Executive Director of Career Futures

Northeastern University; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 131,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Northeastern University seeks an Executive Director to build and lead the Career Futures platform, uniting workforce intelligence, employer insight, alumni and parent engagement, and industry partnerships into a university-wide ecosystem for lifelong professional success.

The role requires strategic leadership across campuses and external partners, transforming pilots into a scalable operating model and delivering meaningful value to students, alumni, employers, and the university.

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.

Responsibilities

• Own the Career Futures platform, aligning with cross-university collaborators to share workforce thought leadership.
• Scale proven pilots and build durable infrastructure for ongoing Career Futures programs.
• Monitor talent trends and translate insights into lifelong career value.
• Create a workforce intelligence function to track skills gaps, tech, and industry shifts.

Skills

Leadership

Workforce strategy

Employer engagement

Alumni engagement

Executive search

Human capital

Organizational development

Job description

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.

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.

As a newly created role, the Executive Director will help shape both the vision and operating model for Career Futures. Building on successful pilots and emerging initiatives across the university, this leader will establish the infrastructure, partnerships, governance, and scalable operating model needed to transform innovation into a sustainable institutional platform.

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.
• 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.

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

Build & Scale the Career Futures Platform

• 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.
• Serve as the scaling point for proven pilots emerging from Global Enterprise Initiatives and network-market testing, building the durable infrastructure to run them as an ongoing part of Career Futures.
• 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.
• Create a workforce intelligence function that monitors talent trends, employer priorities, skills gaps, technology, etc. and translates those into ongoing lifelong career value.

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.

• Connect alumni and adjacent audiences with the people, industries, and opportunities shaping the future of work, while activating Northeastern's global alumni and parent network as a source of mentorship, career intelligence, and pre‑ and post‑graduate professional opportunity.
• 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.
• Build this network as a two‑way relationship, where alumni and parents gain access to Northeastern's workforce intelligence and opportunities while contributing the insight and mentorship that make the network valuable in the first place.
• 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.
• Offer candid, substantive perspective on where the field is headed, reaching senior alumni and parent audiences and cultivating high‑value relationships and future collaboration.

Additional Information

Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience, education and skills when extending an offer.

Northeastern has a comprehensive benefits package for benefit eligible employees. This includes medical, vision, dental, paid time off, tuition assistance, wellness & life, retirement- as well as commuting & transportation. Visit https://hr.northeastern.edu/benefits/ for more information.

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Expected Hiring Range:

$130,945.00 - $189,868.75

With the pay range(s) shown above, the starting salary will depend on several factors, which may include your education, experience, location, knowledge and expertise, and skills as well as a pay comparison to similarly-situated employees already in the role. Salary ranges are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.