Director, Media - Entertainment & Sports Career Pathway

Position Summary:
The Director, Media, Entertainment & Sports Career Pathway is part of Vanderbilt University’s Career Advancement & Engagement (CAE) team and serves as the strategic leader for career development across media, entertainment, sports, and adjacent creative industries. The Director is responsible for developing and advancing a distinctive Vanderbilt pathway that integrates career advising, industry expertise, employer and alumni engagement, experiential learning, and student preparation. The role will build a coherent strategy that helps students explore and successfully pursue careers across a broad and rapidly evolving set of industries, including film and television, music, sports, streaming and digital media, gaming, content and creative industries, and entertainment technology.
 

The Director will bring deep knowledge of these industries and their often nonlinear and relationship-driven career paths. Working closely with CAE’s Employer Relations and Experiential Learning teams, the Director will strengthen Vanderbilt’s relationships with employers, alumni, parents, and industry leaders and translate those relationships into internships, projects, mentoring, industry immersion, recruiting opportunities, and full-time outcomes for students. The Director will lead the Media, Entertainment & Sports pathway team and collaborate across Vanderbilt to connect students with the University’s academic programs, alumni networks,
geographic assets, and industry relationships in Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, and other key markets.

About the Work Unit:
Career Advancement & Engagement connects Vanderbilt students with meaningful career opportunities through advising, experiential learning, employer partnerships, and industry engagement. CAE is building a pathway-based model that integrates career advising, employer engagement, and experiential learning across key industries. Within this structure, pathway leaders own strategy and student preparation for specific sectors while collaborating closely with Employer Relations and Experiential Learning teams responsible for developing and activating institutional partnerships. Together, these teams create clearer pathways for students from career exploration through experience, relationship building, recruiting, and launch.

Key Functions and Expected Performance:

Industry Pathway Leadership & Strategy

• Lead Vanderbilt’s Media, Entertainment & Sports career pathway strategy and establish priorities for student preparation, experiential learning, industry engagement, and career outcomes.
• Define priority industry sectors, career opportunities, readiness milestones, and preparation models appropriate to the distinctive recruiting and hiring practices of MES industries.
• Ensure advising, employer engagement, experiential learning, alumni engagement, and programming operate as an integrated pathway rather than as separate activities.
• Monitor emerging industry, technology, labor-market, and recruiting trends and use those insights to continuously refine pathway strategy.
• Build Vanderbilt’s visibility and reputation as a source of exceptional undergraduate talent across media, entertainment, sports, and creative industries.

Industry, Employer & Alumni Engagement

• Serve as a senior industry-facing representative of Vanderbilt and cultivate relationships with employers, executives, alumni, parents, and other influential industry leaders.
• Partner with Employer Relations leadership to identify priority organizations and develop multidimensional relationships that create opportunities for Vanderbilt students.
• Activate Vanderbilt alumni and parents as mentors, connectors, speakers, advisers, employers, and champions for students pursuing MES careers.
• Expand student access to internships, projects, industry professionals, networking opportunities, and full-time employment.
• Leverage Vanderbilt’s presence and relationships in Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, and other industry centers to create a connected Vanderbilt MES network.

Experiential Learning & Industry Immersion

• Set the pathway strategy for experiential learning and industry exposure, working closely with CAE’s Experiential Learning team to develop and deliver high-impact opportunities.
• Develop distinctive experiences such as Vandy in Hollywood, industry treks, employer sponsored projects, shadowing, mentoring, internships, company visits, and other forms of industry immersion.
• Create opportunities for students to explore MES careers early and progressively build more sophisticated experiences as their interests and readiness develop.
• Partner with academic programs, faculty, alumni, employers, and student organizations to connect classroom learning with industry practice.

Student Preparation & Pathway Development

• Lead the overall strategy for preparing students to navigate the nonlinear, competitive, and relationship-driven nature of MES careers.
• Establish pathway-specific milestones and readiness expectations related to industry knowledge, professional relationships, experiential learning, portfolios or creative work where relevant, and recruiting preparation.
• Lead and develop staff responsible for pathway advising and student programming.
• Provide selective high-level coaching and industry perspective for students navigating particularly competitive opportunities or complex career decisions.
• Ensure students have access to industry practitioners, alumni, mentors, and experiences that help them move intentionally from exploration to opportunity.

Cross-Campus Collaboration & Ecosystem Development

• Build strong partnerships with faculty, academic programs, Development and Alumni Relations, Athletics, student organizations, and other university partners whose work intersects with media, entertainment, sports, and creative industries.
• Connect Vanderbilt’s academic strengths and alumni relationships with industry opportunities and career pathways.
• Collaborate with CAE leadership to ensure employer, alumni, and experiential relationships are stewarded as institutional assets and leveraged across Vanderbilt where appropriate.
• Identify opportunities to connect the MES pathway with Vanderbilt’s growing presence in New York and other network locations.

Data, Outcomes & Continuous Improvement

• Establish and monitor measures of pathway engagement, experiential learning participation, employer activity, internship and placement outcomes, and student readiness.
• Use student feedback, employer input, labor-market information, and outcomes data to evaluate and refine pathway strategy.
• Identify gaps in access or outcomes and develop strategies to ensure students can build meaningful industry relationships and experiences regardless of their existing networks.

Supervisory Relationships:
While the position does not initially have direct supervisory responsibility, the Director leads Vanderbilt’s Media, Entertainment & Sports Career Pathway and its broader ecosystem, providing strategic direction and coordinating the work of advisers, employer relations and experiential learning professionals, faculty, alumni, parents, student organizations, and other partners who contribute to the pathway.

The Director reports directly to the Vice Provost for Career Advancement & Engagement and serves as a member of the Vice Provost’s leadership team. In this capacity, the Director contributes not only to the Media, Entertainment & Sports pathway but also to the broader strategy, priorities, and continued development of Career Advancement & Engagement and Vanderbilt’s Career Ecosystem.

Education and Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree is required.
• Master’s degree or equivalent combination of advanced education and relevant professional experience is preferred.

Experience and Skills:

• Minimum 10+ years of relevant professional experience in media, entertainment, sports, creative industries, career development, employer relations, or a closely related field.
• Significant professional experience within one or more media, entertainment, sports, orccreative-industry sectors is strongly preferred.
• Deep understanding of the structure, culture, career paths, talent needs, and relationship driven hiring practices of MES industries.
• Demonstrated ability to develop relationships with senior industry leaders, employers, alumni, and other external stakeholders.
• Experience developing industry partnerships, experiential learning opportunities, talent programs, or professional networks.
• Demonstrated ability to translate industry knowledge into effective strategies for student or early-career talent development.
• Leadership experience managing staff, complex programs, or cross-functional initiatives.
• Strong strategic thinking, communication, collaboration, and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to operate effectively across organizational boundaries and connect people, resources, and opportunities.
• Willingness to travel regularly to key industry markets and engage extensively with employers, alumni, and industry leaders.