Assistant Director for Academic & Career Integration Center for Career, Vocation & Leadership

The University of Pikeville is seeking qualified candidates for the position of a grant-funded Assistant Director for Academic & Career Integration within the Center for Career, Vocation, & Leadership.

The Assistant Director is a strategic and collaborative leader responsible for integrating career readiness and experiential learning into the academic experience. This position works closely with faculty, academic advisors, alumni, employers, and campus partners to ensure that all students have access to meaningful career exploration, professional development, internships, and skill-building opportunities.

The Assistant Director will develop scalable career-readiness resources, strengthen connections between academic programs and workforce needs, provide specialized academic and career advising, and lead collaborative initiatives that connect student learning with career and post-graduate outcomes.

Responsibilities:

Faculty Partnership & Curricular Integration

• Embed Career Readiness into Academic Programs: Identify and cultivate “Faculty Champions” to integrate career-oriented modules directly into 100- and 200-level core courses.
• Develop “Plug-and-Play” Modular Content: Create discipline-specific, 15-minute career modules, such as skill mapping or industry trend analysis, that faculty can incorporate into existing syllabi without disrupting academic goals.
• Scale Experiential Learning: Work with academic departments to explore incorporating career-focused outcomes—such as LinkedIn-ready projects or employer-designed assignments—into course requirements and student assessments, where appropriate.
• Faculty Recognition and Incentive Alignment: Collaborate with leadership to explore opportunities to recognize and support faculty contributions to student career readiness and post-graduate success.

Equity-Centered & Purpose-Driven Strategy

• Expand Access to Career Services: Shift career services from an “opt-in” model to one that brings career conversations into the classroom, where students already are, reducing barriers for students with busy work and family schedules.
• Implement “Purpose-Driven” Planning: Move beyond destination-driven models, such as choosing a job title, to help students articulate the societal impact they want to make through “Finding Your Y.” Build professional self-efficacy through low-stakes reflection and mastery experiences.
• Targeted Support for Underserved Student Populations: In collaboration with campus services, help design career success interventions specifically for first-generation, neurodivergent, and historically marginalized students, ensuring they develop the social capital and professional networks needed for post-graduation success.

Institutional Collaboration & Integration

• Unified Student Care Model: Partner with Academic Advising to create a combined advising experience in which coursework planning and career aspirations are discussed simultaneously in a single space.
• Alumni & Advancement Integration: Leverage the Alumni Relations and Institutional Advancement teams to develop dedicated hiring pipelines, using alumni as mentors and project partners for classroom-based experiences.
• Centralized Experiential Hub: Support the CVL’s efforts to coordinate internships, fieldwork, and co-ops through a centralized institutional hub that provides a consistent point of contact for students and external employer partners.

Strategic Event Management

• Employer-Driven Hiring Pipelines: Supplement traditional information sessions with interactive, employer-designed assignments and “reverse career fairs,” where students exhibit their work to visiting recruiters. Lead the end-to-end planning, promotion, and execution of events, including employer recruitment, logistics management, and post-event impact analysis.
• Labor Market Intelligence: Use current labor market data and employer feedback to ensure that academic requirements and internship strategies remain aligned with evolving workforce needs.
• Professional Etiquette Programming: Organize and host specialized “Etiquette Dinners” and “Professionalism Workshops” that teach students professional dining etiquette, workplace networking, and appropriate attire for a variety of professional settings.
• Employer Relations: Act as a secondary liaison between the institution and industry partners to curate site visits, guest speaker panels, and recruitmen