Director of Business Development & Corporate Relations, Darden Career Center

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business seeks a Director, Business Development & Corporate Relations, to join its Career Center's Employer Engagement & Recruiting team. Darden is experiencing strong momentum across its Residential and Professional MBA formats, making this an exciting time to join the team. Darden is ranked the:

• #1 Faculty and #1 Best Campus Environment (The Princeton Review, 2024)

• #1 US Public MBA Program (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 2024)

• #1 Starting Salary & Bonus Among Public Business Schools (US News & World Report 2019-2024)

Darden's Career Center provides over 1,200 graduate business students (Full-Time MBA, Part-Time MBA, Executive MBA, and Specialty Masters) with one-on-one professional career advising, lifelong career management skills, and exceptional internship/post-degree job search support. The Career Center supports our full-time residential students at our Darden's Goodwin Family Grounds in Charlottesville, VA and our working professional students at Darden's Sands Family Grounds in Rosslyn, VA. Our team is driven by a commitment to student success and thrives on helping students maximize their opportunities.

The Career Center engages hundreds of companies that recruit and hire students for careers in consulting, investment banking, marketing, general management, tech, private equity/venture capital, and more. Many more employers engage Darden talent via virtual recruiting technologies and platforms. In 2023, the center managed over 1,600 job postings and hosted over 400 recruiting events. Our employer engagement model supports corporate partners in meeting their hiring goals and fosters long-term relationships between their organizations and the school.

Position Summary:

We are seeking an innovative and dynamic leader to envision and deliver a business development capability in the Career Center. The Director will bring experience in creating a strategic, robust, and metric-driven business development process and will be actively involved in executing the scalable and efficient work they design in collaboration with their colleagues. This new role demands someone who not only thrives on creating new and innovative initiatives but is also committed to hands-on implementation, ensuring the success of both the strategy and its delivery.

The Director will also lead efforts to advance strategic corporate relationships by partnering with stakeholders across the enterprise. As hiring talent is a primary motivation for many firms, the Director coordinates corporate relations activities to ensure seamless and high-impact engagement for employers. This role cultivates, solicits, and stewards partnerships resulting in sponsorships for Darden and its student clubs and organizations. Through these efforts, employers strengthen their on-Grounds presence and brand while recruiting Darden talent.

Collectively, the Director engages Fortune 500 companies, early-stage startups, and organizations in between, to cultivate interest in hiring and supporting Darden. This position must ensure a robust portfolio of opportunities for all students. This work along with the students' independent job searches enhances and expands the recruiting picture at Darden.

This position reports to the Senior Assistant Dean, Career Center & Professional Development and is a member of the Employer Engagement and Recruiting team. It will also work closely with the Director, Recruiting Operations (a new role in the Career Center), ensuring that employer engagement aligns with strategic business development goals.

The Director presents themselves as a consultative relationship manager; a strategic advisor that fosters mutually beneficial relationships for students and employers over the long-term.

Responsibilities:

STRATEGY

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive business development and corporate relations strategy that supports top outcomes for the Residential MBA, while enhancing employer relations for the Part-Time MBA, Executive MBA, and MS in Business Analytics programs. This strategy should include analyzing student career interests and staying responsive to evolving market demands to ensure Darden's programs meet industry needs.

• Set strategy by sector in collaboration with the Sector Leaders (senior director-level career coaches aligned by industry), Centers and Initiatives (Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Technology, Institute for Business in Society, LaCross AI Institute, and Mayo Center for Asset Management), Strategic D.C. Initiatives team, and others that includes alignment of student interests, engagement with top employers, and consideration of forward-looking trends to position Darden for success.

• Contribute to the recruiting operations strategy, as designed by new a position, Director of Recruiting Operations.

• Establish and grow a strategic corporate pipeline across major US and international regions, focusing on student interests. Drive initiatives to increase the ability of US employers to hire international students without work authorization and expand the reach of students into global job markets.

• Create and execute a strategy to grow financial partnerships with companies by aligning corporate sponsorship with student clubs, Career Center Sponsors, and other Darden initiatives, fostering stronger corporate partnerships and student engagement.

RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

• Partner with hiring representatives at all levels, including Darden/UVA alumni, HR practitioners, and executive sponsors, to connect their hiring objectives with Darden's student talent and career development offerings.

• Leverage relationship management skills, including active listening, networking, and problem solving, to establish strong connections with external and internal stakeholders.

• Ensure corporate sponsorship recognition and delivery of sponsor benefits, including career fairs, company events, and speaking engagements.

• Employ CRM systems and technology to ensure accurate relationship tracking, reporting, and actionable insights for relationship management.

MANAGE PROCESS/TRACK METRICS

• Develop and implement standardized procedures for business development and corporate relationships in support of effective recruiting and student engagement.

• Share information gained through outreach and engagement with students, Career Center, and others to educate and inform about MBA recruiting and job market trends.

• Own corporate sponsorship initiative, collaborating with student organizations on sponsorship opportunities and operating the Career Center Sponsors program.

• Contribute to the success of Centers & Initiatives fellowships and learning series processes, supporting Senior Directors in the Career Center and Centers & Initiatives.

• Produce, in conjunction with Communication & Marketing team, a multi-channel marketing strategy to reach an employer audience, promoting Darden and all its students.

• Create and maintain dashboards, reports, and presentations that track business development activities, measure KPIs, and deliver data-driven insights to leadership and stakeholders, enhancing strategic decision making.

• Promote and manage new relationships. Create annual corporate sponsorship or impact report.

Education & Professional Experience:

• Master's degree and four years of relevant experience required.

• Background in marketing, sales or sales support, business development, account management, talent acquisition, or within a student services or operations position at a university strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated track record of success in creating and implementing strategies that drive business development, account management, and recruiting operations.

• Highly developed communication skills with considerable experience presenting to various stakeholder groups.

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across teams, make data-driven decisions, and execute effectively both individually and through team leadership.

• Attention to detail, ability to follow through on commitments, and successfully partner with, engage, and support professionals from diverse backgrounds.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (including Teams), Zoom/FaceTime, and LinkedIn preferred.

• Aptitude to learn new technologies, ability to tell a story with data, curiosity towards using social media, and experience with CRM systems, 12twenty, GradLeaders, Symplicity, VMock, or other university career systems preferred.

• Belief in the mission of the Darden School and a passion for the University of Virginia.

Work Location & Hours:

This position offers a flexible work location. Preferred arrangement is an in-office position based at Darden's Goodwin Family Grounds in Charlottesville, VA. A remote location is negotiable (and would require a minimum number of days in Charlottesville each year).

Travel is required to meet with employers and to attend events at Darden's Sands Family Grounds in Rosslyn, VA, as well as other conferences and off-site activities. Occasional evening and weekend work during peak recruiting seasons (2-3 weekends per year) is expected.

To Apply:

Apply online using the following link: http://jobs.virginia.edu/us/en/job/R0066404/Director-of-Business-Development-&-Corporate-Relations-Darden-Career-Center. Internal applicants must apply through their UVA Workday profile.Complete the application, and upload the following Required materials:

• Resume

• Cover letter detailing your interest in the position

***Please note that you MUST upload ALL REQUIRED DOCUMENTS into the CV/Resume box, into which multiple documents can be uploaded. Applications that do not contain all of the required documents will not receive full consideration.***

For this position, the selected candidate will need to complete the required background checks prior to the start date of the position.

This position will remain open until filled.

Questions regarding the application process should be directed to Marcus Rozier, Academic Recruiter, at hjv5vm@virginia.edu.

The University of Virginia, including the UVA Health System which represents the UVA Medical Center, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, UVA Physician's Group and the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, are fundamentally committed to the diversity of our faculty and staff. We believe diversity is excellence expressing itself through every person's perspectives and lived experiences. We are equal opportunity and affirmative action employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, national or ethnic origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, veteran or military status, and family medical or genetic information.