Manager, Career Education and Professional Experience

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Queen’s University is the Canadian research intensive university with a transformative student learning experience. Here the employment experience is as diverse as it is interesting. We have opportunities in multiple areas of globally recognized research, faculty administration, engineering & construction, athletics & recreation, power generation, corporate shared services, and many more.

We are committed to employment equity and diversity in the workplace and welcome applications from individuals from equity seeking groups such as women, racialized/visible minorities, Indigenous/Aboriginal peoples, persons with a disability, persons who identify in the LGBTQ+ community and others who reflect the diversity of Canadian society.

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Job Summary

Reporting to the Associate Director, Corporate Relations, the Manager, Career Education and Professional Experience provides operational oversight and people management for Engineering Careers team and initiatives within the Smith Engineering Corporate Relations team. This role plays a key leadership function in advancing the Faculty’s internship, career education, and professional experience priorities, including the Engineering Career Accelerator Program (ECAP), ensuring alignment with Faculty goals, labour market trends, and student needs.

Working closely with the Associate Director, the Manager provides strategic support to the planning, implementation, and continuous improvement of career and internship programming, advising, and student support. The position establishes and upholds consistent processes and guidelines, and collaborates with campus partners to support students navigating complex work-integrated learning experiences. In addition, the incumbent oversees the development and delivery of integrated career curriculum embedded across the undergraduate experience, coordinating presentations, workshops, and resources in alignment with academic programs and internship timelines, and integrating industry and alumni insight that strengthens students’ career readiness and professional competencies.

This position requires strong leadership and relationship-management skills, along with a deep understanding of engineering labour markets, experiential learning, and career development theory. The successful candidate will bring a data-informed, student-centered approach to program design and evaluation, contributing to a high-performing team and a cohesive, impactful Corporate Relations strategy within Smith Engineering.

Job Description

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Management/Administration
• Contributes to strategic planning for Corporate Relations team, QUIP internship strategy, and the Engineering Career Accelerator Program, while overseeing execution of the Engineering Careers annual operations plan to ensure alignment with Smith Engineering priorities.
• Supports the development, implementation, and promotion of goals, targets, and performance metrics for Corporate Relations initiatives.
• Develop and implement participant surveys that capture feedback and statistics on all aspects of program delivery including one-on-one advising, workshops, class presentations, major events and online resources.
• Oversees Engineering Careers team events including internship networking events planning, workshops and information sessions.
• Remains informed of hiring and recruitment trends, best practices in career education, engineering career- and labour market-related trends and innovations/technologies, advising literature and theory, internship employment coaching, and experiential learning theory.
• Coordinate closely with Corporate Relations team leads to ensure effective communication and collaboration toward unit goals and priorities.
• Plans, prioritizes, motivates and manages the work of employees, providing strategic and tactical advice, support, guidance and coaching. Identifies the need for staff resources, participates on staffing committees, and makes effective recommendations regarding employee selection.
• Manages performance by establishing performance standards, reviewing and evaluating performance on an ongoing basis, and conducting talent reviews and annual formal performance reviews.
• Assesses staff training and development needs and ensures that employees receive training required to improve and sustain successful performance.
• Investigates, addresses and resolves employee/labour relations issues, including making decisions regarding disciplinary and discharge matters.

Internships and Student Advising
• Lead the process development and implementation for academic components of internship, including assessment, grade assignment, internship course materials and learning outcomes, liaising with Student Services and Engineering Teaching and Learning teams as necessary to consult and resolve issues.
• Oversee student and intern advising, guiding Engineering Careers team members, ensuring consistent practices, and contributing to advising strategy for pre-internship and post-internship students.
• In collaboration with the Associate Director, Corporate Relations, establish and apply clear guidelines for reviewing and approving student requests for exceptions to internship regulations.
• Oversee documentation, tracking, and reporting on complex intern advising.
• Liaises with campus partners such as the Experiential Learning Hub, Human Rights and Equity Office, Student Wellness to support internship advising best practices and resources.
• Coordinate with Manager, QUIP, to support interns through exceptional circumstances in the workplace, escalating to Associate Director, Corporate Relations as needed.

Career Curriculum
• Develops and maintains annual ECAP career curriculum map, identifying key classes for presentations, career learning outcomes, resources, and deliverables; liaises with teaching teams to book presentations in line with internship timelines and strategy.
• Oversee annual maintenance of ECAP OnQ portal and other online resources, monitoring enrolment, collecting use data and identifying content gaps.
• Conducts an ongoing need assessment for additional internship and career workshops and resources; lead the design and delivery, and where internal expertise does not exist or where external experts would add credibility to the program, sources those additional career resources for the team, as needed.
• In collaboration with the Associate Director, Corporate Relations, the employer-facing team, explores, enhance integration of industry insight and employer/alumni participation in curriculum development.
• Coordinates with Manager, Career Education and Coaching, Career Services, to ensure alignment with institutional career curriculum scaffolding and learning outcomes.
• Undertakes other duties as assigned and in support of the unit and/or department.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
• Undergraduate degree in a STEM field or Education is required. Master's Degree considered to be an asset.
• Three to five years of management experience, preferably in a university or institutionally relevant setting.
• Demonstrated experience with engineering industry, labour market and recruitment trends.
• Demonstrated experience in designing and delivering internship and career development and job search programming.
• Experience creating internship or work-integrated learning preparation and workplace skills programming.
• Experience advising students during work-integrated learning work terms the help navigate workplace rules, processes and support.
• Coaching certification (e.g., CPCC, PCC, or CEC) is an asset.
• Experience with Online Learning Management System such as D2L or onQ considered an asset.
• Consideration will be given to candidates with the equivalent combination of education and experience.

SPECIAL SKILLS:
• Analytical and interpretive skills; ability to synthesize information from a wide variety of sources and conceptualize workable solutions.
• Keen attention to detail and quality.
• Ability to foster and cultivate relationships with student, faculty, and staff within Smith Engineering faculty office and departments.
• Ability to work collaboratively and effectively with campus partners, coordinating to support shared goals.
• Ability to cope with multiple demands and resolve priority conflicts. Ability to work under time constraints and meet deadlines.
• Ability to assess priorities, handle many projects simultaneously.
• Exceptional relationship management skills, as well as communication, coaching and interpersonal skills, including empathy, tact, patience, diplomacy, combined with the ability to provide astute verbal feedback that identifies key issues and constructive feedback on how issues can be addressed.
• Excellent leadership, public-speaking and presentation skills.
• Strong ability to motivate, empower and engage individuals, teams and departments to achieve success.
• Excellent knowledge of survey methodology, technology, data analysis, and reporting survey results.
• Proven ability to embed elements of equity, diversity, and inclusivity within engineering education and promote these principles within the teaching, internship and working environment.

DECISION MAKING:
• With guidance from the Associate Director, Corporate Relations, determines content of career programing and the criteria to which effectiveness will be assessed.
•Determines how to evaluate current program effectiveness and researches and implements improvements to meet the strategic goals of the Corporate Relations department.
•Determine requirements for group surveying activities across programs (students, stakeholders, corporations) including survey technology, methodology, the capture and storage of survey data, analysis and reporting survey results. This may include a broad range of data, including job market knowledge, economic trends, and placement statistics.
•Make recommendations for decisions related to major event management, ensuring all events support the strategic direction of the Corporate Relations team.
• Determines priorities and makes recommendations regarding staff utilization and the assignment of work to achieve optimum efficiencies and productivity.
• Recommend new initiatives including delivery and service standards, as well as reporting standards and processes.
• Determines program effectiveness and recommend changes accordingly.
• Prioritizes time and duties to ensure work is completed within the required deadlines.
• Evaluates job candidates and makes effective recommendations on suitable hires.
• Decides on appropriate training or coaching to address lack of proficiency in carrying out responsibilities.

Employment Equity and Accessibility Statement

The University invites applications from all qualified individuals. Queen's is strongly committed to employment equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace and encourages applications from Black, racialized persons, Indigenous people, women, persons with disabilities, and 2SLGBTQI+ persons. In accordance with Canadian Immigration requirements, priority will be given to those who are legally eligible to work in Canada.

The University provides support in its recruitment processes to all applicants who require accommodation due to a protected ground under the Ontario Human Rights Code, including those with disabilities.