Description

Reporting to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni, Annual Giving and Pipeline Development (AVC-Alumni and AGPD), the Senior Executive Director for Alumni Engagement (SED Alumni) serves as the primary Engagement Officer for the university’s alumni and serves as a principal member of the AVC-Alumni and AGPD senior management team. As a member of this leadership team, the SED Alumni provides leadership, counsel, and collaborative input that fosters a strong sense of community and advances the goals established by the Chancellor, Executive Vice Chancellor, Vice-Chancellors, and Academic Deans.

In the AVC-Alumni and AGPD absence, the SED Alumni will represent the leadership as appropriate and will represent Alumni interests within Advancement. Broadly, the leadership responsibilities of the SED Alumni include university-wide alumni engagement and volunteer leadership, regional engagement, student engagement, alumni relations, alumni marketing, and digital outreach.

The SED Alumni also participates in principle and transformational gift strategy and maintains an active portfolio of leadership prospects. In this role, you will lead a university-wide alumni relations enterprise, supporting its Board of Directors, international programs and volunteer clubs, and councils. You will play an instrumental role in the campus-wide planning process and related alumni engagement initiatives. Additionally, you will act as a liaison to University Communications and Public Affairs to align brand positioning and alumni communications to advance UC San Diego’s mission. The SED Alumni is responsible for annual budget management and expenditure of approximately $3 million in support of Alumni engagement programs.

Qualifications

• Advanced knowledge of alumni and other key constituencies. Skill in intuiting and addressing external concerns while ensuring appropriate and adequate support for campus and/or medical center concerns and issues.
• Expert strategic planning, analytical, negotiation and political acumen skills.
• Advanced knowledge of management principles, including personnel and budget administration and skill to motivate, guide, and direct subordinate staff.
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal communication and leadership skills. Attentive listening skills and the skill to effectively think quickly and respond appropriately.
• Strong skills to develop and successfully mentor and manage professional staff to implement strategies designed to achieve alumni and external relations outcomes favorable to the best interests of the institution.
• Proven personnel management skills in providing guidance to maintain a strong team of players. Ability to hire, train, supervise and evaluate staff, and dispense appropriate disciplinary action when necessary.
• Demonstrated ability to inspire confidence by displaying a strong sense of ethical conduct that will effectively motivate staff and persuade diverse groups.
• Demonstrated record of writing proposals for a significant project/gift directed to individuals, foundations, and corporations.
• Experience in creating and implementing a fundamental plan for establishment of engagement and fundraising priorities and strategy and execution of the cultivation and solicitation, negotiation, finalization of proposals and follow through, while providing leadership to the Development team.
• Developing and implementing organizational and strategic communication plans that incorporate clear definition of goals, target audiences, and strategies in line with institutional goals.
• Advanced executive experience managing a complex, multifaceted and growing 501c3 organization with complete oversight responsibility of financial, marketing, Board of Directors, administrative, and programmatic activities.
• Demonstrated ability to simultaneously serve the interest of both an independent board of directors and leadership.
• Proven ability in developing an effective volunteer structure to maximize the strengths of volunteers, thereby creating a sound, strong volunteer base for fundraising purposes.
• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field; or equivalent combination of education and experience in order to perform the essential functions of the position.