Senior Director, Doctoral & Postdoctoral Life Design (Doctoral Life Design Studio)

At Johns Hopkins University, we are driven by an ambitious goal: to empower our doctoral and postdoctoral scholars to navigate their careers with purpose and confidence. The Doctoral Life Design Studio embodies this vision as a dynamic, future-focused hub where scholars can explore diverse career possibilities, build clarity and confidence, develop lasting connections, and utilize innovative tools to thrive in academic and non-academic arenas.

Life Design at Hopkins goes beyond traditional career development. It is an integrative process that nurtures curiosity, fosters growth, and opens doors to new opportunities. The Doctoral Life Design Studio is part of the Department of Integrative Learning and Life Design (ILLD), a Johns Hopkins division that empowers every learner — from undergraduates to postdoctoral fellows — to purposefully design meaningful futures, bridging curricular and experiential learning with personal ambitions across the university’s nine schools.

We are seeking a Senior Director, Doctoral & Postdoctoral Life Design who will lead the entire portfolio of the Doctoral Life Design Studio, encompassing both Career Education and Experiential Learning, deepening the integration between these functions and expanding their collective impact for scholars. Your leadership will cultivate an environment that empowers scholars to actively design their futures with intention and impact.

In this role, reporting to the Associate Vice Provost for Integrative Learning and Life Design, you will lead the university-wide strategy for the Doctoral Life Design Studio, committed to transforming the career trajectories of all our doctoral and postdoctoral scholars. This position requires a blend of strategic vision and operational excellence to ensure that our Life Design offerings consistently meet and exceed the evolving needs of the academic community.

You will collaborate closely with university leadership, faculty, staff, and alumni to design and implement innovative programs, digital platforms, and impactful events that equip scholars with the clarity and confidence to navigate their professional futures. Your oversight will encompass the Studio’s full portfolio of career education and experiential learning services for doctoral and postdoctoral scholars, aligned with the university’s mission to prepare scholars for careers that create lasting, real-world impact within and beyond academia.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities Leadership & Team Mentorship

• Partner closely with the Associate Vice Provost (AVP) to shape and execute the strategic vision for career education, experiential learning, and Life Design initiatives.
• Translate divisional and institutional priorities into a multi-year strategy for the Studio, including team structure, program direction, operational planning, and phased implementation.
• Evaluate emerging needs, organizational opportunities, and capacity constraints to shape the future design, growth, and positioning of the Studio.
• Collaborate with deans, faculty, and university leadership across JHU, particularly within the Schools of Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, Engineering, and Arts & Sciences, to seamlessly integrate Life Design principles into academic programs and institutional planning.
• Serve as a key advisor to university and divisional leadership on matters related to doctoral and postdoctoral career development and scholar success, including during periods that acutely affect scholar outcomes such as shifts in the academic job market or other emerging challenges facing the scholarly community.
• Collaborate with leaders across ILLD, in particular Hire Hopkins, the Master’s Life Design Hub, and Life Design Lab to develop programming and experiences that draw on the unique strengths of each office and create seamless pathways for scholars at all levels.
• Serve on the ILLD Executive Committee, contributing to division-wide strategic planning, representing doctoral and postdoctoral scholars’ needs, and ensuring alignment of the Doctoral Life Design Studio with broader ILLD priorities and institutional goals.
• Lead a high-performing team spanning Career Education and Experiential Learning, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, excellence, and continuous learning.
• Directly supervise professional staff and, where applicable, support the development of managers or functional leads across the Studio.
• Lead hiring, onboarding, role clarity, performance management, promotions, and succession planning to ensure a strong and sustainable team structure.
• Build management capacity, accountability, and leadership effectiveness across the team, ensuring staff are supported and held to high standards.
• Address performance concerns, team conflict, and organiz