Assistant/Associate VP for Life and Career Design

Wheaton College in Massachusetts; Norton (MA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 155,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits program

Job summary

Wheaton College in Massachusetts seeks an Assistant/Associate VP for Life and Career Design to lead the Life and Career Design Institute. The role shapes internships, mentoring, and life design within the Experiential Learning Plan (ELP) to help students graduate with a clear career path.

Reporting to the VP of Student Affairs, you will supervise staff, collaborate across campus, and engage external partners.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree required with extensive experience in higher education, nonprofit, or related fields.
• Proven ability to design and scale career readiness and experiential learning programs.
• Strong collaboration across academic, student affairs, and advancement units.

Responsibilities

• Guide Life and Career Design Institute to develop experiential learning programs.
• Lead a multidisciplinary team and partner with faculty, alumni, and employers.
• Oversee budgeting, grants, and program operations for the institute.

Skills

Leadership

Career advising

Mentoring

Relationship-building

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

Master’s degree

Job description

Assistant/Associate VP for Life and Career Design

Position Title: Assistant/Associate VP for Life and Career Design

FLSA: Exempt

Job Type: Full-Time

Staff Term: 12 Months

Staff Work Schedule (hours/dates): M-F, 8:30-4:30

Position Type: Staff

Job Summary/Basic Function:

The AVP will guide the Life and Career Design Institute to develop programs and services for students by incorporating internships, service learning, alumni and professional mentoring, and life design principles as a part of the student’s Experiential Learning Plan ( ELP ). The end goal is that all Wheaton students graduate with experiences that enhance career goals, a skill set, and a life plan they can use to make great choices throughout their lives.

Reporting to the Vice President for Student Affairs, the AVP will be responsible for articulating the vision and mission of the Institute, leading a robust team of talented professionals, and overseeing a broad, year-by-year student developmental model. The position will be highly collaborative, working with partners that include college leadership, faculty, alumni, parents, college advancement and other on-campus stakeholders, as well as the external business and not-for-profit communities, in order to provide exceptional opportunities for the Wheaton students.

Specific Duties:

• Ensure effective and measurable career advising, career education and outreach programming, and life and career exploration within a holistic model that emphasizes internships and experiential educational opportunities.
• Provide entrepreneurial insight and innovation, utilizing formal and informal methods of life and career design.
• Provide oversight of the student employment program in collaboration with Student Financial Services.
• Lead the Institute in accordance with the College’s framework of inclusive excellence.
• Strengthen and cultivate partnerships with employer representatives in business and industry, not for profit and education sectors and work collaboratively with area colleges. Streamline the process for posting new opportunities.
• Work closely with colleagues in advancement and alumni relations, and annual giving, to develop and implement mentoring, networking, internships, and/or position shadowing opportunities by alumni for students.
• Supervision of the staff in the Life and Career Design Institute to provide sustained support for experiential learning and program operations.
• Develop a team that communicates critical information with measurable results and cultivates relationships across campus to champion and advocate for the student’s career and life experiences.
• Oversee and occasionally teach experiential learning labs for students.
• Provide fiscal management of the office budget, grants, and funds that support internships.
• Collaborate with academic and student affairs in cultivating partnerships that offer experiential learning through curricular and co-curricular opportunities.
• Plan and implement innovative strategies to market the Life and Career Design Institute to the various constituencies both within the Wheaton College campus community and externally.
• Expand and promote usage of technology and other resources for students such as Handshake, etc.
• Serve as a member of the student affairs leadership team.
• Work with Advancement to describe programs and effectiveness to potential donors.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree required, with 8-10 years of progressively responsible experience in higher education, business, or nonprofit settings.
• Demonstrated ability to build, operationalize, and scale career readiness, life design, advising, or experiential learning programs—someone who strengthens and grows an existing framework rather than starting from a blank page.
• Fluency in the interconnected structure of higher education, with the ability to build credibility and partnership across academic affairs, student affairs, and advancement.
• Practitioner-level experience with design thinking or comparable human-centered methodologies, applied to real student or client outcomes rather than theory alone.
• Strong systems-thinking orientation, with the ability to translate institutional goals into disciplined execution, sustainable operations, and measurable outcomes.
• Exceptional relationship-building skills, with genuine ease engaging faculty, students, alumni, parents, and employers—a connector, not a traditional fundraiser.
• Proven people leadership, including the ability to build and retain a multi-generational team and manage personnel dynamics with maturity.
• Entrepreneurial judgment exercised within an institutional culture—comfortable navigating ambiguity and driving change while staying aligned to Wheaton’s mission and values.
• Demonstrated passion for and commitment to mentorship and the holistic development of young adults navigating career and life choices.
• Genuine appreciation for the value and distinct mission of a liberal arts education.

Preferred Qualifications:

Compensation and Benefits

To attract and retain the most talented individuals, Wheaton College maintains a flexible and competitive staff compensation and benefits program.

The anticipated hiring or recruitment range for this position is $140-155K. The actual salary offered will be commensurate with the qualifications, education and experience of the candidate hired.

Physical Demands

Individuals must possess these knowledges, skills and abilities or be able to explain and demonstrate that the individual can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation, using some other combination of skills and abilities.

Equal Opportunity / Diversity

Wheaton College is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and does not discriminate against any individual or group on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, race, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, or disability. In a continuing effort to maintain and enrich an intellectually diverse learning environment, the Department and the College actively encourages applications from women and members of underrepresented groups.

Wheaton’s core belief is that valuing diversity is pivotal to personal development, intellectual expansion, and societal equity. Our community is united by a shared dedication to equity and access that is essential to providing a transformative education in the Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Contact(s)

Office of Human Resources

Contact Phone/Extension: 508-286-8206

Contact Email: [e-mail]

References

Supplemental Questions

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