Strategic Academic Partnerships Lead

MHI: The Association That Makes Supply Chains Work; Charlotte (NC); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

MHI: The Association That Makes Supply Chains Work in Charlotte, NC, seeks an Academic Development Manager to grow CICMHE and expand academic partnerships across universities, colleges, and CTE programs. You will drive governance, membership growth, and audience development while managing sponsorships and budgets.

Direct experience with university programs and a background in workforce development are highly valued.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years in association management, academic engagement, workforce development, or a related field.
• Strong project management, event coordination, and stakeholder communication skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office; experience with CRM platforms (Salesforce) and event management tools.
• Comfortable in a hybrid environment with periodic travel to events and partner sites.

Responsibilities

• Lead CICMHE governance & growth. Serve as primary staff liaison to CICMHE leadership, volunteer committees, and advisory groups. Manage governance, budget execution, financial reporting, and the CICMHE microsite. Execute rebranding and audience-development initiatives.
• Recruit members & volunteers. Onboard and support CICMHE volunteers, committee members, and student representatives. Actively recruit new institutional members and faculty participants to grow membership year over year.
• MHTI — MHI's academic research conference; IMHRC — the International Material Handling Research Colloquium.
• Own academic & industry partnerships. Serve as MHI’s primary relationship owner for universities, community colleges, and high school CTE programs — cultivating them as curriculum-aligned, long-term pipeline partners.
• Manage sponsorships & budgets. Oversee budgets for Student Day, MHTI, IMHRC, and the Student Design Competition. Secure and manage academic program sponsorships, ensuring sponsor deliverables are fulfilled.
• Track data & report outcomes. Establish performance metrics — institutional participation, attendance, membership growth, student engagement, geographic reach. Use data to grow attendance at MHTI/IMHRC, expand Student Day participation, and increase institutional diversity across programs. Report outcomes to MHI leadership.
• Represent MHI & CICMHE at academic conferences, faculty convenings, industry-education forums, MODEX, ProMat, and MHI’s Annual Conference.
• Collaborate cross-functionally. Partner with the Workforce Development Manager on shared pipeline events and sponsors. Coordinate with Marketing on outreach. Field inquiries from faculty, students, and institutions; maintain website content and CRM records with IT and Marketing.
• Academic and industry partnership development
• Program and event management
• Volunteer and committee leadership
• Budget and project management
• Communication and stakeholder engagement
• CRM, data management, and performance reporting
• Relationship building and stakeholder service

Skills

Project management

Event coordination

Stakeholder communication

Relationship building

Adaptability

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Salesforce CRM

Event management tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

MHI: The Association That Makes Supply Chains Work in Charlotte, NC, seeks an Academic Development Manager to grow CICMHE and expand academic partnerships across universities, colleges, and CTE programs. You will drive governance, membership growth, and audience development while managing sponsorships and budgets.

Direct experience with university programs and a background in workforce development are highly valued.