportunities
6. Institutional Partnership & External Presence
Act as a key partner to Graduate Admissions, Academic Programs, and University Advancement
Represent Bentley externally with employers, alumni, professional associations, and peer institutions
Strengthen Bentley’s graduate and alumni brand narrative around career outcomes, employability, and lifelong career impact
Minimum Qualifications
The successful candidate is a strategic builder—equally comfortable with students, alumni, senior executives, and faculty—and motivated by growth, innovation, and impact.
Experience & Background
10+ years of progressively responsible leadership in career development, employer relations, talent strategy, executive education, or adjacent fields
Demonstrated success building and sustaining employer or corporate partnerships
Experience operating in complex, matrixed organizations and collaborating across functions
Comfort working at the intersection of education, business development, and workforce strategy
Industry experience in one or all of the following industries: financial services, technology, and health & life sciences
Demonstrated experience leading a team of professional staff, particularly through a time of growth and change.
Current and valid driver's license and ability to travel domestically and internationally.
Capabilities & Mindset
Strong strategic thinking paired with operational discipline
High executive presence and credibility with senior stakeholders
Dataliterate, outcomesoriented, and marketaware
Entrepreneurial, adaptable, and comfortable with ambiguity
Deep curiosity about labor markets, AI, skills evolution, and global careers
Education
Bachelor’s degree required; graduate degree strongly preferred
Work Environment
Flexible work arrangement. Please see the university’s Flexible Work Arrangements policy to learn more about Bentley’s workplace flexibility- https://www.bentley.edu/offices/human-resources/workplace-flexibility
Evening and occasional weekend work required.
May need to travel to outside conferences, events, and other meetings; travel may occur outside of standard business hours including nights and weekends.
Ability to travel domestically and internationally as needed, up to 30% of the time.
Bentley University requires references checks and may conduct other pre-employment screening.
DIVERSITY STATEMENT
Bentley University strives to create a campus community that welcomes the exchange of ideas, and fosters a culture that values differences and views them as a strength in our community.
Bentley University is an Equal Opportunity Employer, building strength through diversity. The University is committed to building a community of talented students, faculty and staff who reflect the diversity of global business. We strongly encourage applications from persons from underrepresented groups, individuals with disabilities, covered veterans and those with diverse experiences and backgrounds.