Director of Corporate Partnerships

A cover letter must be included with your application to be considered for this position.

The Director of Corporate Partnerships will build deep and lasting partnerships between the university and corporate partners ranging from corporate, government agencies, non-profit and community organizations, as well as other strategic external entities that result in significant investment via student hires, co-marketing, executive education, advisory boards, and sponsored investments. The Director will provide a concierge service to partners and connect them with key CCC resources which may include individual faculty, research centers, or academic & student programming leaders.

The Director of Corporate Partnerships role will work closely with the Vanderbilt University Corporate Partnership Team which is currently housed in the Career Advancement and Engagement Division. This team consists of individuals that serve as the primary interface for an assigned portfolio of strategic external partner organizations on behalf of Vanderbilt University, continuously connecting these clients with VU programs and initiatives—as well as other key partners—to solve their business needs and fulfill partnership interests. This CCC counterpart will serve as a liaison with this Vanderbilt Corporate Partnership team to collaborate on opportunities and share relationships with the broader Vanderbilt community.

This position requires careful attention and guidance to manage expectations, facilitate experiences, and drive results. Insightful and continuous matchmaking, progress tracking, story capturing, best practices research, and co-creation are essential aspects of advancing such partnerships. Providing a single point of contact for the primary interface for a portfolio of strategic partner organizations with Vanderbilt, to organize across and support holistic engagement across the university, is essential to create and grow these lasting partnerships.

ABOUT THE WORK UNIT:
The College of Connected Computing is Vanderbilt’s first new college in 40 years and is currently developing its administrative structure. The new, interdisciplinary college will advance breakthrough discoveries and strengthen computing education through a “computing for all” approach. The college will be rapidly growing over the course of the next three years.

KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Cultivate and Maintain External Partnerships
• Serve as the College of Connected Computing focal for an industry engagement working closely with the Dean of the school to capture and understand the needs of potential corporate prospects. This may include travelling with the dean to key conferences and special events.
• Create and implement client account plans to map existing alignment and forge strong, value-added relationships through achievement of identified partner business objectives.
• Drive collaboration, engagement, and accountability to align solutions for client needs that are achieved on schedule, on budget, and meet/exceed expectations.
• Deliver repeatable engagement processes to achieve client’s desired solutions and outcomes.
• Assist with inquiries and/or answering questions on university capabilities, aligning visits and/or providing tours, making presentations, making referrals, and facilitating the achievement of official partnership agreements where appropriate.
• Represent the department on committees and initiatives as delegated by leadership.

Grow and Maintain Internal Partnerships
• Work closely with Dean’s leadership team as prospects turn into opportunities that need to be executed upon. This may include student programs (hackathons, speaker series), industry research, engagement with the AI Factory for student projects, or professional and executive education opportunities.
• Facilitate and maintain deep collaborations with colleges and departments to develop and cultivate key relationships with researchers, faculty, academic leadership, administrative and research units, including Development and Alumni Relations and Government and Community Relations, student employment units, including the Career Center, and other student talent gatekeepers, to increase the breadth and depth of partnership opportunities.
• Assist leadership in development of internal programs to increase visibility and opportunities for industry/business engagement for faculty and staff.

Measure, iterate, and improve engagements and processes to inform and support divisional strategies
• Proactively measures client satisfaction. Resolve any issues or potential process breakdowns and then leverage to preserve resources and create products and/or services that can be re-purposed as future solutions.
• Collaborate on designing and implementing client focused policies and procedures that ensure that the university has an effective framework for maintaining and growing relationships with strategic partners so that they will recognize Vanderbilt University as an undeniable partner of choice.
• Capture data and partner engagement to effectively allow marketing and communications to “tell the story” of transformational outcomes related to working with Vanderbilt University.
• Help design and populate systems for progress metrics collection and reporting. Provide reports on a known regular cadence.
• Advise leadership on issues, opportunities and best practices associated with partnership relationship management and make recommendations for continuous improvements.
• Direct and implement special projects and/or perform related duties as assigned.

Supervisory Relationship:
This position may provide direct and/or indirect supervision to professional or student workers. The position reports functionally and administratively to the Dean of the College of Connected Computing.

Education and Certifications:
• A bachelor’s degree from an accredited higher education institution is required
• A master’s or doctoral degree is preferred

Experience and Skills:
• Minimum 7 years of related professional work experience is required
• Significant experience engaging corporate stakeholders and understanding their priorities creating new opportunities.
• Experience expanding industry research, corporate gifts, executive & professional programs, student career opportunities, and student/industry programming.
• Prefer experience working with faculty and higher education leaders developing corporate relationships
• Prefer experience in implementing and scaling Salesforce or similar CRM is preferred
• Consultative Sales and relationship building skills with proven results in building sustainable partnerships
• Exhibit personal characteristics enabling effective interaction with important constituencies and possess a genuine commitment to the advancement of education, research, and to the principles governing the College of Connected Computing.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills are required
• Ability to exercise good judgment in the handling of confidential information is required
• Capacity to perform in an intellectually rigorous and complex academic environment is required
• The ability to work independently, take initiative, manage multiple projects simultaneously, meet deadlines, and adapt to changing priorities is required
• A professional attitude, with the ability to exhibit considerable tact, persuasion, and judgement in interactions with internal and external constituents is required
• Demonstrated ability to work successfully with high-level executives is required