Director of Advising (Academic Advising Leader)

Indiana University; Bloomington (IN); Hybrid; USD 70,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work schedule

Tuition subsidy for IU courses

Comprehensive medical and dental

Job summary

Indiana University’s Kelley Direct seeks a Director of Advising to lead student-success operations across MBA, dual-degree, and EDBA programs. The role reports to the Executive Director, coordinating with program leaders to align advising with the broader student experience.

The position combines strategic planning with hands-on student engagement. The Director will manage escalated cases, design scalable advising workflows, and contribute to retention and graduation outcomes.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in higher education student affairs, counseling, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Overseeing advising operations and leadership across Kelley Direct programs.
• Lead staffing coordination and advising standards to support growth.
• Deliver data-driven presentations for stakeholders and inform policy.

Skills

Communication skills

Professionalism

Time management

Organizational skills

Collaboration

Coaching

Goal alignment

Education

Master's degree in higher education student affairs, counseling, or related field

Tools

Student information systems

CRM platforms

Job description

KELLEY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS (BL-BUS-IUBLA)

The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University (IU) is a comprehensive provider of top-tier business education with a full portfolio of undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and executive programs on campuses in Bloomington and Indianapolis, and online worldwide. The Kelley School has been creating career momentum for 100 years, going from 70 students in 1920 to an enrollment of more than 15,000 students today. Our innovative curriculum is built on personal development, teamwork, and experiential learning with an emphasis on global and social responsibility. Our success is reflected in our reputation among academic peers, our career placement statistics, and the accomplishments of more than 137,000 living alumni around the globe.

Kelley Direct is seeking a Director of Advising to serve as the operational leader for student success across its portfolio of graduate programs, including the Master in Business Administration (MBA) program, newly redesigned dual-degree (MBA/MS) offerings, and the incoming Executive Doctor of Business Administration (EDBA) program. Kelley Direct's MBA program consistently matriculates 450-500 students per year (1,300-1,400 enrolled at any given time). We recently launched an Executive Doctorate in Business Administration and have enrolled approximately 50 students in our inaugural cohort. Enrollment across our programs has increased significantly.

Department Specific Responsibilities

• Oversees advising operations, manages complex and escalated student cases, and provides leadership over advising performance and standards to ensure high-quality, consistent, and proactive support across a rapidly growing and increasingly complex program portfolio.
• Support the operational infrastructure, staffing coordination, and advising standards needed to sustain this growth while strengthening student satisfaction, persistence, and graduation outcomes.
• Focuses on advising operations within Kelley Direct.
• Reports to the Executive Director. As a member of Kelley Direct's leadership team, the Director of Advising will coordinate closely with other unit leads, including the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Senior Director of Student Experience, Director of Career Strategy, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, and Director of Program Operations, to align advising operational strategy with the broader student experience.
• Provides day-to-day leadership for advising operations, performance, and workflows.
• Serves as the primary point of escalation for advising-related student concerns, ensuring timely and effective resolution.
• Establishes advising standards, policies, and workflows that reflect Kelley's standards of excellence and scale across multiple graduate programs.
• Partners with leadership team members on retention strategy, rankings performance, and student success initiatives.
• Monitors advising capacity and workload trends to inform staffing, resource planning, and automation innovation.
• Oversees day-to-day advising operations across Kelley Direct's MBA, dual-degree, and EDBA programs, ensuring proactive and high-touch student engagement.
• Works with the Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives to design and implement an individualized, sustained advising model for the EDBA program's lockstep, multi-year curriculum, in which course sequencing and annual offerings require close, ongoing academic planning.
• Manages the increased advising workload driven by program growth, including 1:1 advising appointments, development of student resources, and plan-of-study reviews.
• Coordinates advising workflows, staffing assignments, and student communications across Kelley Direct programs to ensure consistency and responsiveness.
• Carries a personal advising caseload, commensurate with other leadership duties, to support the team and maintain direct familiarity with student needs.
• Supports cross-training and knowledge-sharing with other advising teams within the Kelley School.
• Prepares and delivers presentations for internal and external stakeholders that demonstrate data- driven decision-making and thought leadership.
• Contributes to the development and tuning of automated student support tools to ensure they appropriately handle lower-level student inquiries.
• Tracks and reports on student satisfaction, persistence, and graduation metrics to inform continuous improvement of advising practices.
• Manages complex, sensitive, or escalated student cases requiring individualized problem-solving and follow-through as well as coordination with campus offices such as Accessible Education Services, Student Advocates, and the Office of Civil Rights Compliance.

General Responsibilities

• Establishes short-term operational objectives in alignment with long-term goals.
• Provides day-to-day operational management of staff and/or academic advising projects and programming.
• Identifies operational issues and/or areas of improvement and implements solutions to improve processes and/or operational efficiency.
• Analyzes and monitors performance of staff; establishes work priorities, contributes to performance reviews, and informs corrective action as needed.
• Ensures adequate staffing and effective scheduling; participates and informs employment decisions for staff.
• Provides direct supervision and oversight of staff and/or advising activities; impacts, and is held accountable for, the performance of team and/or staff.
• Ensures and provides training to staff to improve academic advising operations; researches and identifies development opportunities for staff.
• Researches and stays up to date on new industry academic advising standards, best practices, and emerging technology; keeps next-level leader(s) informed of trends as well as significant problems.
• Manages escalated academic advising complaints and refers complaints to appropriate channels.

Combinations of related education and experience may be considered. Education beyond the minimum required may be substituted for work experience. Work experience beyond the minimum required may be substituted for education.

EDUCATION

Required

• Master's degree in higher education student affairs, counseling, or related field.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Required

• 2 years in student affairs, teaching, academic advising, or related field.

Preferred

• Experience in a student-focused, higher education environment.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex student cases and competing priorities in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Strong organizational, communication, process-management, and change management skills.

SKILLS

Required

• Proficient written and verbal communication skills.
• Maintains a high degree of professionalism.
• Demonstrates time management and priority setting skills.
• Demonstrates a high commitment to quality.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Excellent collaboration and team building skills.
• Effectively coaches and delivers constructive feedback.
• Instills commitment to organizational goals.

Preferred

• Experience advising within graduate business, professional, or doctoral-level degree programs.
• Demonstrated success leading, coaching, and developing a team of academic advisors.
• Experience designing or managing coordinated care advising models for cohort-based, lockstep, or multi-year academic programs.
• Familiarity with student information systems and CRM platforms (e.g., AdRx, Stellic, Salesforce, SIS, etc.).
• Experience developing or standardizing advising workflows, policies, or service standards across multiple programs.
• Data-informed approach to tracking and improving student retention, persistence, and completion outcomes.
• Experience designing, supporting, or evaluating AI-assisted student service tools.
• Strong interpersonal skills and sound judgment in handling sensitive or escalated student situations.

This role requires the ability to effectively communicate and to operate a computer and other standard office productivity equipment. The position involves sedentary work as well as periods of time moving around an office environment and the campus. The person in this role must be able to perform the essential functions with or without an accommodation.

This position is eligible to work a hybrid schedule (mix between remote and in-person work), subject to change in the future based on university policy and business needs.

$70,000 - $75,000 based on experience.

For full-time staff employees, Indiana University offers a wide array of benefits including:

• Comprehensive medical and dental insurance
• Health savings account with generous IU contributions
• Healthcare and dependent care flexible spending accounts
• Basic group life insurance paid by IU
• Voluntary supplemental life, long-term disability, critical illness, and supplemental accidental death & dismemberment insurance
• Base retirement plan with generous IU contributions, subject to vesting
• Voluntary supplemental retirement plan options
• Tuition subsidy for employees and family members taking IU courses
• 10 paid holidays plus a paid winter break each year
• Generous paid time off plans
• Paid leave for new parents and IU-sponsored volunteer events
• Employee assistance program (EAP)

Learn more about our benefits by reviewing the IU Benefit Programs Brochure.

Career Level: Operational

FLSA: Exempt

Job Function: Student Services

Job Family: Academic Advising

Indiana University is an equal opportunity employer and provider of ADA services and prohibits discrimination in hiring. See Indiana University Notice of Non-Discrimination here which includes contact information.

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