Job Details

Associate Director 4 (HR Title: Career Coach IV)

Position Number: 6490410
Location: Dallas, TX
Position Type: Career Counseling and Placement

Associate Director 4 (HR Title: Career Coach IV)

Salary Range:

Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications

About SMU

SMU's more than 12,000 diverse, high-achieving students come from all 50 states and over 80 countries to take advantage of the University's small classes, meaningful research opportunities, leadership development, community service, international study and innovative programs.

SMU serves approximately 7,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students through eight degree-granting schools: Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Cox School of Business, Lyle School of Engineering, Meadows School of the Arts, Simmons School of Education and Human Development, Dedman School of Law, Perkins School of Theology and Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.

SMU is data driven, and its powerful supercomputing ecosystem - paired with entrepreneurial drive - creates an unrivaled environment for the University to deliver research excellence.

Now in its second century of achievement, SMU is recognized for the ways it supports students, faculty and alumni as they become ethical, enterprising leaders in their professions and communities. SMU's relationship with Dallas - the dynamic center of one of the nation's fastest-growing regions - offers unique learning, research, social and career opportunities that provide a launch pad for global impact.

SMU is nonsectarian in its teaching and committed to academic freedom and open inquiry.

About the Position:

This role is an on-campus, in-person position.

The Associate Director serves as a key student portfolio manager and strategic advisor with the SMU Cox Career Management Center, guiding a portfolio of 120+Two-Year Full-time MBA, One-Year Full-time MBA and MBA Direct students through highly competitive career searches. In this leadership role, the AD designs and delivers innovative career programming critical to the Cox School's national rankings and community relationships. With deep business acumen and insight into MBA hiring trends, the AD provides individualized coaching on career targeting, branding (resume, cover letter, pitch), interviewing and offer negotiations. This role leads end-to-end program management for major student-facing career initiatives, partnering with alumni, faculty and employer stakeholders to maintain market-aligned programming. The AD also oversees Peer Coach team members, ensuring strong on-boarding, supervision, and development of student workers and contractors who expand coaching capacity and execute programs. The AD contributes to high impact decisions on student success interventions, employer engagement, and curriculum enhancements, while serving on the MBA Admissions Committee to evaluate and yield high-potential candidates. This role requires strong leadership, data-driven decision making, and the ability to manage complex stakeholder relationships.

Essential Functions:

Student Portfolio Mgmt.: Own and manage a portfolio of 120+ MBA students across the Two-Year FTMBA, One-Year FTMBA, and MBA Direct programs serving as their primary career advisor and strategic partner throughout the job search journey and up to six months post-graduation. Develop strong, trust-based relationships through consistent 1:1 coaching, proactive research, and tailored career development support. Guide students in identifying career paths, building personal brands, crafting compelling resumes and interview narratives and navigating the full spectrum of MBA recruiting activities. Actively track and document student progress, including organizing meeting notes, requesting career status updates and capturing employment outcomes. Lead communication efforts with portfolio through personalized and group outreach to ensure students remain engaged, informed and on-track. Analyze and synthesize student data to create outcome reports, flagging trends and risks while informing the broader team of portfolio performance. Stay attuned to market dynamics, industry shifts and MBA recruiting trends to deliver timely, relevant advice and interventions that improve job search outcomes.
Career Programming Management & Execution: Serve as the program manager for a portfolio of high-impact career development initiatives, including the Cox Mentorship Academy, Cox Career Alumni Network, Peer Coach program, and additional workshop series and events for FTMBA and MBA Direct students. Lead the end-to-end development, execution and continuous improvement of programming that supports student) career readiness, and departmental goals. Responsibilities include researching best practices, gathering stakeholder feedback, and analyzing data to refine programming strategies and outcomes. Own all aspects of program planning - from concept design and budget/resource alignment to logistics, marketing, stakeholder engagement, execution and post-event analysis. Collaborate across internal teams, alumni and employers to ensure relevance and quality of content delivered. Develop and maintain detailed reports that assess program efficacy and impact. Provide regular updates to leadership and team members to ensure transparency, alignment and continuous progress across multiple concurrent programs.
Student Worker & Peer Coach Management: The AD will support the Director to improve team efficiency and effectiveness by managing a team of ~5 students to support coaching and programming efforts. This includes on-boarding students, offering training and development, regularly monitoring progress, providing regular feedback, and managing work schedules. May be assigned contractor management.
Facilitating: Lead instruction of students enrolled in MBA courses (audiences up to 150). Plan curriculum, prepare and deliver meaningful and current content, assess and evaluate student learning outcomes, and provide actionable feedback. Utilize relationships with employers/alumni to maintain relevancy with current market conditions for MBA recruiting.
Admissions Engagement: Interview, assess and yield candidates for the programs as part of the full-time MBA Admissions Committee. Provide career-related insights during Admissions-related events (e.g. information sessions, sell-days). Support the creation of career-related content in marketing materials.
External Relations: Build and maintain an alumni and employer network of 200+ members to support student career development and programming. Engage employers during information sessions, career fairs, etc, gaining in-depth understanding the companies' talent needs and identifying potential matches. Support other depts (e.g. Admissions, Student Services) with career-related issues such as admissions interviews and student club (e.g. Finance, Consulting) engagement.
May require evenings and occasional weekends to coach MBA students enrolled in evening programs and to support career- and admissions-related events.

Qualifications

Education and Experience:

A Master's degree is required. An MBA or MS in a business-related field is strongly preferred.

A minimum of seven (7) years of professional experience required in a business-related (e.g. marketing, finance, real estate, consulting, HR/human capital, operations) or career-coaching function. Previous career coaching and/or university recruiting experience is also required.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Candidate must demonstrate strong interpersonal and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate broadly across the University and develop and maintain effective relationships with a wide range of constituencies. Must also demonstrate strong written communication skills. A customer-service orientation and the ability to engage senior-level business executives is essential.

Candidate must possess strong problem-solving skills with the ability to identify and analyze problems, as well as devise solutions. Must also have strong organizational, planning and time management skills.

Candidate must demonstrate a strong business acumen with the ability to effectively communicate business terminology in writing and coaching conversations. Must be self-directed with the ability to prioritize tasks and deal with ambiguity.

Candidate must be proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, internet and email communication systems.

Candidate knowledge of social media tools is preferred. ChatGPT prompting experience is also preferred.

Physical and Environmental Demands:

Sit for long periods of time

Deadline to Apply:

Priority consideration may be given to submissions received by September 9, 2025.

Application deadline is September 23, 2025.

EEO Statement

SMU is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression.

Benefits:

SMU offers staff a broad, competitive array of health and related benefits. In addition to traditional benefits such as health, dental, and vision plans, SMU offers a wide range of wellness programs to help attract, support, and retain our employees whose work continues to make SMU an outstanding education and research institution.

SMU is committed to providing an array of retirement programs that benefit and protect you and your family throughout your working years at SMU and, if you meet SMU's retirement eligibility criteria, during your retirement years after you leave SMU.

The value of learning at SMU isn't just about preparing our students for the future. Employees have access to a wide variety of professional and personal development opportunities, including tuition benefits.

Primary Location: USA-TX-Dallas

Job: Student Services

Organization: Cox School of Business

Schedule: Regular

Shift: Staff

Employee Status: Individual Contributor

Job Type: Full-time

Job Level: Day Job

Travel: No

Job Posting: Aug 19, 2025, 5:14:28 PM

To apply, visit https://smu.taleo.net/careersection/ex/jobdetail.ftl?job=COX00000252&tz=GMT%2B00%3A00&tzname=UTC