Executive Director of External Relations and Engagement (0457U), School of Social Welfare #88417

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Departmental Overview

Berkeley Social Welfare is one of the nation's leading social work graduate programs. As part of the world's top ranked public university, the School of Social Welfare is producing new knowledge for the common good and training the next generation of social work thought leaders dedicated to serving society's most vulnerable members. Known for combining rigorous scholarship with outstanding education, the School of Social Welfare offers MSW and PhD programs as well as an undergraduate major. Since 1944, the School has prepared nearly 12,000 social work professionals for leadership positions in the public and nonprofit human service sectors. Berkeley Social Welfare graduates are dedicated to meeting the growing needs of marginalized, underserved and other vulnerable populations.

This position will assist the Dean in developing new strategic initiatives in education and scholarship. It is modeled after those held by academic program managers in federally sponsored research centers, and in some academic departments, but encompasses the additional complexity of being required to develop a significantly broader network of sponsors from agencies and other external organizations, in addition to academic institutions. Another element of this position will be translating the interests of these various partners and stakeholders into outreach, research and learning activities that engage Social Welfare faculty and students. This position supports the development of a range of scholarly and educational initiatives emphasizing leadership, including undergraduate and graduate courses, certificate programs, a range of professional education options including executive education as well as new domains for inter-professional knowledge building.

Position Summary

The Executive Director of External Relations and Engagement is responsible for providing strategic leadership and operational management across the school's external engagement functions, including communications, fundraising, revenue-generating programs, events and alumni relations, research development, and instructional technology and design. In addition to managing and developing a team of direct reports, the Executive Director will perform short and long range planning, conduct market research, leverage data to identify and propose new initiatives and revenue streams, and, as needed, liaise with relevant campus departments to accomplish goals.

The Executive Director works closely with the Dean/Associate Dean, a faculty committee focused on revenue generation, and other administrative leaders to ensure goals are on track and met, and may propose high-level recommendations for improvements and/or operational changes to enhance the School's external engagement.

Application Review Date

The First Review Date for this job is September 28, 2026. For full consideration, please apply on or before the first review date.

Responsibilities

External Engagement Strategy and Infrastructure

Acts as key thought partner to the Dean and Senate Faculty on the conception, implementation, management, and scaling of innovative initiatives that involve senior management, faculty, and external stakeholders to extend and enhance the School's reputation and impact.

• Administratively directs initiatives with high autonomy upon approval from the Dean and Senate Faculty, ensuring alignment with School and University goals and policies.
• Develops business plans, budgets, and KPIs; assesses and reports on initiative effectiveness and recommends structural or procedural changes to optimize results for assigned programs.
• Leads the rebuild of the development and external engagement function; assesses current state and executes a phased implementation plan in partnership with UDAR.

Represents School, in coordination with or in lieu of the Dean, Senate Faculty, and other members of the School, to a network of partners, sponsors, government agencies, multilateral organizations, peer programs, foundations, private donors, alumni, and the public to cultivate and steward relationships with the key research and capacity building partners.

• Creates and manages a unified platform for existing and potential community partnerships across government, industry, foundations, and non-profit sectors in Airtable.
• Identifies and cultivates new opportunities for collaboration with peer institutions, research centers and groups, and public and private sector partners that advance the educational and research priorities of the school.
• Develops scopes of work, pitches, and budgets for new programs, working closely with finance offices and funders to secure necessary resources.
• Partners with the Dean to prioritize funding opportunities; oversees the creation and review of scopes of work, pitches, and budgets for new programs, working closely with finance offices and funders to secure necessary resources.
• Executes strategic plans for financing programmatic activities, including technical grant-writing and coordination with campus development offices.

Organizes the School's collective voice in response to legislative, judicial, and social welfare issues to inform local, national, and global policymaking and coordinates with national and global efforts to elevate the voice and impact of social welfare.

• Oversees the translation of research findings into policy-relevant knowledge, introducing evidence-based recommendations into ongoing policy dialogues. Liaises with policymakers, program implementers, and journalists to communicate key findings and elevate the School's public profile.
• Reviews and approves critical programmatic outputs, including briefing documents, donor reports, requests for proposals (RFPs), calls for abstracts, peer review protocols, surveys, event concept notes, and agendas, etc.

Revenue Generation, Community Building and Engagement and Program Development

Identifies and prepares concept briefs for new non-degree revenue-generating program ideas to faculty and school leadership, including, but not limited to, continuing education and professional certificate programs.

• Works with the instructional design and revenue generation analyst to assess market demand, competitor pricing, implementation timelines, and model multi-year revenue and expense projections for proposed and existing programs to assess viability.
• Oversees operational execution of revenue-generating programs including registration, enrollment management, and participant communications; escalates issues to Dean as appropriate.
• Tracks program performance against targets; prepares regular reporting for school leadership and recommends adjustments to pricing, format, or marketing.
• Works with instructional design and revenue generation analyst and faculty to develop marketable content.

People Management and Team Development

• Directly supervises approximately 3.5 FTE staff across communications, fundraising, revenue generation, events and alumni relations, research development, and instructional design.
• Creates cross-training opportunities and professional development plans to address the School's needs and provides ongoing coaching to build team capacity.
• Builds and sustains a high performing team culture that reflects the school's values of inclusion, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• If needed and funds allow, recruits, interviews, selects, and onboards new staff in consultation with SW HR.

Other Duties

• May participate in school-wide committees, working groups, and professional development activities as assigned.
• Other duties as assigned by Dean or Assistant Dean.

Required Qualifications

• Knowledge of external relations functions, such as communications & marketing, development & advancement, and/or government & community relations, and knowledge of how the functions intersect to elevate and enhance an organization's impact.
• Demonstrated experience building or rebuilding a development, advancement, or external engagement program from the ground up, including establishing infrastructure, systems, and operating procedures in alignment with goals, in a resource-constrained environment.
• Proven ability to directly supervise and build cohesive, high-performing multi-functional teams in a complex, non-profit environment (including performance assessment, goal-setting, mentoring, coaching, etc.).
• Ability to write, edit, and review external-facing communications content, such as donor correspondence, briefs, gift proposals, program pitches, and/or marketing.
• Ability to attend and contribute to cultivation events and meetings, including occasional nights and weekends; ability to represent the school professionally to external constituencies including but not limited to alumni, donors, government agencies, and community partners.
• Creative and analytical ability to identify, pitch, develop, and successfully implement new programs.
• Demonstrated interest in and/or knowledge of program development, building and maintaining relationships with employers in a community, and revenue generation.
• Strong financial acumen, including skills in budget development, expenditure monitoring, financial models, projections, in accordance with University financial policies and internal controls.
• Demonstrated experience in managing multiple concurrent functions and competing priorities in a complex environment. Strong project management and execution skills.
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills; demonstrated ability to work effectively with and build consensus among diverse populations, including faculty; demonstrated expertise building collaborations.
• Advanced critical thinking, problem identification and resolution skills; ability to synthesize data from multiple sources to develop recommendations and inform decision-making.
• High degree of emotional intelligence and political acumen; excellent ability to maintain confidentiality, objectivity, sensitivity, discretion, professionalism, and exercise good judgment and tact.
• Occasional nights/weekends/travel and ability to be onsite a few days a week when not traveling for business.
• Knowledge of, or experience with, applicable California state, regional, and local programs, policies, and/or environment in the field of social welfare and/or related fields preferred.

Preferred Qualifications