Sr. Assistant Director, Career Outcomes and Assessment
Position Announcement
Sr. Assistant Director, Career Outcomes and Assessment
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, seeks a dynamic team leader to serve as the next Sr. Assistant Director, Career Outcomes and Assessment within the Office of Career Exploration and Success.
Application Deadline to Apply: 11:59 pm on April 30, 2025
Institution Overview
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the flagship campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a renowned academic institution that boasts a vibrant and diverse community of learners. With its enrollment numbers exceeding 43,000 students, Rutgers-New Brunswick offers a broad range of programs across its schools and colleges, providing students with ample opportunities for intellectual growth and personal development. The campus's rich history, state-of-the-art facilities, and distinguished faculty contribute to a dynamic learning environment that prepares students for success in their chosen fields and equips them with the skills necessary to thrive in an ever-changing world.
About Career Exploration and Success
Career Exploration and Success (CES) is committed to assisting students with making connections between their academic experience and career paths. We provide career-related advising, resources, and programs to help individuals discover their interests, values, and skills, explore careers and majors, develop skills through internships and experiential opportunities, and pursue their post-graduate goals. We build relationships with alumni, employers, and graduate schools to optimize internship, job, and career opportunities while also creating strategic partnerships with campus departments to assist students in developing and articulating co-curricular experiences that will help to ensure they are competitive in their future pursuits.
CES is comprised of four units, each with its own director who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of their unit, making hiring decisions, providing leadership to their unit, managing their unit's budget, solving challenges and celebrating wins, and making decisions aligned with overarching goals.
About the Career Operations & Strategic Initiatives Unit
One of four units within the Office of Career Exploration and Success, the Career Operations & Strategic Initiatives Unit ensures equal access to CES resources, connects students to them, provides data-driven decision support, and establishes essential administrative and technical structures for smooth operations. The COSI unit consists of seven full-time staff members and four graduate coordinators organized into two teams led by associate directors: the Operations Team and the Strategic Outreach & Marketing Team (associated with this role).
About the Career Operations Team
The team plays a dual role: ensuring equitable resource access and overseeing crucial financial, administrative, technological, analytical, and assessment components that underpin the provision of high-quality resources, thus both connecting students to their career journeys and furnishing the CES department with a solid foundation for its work.
About the Associate Director, Career Operations
Topher Sutton is the associate director of career operations and direct supervisor of the Sr. Assistant Director, Career Outcomes & Assessmen. With extensive experience in student-facing roles, Topher remains committed to a student-centered approach in all aspects of his work. In his role, Topher leads a team that manages assessment, human resources and finance, technology, and front office operations. He also chairs the Online Career Resources Committee and the HireBig10+ Vendor Relations Committee, ensuring innovative and effective career tools for students and alumni. Passionate about optimizing career services, Topher leverages data-driven strategies to enhance operational efficiency while maintaining a strong focus on student support.
About the Director of Career Operations & Strategic Initiatives
Topher Sutton reports to Barbara Thomson who is the director of Career Operations & Strategic Initiatives. She was appointed to the role in 2021 and has served in various roles within CES, including Marketing and Technology specialists and associate director of Technology & Data Management. In 2018, Barbara co-accepted the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) Technology Innovation Award for her work establishing the student-run Career Services Technology Help Desk and she has been involved in leadership roles within the HireBig10+ Career Consortium.
About the Executive Director
Barbara Thomson, Director of Career Operations & Strategic Initiatives, reports to William (Wil) Jones, Executive Director of Career Exploration and Success. Wil was officially named Executive Director in 2021 by Rutgers University-New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost Francine Conway. Jones previously served in various roles within CES, including Director of Operations and Strategic Initiatives, Senior Director, and interim Executive Director. At Rutgers, he co-founded the industry-centric career community approach to career development – which has become a national model – to diversify office offerings and help students think about their professional goals beyond the confines of their academic discipline. Before joining Rutgers, Wil oversaw the marketing, assessment, and technology teams at the University of Maryland, among other responsibilities.
Position Description
Reporting to the Associate Director of Operations, the Sr. Assistant Director of Career Outcomes and Assessment is the lead staff member for developing and maintaining the assessment capabilities of the Office of Career Exploration and Success at Rutgers University. They will oversee the development of measurable departmental outcomes, assess organizational and service delivery effectiveness, oversee a campus-wide post-graduation survey process, and communicate findings to the department's staff and Rutgers community through various reports and presentations. The Sr. Assistant Director, in conjunction with a graduate coordinator, will also serve as the primary researcher in the Office of Career Exploration and Success. This may include, but is not limited to, assistance with creating employer development lists, benchmarking with other institutions, partnering with other institutions and research groups to collect student and/or employer data, etc.
Rutgers—New Brunswick Post-Graduation Survey
The Sr. Assistant Director will oversee a campus-wide post-graduation survey of October, December, and May graduates. This will include working with faculty and staff from across the Rutgers community to manage a centralized electronic survey with both standardized questions and addendums for individual academic areas and university departments when necessary and appropriate. He/she will also oversee a mechanism of follow-up phone calls and data cleanup (with the assistance of undergraduate interns), as well as the timely reporting of data to key constituents as outlined by the Associate Director of Operations. The survey will follow standards outlined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) to reach between 65%-75% knowledge rate. Data collection will occur around the months of graduation and six months after graduation. The incumbent will also work with the Web Solutions Implementation Specialist to feed data from the post-graduation survey into a filterable database for the Rutgers community.
Department Assessment
The Sr. Assistant Director will be responsible for developing and implementing the department’s assessment plan to include assessing and summarizing measurable departmental and organizational outcomes, as well as reviewing service delivery and effectiveness. The Sr. Assistant Director will develop a variety of sound survey instruments for a diverse array of programs and services within the department to assess overarching departmental objectives. This will include overseeing our annual stratified random sampling survey which helps CES collect data from a sample of students that is generalizable to the broader population. He/she will also utilize focus groups and other sources for both qualitative and quantitative data collection when appropriate. The incumbent will also work with the department's leadership team to collect and provide data to assist in data-driven decision-making processes when appropriate.
Primary Researcher and Analysis
The Sr. Assistant Director will hire, train, and supervise a part-time graduate coordinator who will serve as a researcher and generate reports for staff. This may include, but is not limited to, assisting with creating employer development lists, benchmarking with other institutions, partnering with other institutions and research groups to collect student and/or employer data etc. The incumbent will also use statistical software to analyse data when needed.
Miscellaneous
The Sr. Assistant Director should work to increase the RU brand within the field of career services through conference presentations, award nomination submissions, or professional online community involvement such as LinkedIn group participation. Additionally, the Sr. Assistant Director will participate in staff meetings and other all-hands-on-deck events (e.g., career fairs, retreats, etc.).
Candidate Profile
To be considered for the associate director position, candidates must meet the following minimum requirements:
- Experience and Education: A bachelor’s degree and five (5) years of experience is required. Or a master's degree and three (3) years of experience is required.
- Skills and Competencies: The candidate must be proficient with SPSS (or similar statistical package), Qualtrics (or similar), and Microsoft Excel. Demonstrated mastery of assessment, including qualitative and quantitative data collection, is required.
Preferred Qualifications: Master’s degree in an applicable subject area is preferred. Ideally, the person will have experience within a career services or higher education setting.
Flexible Work Arrangement Program
Rutgers is pleased to announce the extension of the FlexWork@RU Pilot Program through August 31, 2024. Full-time staff members within Career Exploration and Success are permitted to either a 4:1 compressed work week or up to two days per week of remote work.
The flexible work arrangements outlined in Rutgers Policy 60.3.22 are part of a pilot program that is effective September 1, 2022 and extended through August 31, 2025. Therefore, there is no guarantee that this flexible work arrangement will continue beyond that date. Flexible work arrangements are not permanent, are subject to change or cancellation and contingent on the employee receiving approval in the FlexWork@RU Application System. Additional information may be found at https://futureofwork.rutgers.edu.
Additionally, CES has implemented #FocusFriday, a department-wide practice where internal meetings between CES colleagues are discouraged every Friday. This dedicated time enables staff to concentrate on accomplishing their goals. Periodic meditation or mental health breaks throughout the day are also supported. To further support productivity, CES encourages the utilization of automated "Focus Blocks" through Microsoft Outlook. These automated blocks allow staff members to schedule designated periods of uninterrupted work time, further maximizing productivity and focus.
Benefits Program
Rutgers offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees. For details, please go to http://uhr.rutgers.edu/benefits/benefits-overview.
Rutgers also offers a benefit program to eligible full-time postdoctoral fellow students. For details, please go to https://finance.rutgers.edu/healthcare-risk/insurance/postdoctoral-health-insurance.
Non-Discrimination Statement
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age, or any other category covered by law in its admission, programs, activities, or employment matters. For additional information, please see the Non-Discrimination Statement at the following web address: http://uhr.rutgers.edu/non-discrimination-statement
Search Committee:
Stacey Kohler (Search Chair), sk1916@echo.rutgers.edu
Associate Director, Career Pathways - Career Exploration & Success
Glory Ekbote
Graduate Coordinator for Research & Assessment - Career Exploration & Success
Eugene Gentile
Director Office of Career Management - Rutgers Business School
Lisa Goddard
Sr. Assistant Director, Career & Internship Fairs - Career Exploration & Success
Janice Lynn Rein
Sr. Assistant Director, Career Technology Support and Web Services - Career Exploration & Success
Andrea Rydel
Assistant Dean - Honors College
Joe Scott
Associate Director, Career Success Strategy - Career Exploration & Success
Brandon West
Associate Director, Strategic Outreach & Marketing - Career Exploration & Success
Larry Worthey
Assistant Director, Marketing and Visual Identity - Career Exploration & Success
Apply Today
Application Deadline to Apply: 11:59 pm on April 30, 2025