Executive Director of Career Futures
Job Summary
Reporting to the Assistant Vice President of Leadership Relations and Campaign Strategy, the Executive Director will build and lead Northeastern's Career Futures platform, creating a university-wide and globally connected capability that brings together workforce intelligence, employer insight, alumni and parent engagement, industry partnerships, and lifelong learning into a cohesive ecosystem supporting professional success throughout the career lifecycle.
Working collaboratively across Leadership Relations and Campaign Strategy, Employer Engagement & Career Design, Global Enterprise Initiatives, Education Innovation, the Co-op ecosystem, colleges and schools, academic leadership, Northeastern's global campus network, and external partners, the Executive Director will serve as Northeastern's institutional connector to the evolving global talent marketplace.
About the Role
Bringing current, working knowledge of talent dynamics, career pathways, hiring trends, and emerging opportunities, this leader will translate workforce intelligence into scalable engagement strategies, thought leadership, programming, and partnerships that create meaningful value for alumni, parents, students, employers, and the university.
Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities
Own the Career Futures platform, working with cross-university collaborators (employer engagement, co-op, employer partners, alumni and parent relations, advancement, etc.) to align around shared workforce thought leadership.
Lead Workforce Intelligence: The workforce intelligence function will look beyond domestic labor market trends to understand how talent, skills, industries, and career pathways are evolving across the markets in which Northeastern's students, alumni, employers, and campuses are located.
Activate the Career Futures Network: Northeastern's global network creates a distinctive opportunity to connect alumni and parents not only within industries, but across markets—creating pathways for mentorship, learning, entrepreneurship, and professional opportunity that transcend geography.
Engage alumni and parents as coaches and cohort leaders, and offer credentialing programs aligned with industry needs, providing both vertical depth within sectors and horizontal skills across industries, with particular attention to supporting alumni founders and entrepreneurs.
Prioritize sectors where Northeastern alumni and parents are most concentrated and where workforce disruption creates the greatest opportunity, launching with industries offering strong existing C-suite alumni and parent relationships and expanding from there, positioning Northeastern as industry's strategic partner in talent development, with an eye on global labor markets.
Advance Northeastern’s Voice Position: Northeastern as a trusted voice on workforce transformation, lifelong learning, and career mobility through content, partnerships, and engagement that Northeastern is uniquely able to deliver.
Minimum Qualifications
Minimum of 10 years of progressive leadership experience in workforce strategy, talent, employer engagement, alumni engagement, executive search, human capital, organizational development, or a related field.
Demonstrated knowledge of labor market trends, workforce dynamics, talent ecosystems, and the future of work, with the ability to translate insight into scalable programs, partnerships, and engagement strategies.
Experience building new initiatives, operational infrastructure, partnerships, or platforms within complex organizations.
Ability to engage alumni and parents as active contributors and strategic partners, not solely as audiences.
An entrepreneurial, first-mover mindset paired with the global fluency and nimbleness to work effectively across Northeastern's global network of campuses.
Outstanding communication, relationship-building, and executive presence, with the ability to convene diverse stakeholders and influence across organizational boundaries.
A strong analytical orientation and experience using workforce intelligence, engagement metrics, and outcomes data to guide strategy and measure impact.
PREFERRED EXPERIENCE
Experience working within higher education, employer engagement, workforce development, talent strategy, or another highly matrixed organization.
Familiarity with AI-enabled workforce technologies, labor market intelligence platforms, and digital engagement tools.
Established professional credibility and networks within one or more industry sectors, with the expectation that Career Futures will expand strategically over time across additional sectors and disciplines.