Employer Relations Manager

About the role

The Employer Relations Manager develops and manages strategic employer partnerships that expand internships, experiential learning, and employment opportunities for National Louis University students and alumni across all academic programs, degree levels, and learning modalities.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain strategic employer partnerships that increase internships, experiential learning, and employment opportunities for students and alumni.
• Conduct proactive employer outreach through networking, referrals, industry associations, LinkedIn, employer visits, business development activities, and strategic prospecting.
• Conduct consultative employer discovery meetings to understand hiring needs, workforce challenges, recruitment timelines, internship opportunities, and partnership goals.
• Build customized employer engagement strategies that align organizational hiring needs with Career Bridge services and student talent.
• Establish long-term employer partnerships that extend beyond job postings to include classroom engagement, employer information sessions, networking opportunities, mock interviews, mentoring, advisory boards, site visits, career fairs, sponsorship opportunities, and other strategic employer engagement initiatives.
• Serve as the primary relationship manager for an assigned employer portfolio.
• Congduct regular employer check-ins to assess hiring needs, satisfaction, partnership opportunities, and future workforce initiatives.
• Maintain accurate employer records, job postings, internship opportunities, employer engagement activities, and partnership documentation within Handshake, CRM platforms, and university systems.
• Share employer feedback with Career Bridge leadership to strengthen services, partnerships, and student employment outcomes.
• Build collaborative relationships with assigned academic colleges, faculty, and university partners.
• Partner closely with the Career Advisor supporting Business, Communications & Media, and Marketing programs to develop coordinated employer engagement strategies, strengthen academic partnerships, and improve internship and employment outcomes.
• Meet regularly with faculty and program leadership to understand curriculum, student populations, internship requirements, workforce needs, and emerging industry trends.
• Share employer feedback, labor market insights, and hiring trends to support curriculum discussions, program reviews, and career readiness initiatives.
• Collaborate with Career Advisors, Student Success Coaches, Academic Affairs, and university leadership to improve student career readiness and employment outcomes.
• Connect employers directly with students through classroom presentations, employer information sessions, networking events, employer panels, mock interviews, career fairs, site visits, and other employer-facing opportunities.
• Prepare students for successful employer engagement by sharing employer expectations, industry trends, hiring practices, labor market information, and internship guidance.
• Support career readiness initiatives that serve undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, transfer, online, international, and adult learner populations across multiple academic disciplines.
• Collaborate with Career Advisors and Student Success partners to strengthen student engagement, internship participation, and employment outcomes.
• Collect, analyze, and communicate labor market trends, employer feedback, workforce needs, and hiring practices to Career Bridge leadership, academic partners, and university stakeholders.
• Monitor employer engagement metrics, partnership growth, internship development, recruitment activity, hiring outcomes, and employer satisfaction.
• Prepare reports highlighting employer activity, hiring outcomes, internship participation, partnership growth, and emerging workforce trends.
• Recommend employer engagement strategies based on workforce data, employer feedback, and student employment outcomes.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Human Resources, Organizational Leadership, or a related field.
• Three to five years of progressively responsible experience in employer relations, recruiting, staffing, talent acquisition, business development, sales, workforce development, higher education, or another client relationship management role.
• Demonstrated experience building and maintaining professional partnerships with external organizations.
• Strong presentation, communication, relationship-building, and consultative sales skills.
• Experience using employer engagement technology such as Handshake, CRM platforms, LinkedIn Recruiter, Microsoft Office, or similar systems.