Manager of Partnership Development

The Corporate Manager of Partnership Development is responsible for developing and maintaining strategic relationships with corporate partners to enhance career opportunities for students and alumni across all StrataTech campuses. This remote role focuses on system-building to reduce variability, simplify processes, and strengthen consistency in employer outreach and partnerships. It involves identifying and securing multi-location employer partnerships, negotiating incentives such as tuition reimbursement programs, and exploring branding opportunities to foster long-term collaborations. The manager will collaborate with employers to understand their national and regional hiring needs and support the successful placement of graduates in skilled-trade industries through partnership, enablement, and standard-setting with campus Career Services teams—avoiding independent operation or ownership of local relationships. Working closely with the National Director of Career Services, this position aligns strategies with organizational goals, ensuring compliance and measurable outcomes while leveraging indirect influence through campus teams for execution. The role emphasizes making processes less complex and enhancing experiences for Career Services staff, employers, students, and graduates.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the development of strategic, multi-location employer partnerships, targeting 8–10 new national or regional accounts annually that commit to coordinated hiring across multiple campuses; secure initial agreements and hand off execution to campus Career Services teams for localized implementation, tracking outcomes via CRM systems to attribute contributions to placement metrics.
• Negotiate and secure employer programs that include tuition reimbursement, apprenticeships, or similar financial incentives for graduates, aiming for 3–5 such partnerships per year; collaborate with Compliance and Legal teams to structure agreements, focusing on larger corporate partners to mitigate negotiation complexities and ensure regulatory alignment.
• Initiate discussions with employers on branding, sponsorship, and visibility opportunities at campuses (national or local), targeting at least 5 initiatives annually; prioritize those that directly support hiring commitments to avoid diluting focus on core placement outcomes.
• Coordinate with B2B account representatives to provide as-needed support for Career Services outreach to program completers, serving as a safety net when B2B requires assistance; act as the primary point of contact for B2B on employer outreach in specific markets, facilitating introductions and strategies while ensuring B2B retains ownership of core outreach activities.
• Actively identify, document, and scale employer outreach best practices, particularly with employers who hire more graduates and hire faster; translate high-performing campus practices into repeatable frameworks, tools, and guidance for system-wide use, promoting consistency and efficiency.
• Contribute to the long-term (10-year) strategic objective of achieving 150% graduate ROI on tuition costs by supporting employer wage benchmarking, outcome trend analysis, and the development of measurement infrastructure, without owning or guaranteeing outcomes.
• Build effective relationships with industry constituents and other partners to identify employment opportunities, emphasizing scalable corporate collaborations in partnership with campus teams.
• Create and develop new strategies to support graduating students, integrating multi-location hiring and incentive programs, while enabling campus teams through simplified processes and standards.
• Maintain department compliance with government accreditation and other regulatory bodies, ensuring partnership agreements adhere to Title IV and ACCSC standards.
• Maintain system-level employer engagement health, targeting indicators such as an 80% retention rate for existing partnerships and overall increases in employers hiring graduates, through enablement and best practice sharing.
• Support campuses in progressing toward institutional placement benchmarks through system-level partnerships, tools, and standards.
• Support wage growth strategies through high-value employer partnerships and wage benchmarking insights.
• Adhere to Title IV administrative capacity regulations and maintain "adequate" career services for students and graduates.
• Align partnership activity to support institutional compliance with placement benchmarks.
• Establish and maintain strategic national employer relationships, while reducing complexity for all stakeholders.
• Organize and participate with the campuses to attend at least 6 external community engagement events annually across all markets, incorporating branding opportunities where applicable, to enhance employer and student experiences.
• Complete weekly and/or monthly reports as directed by the National Director of Career Services or SVP of Compliance, including breakdowns of multi-location partnerships, incentive programs, branding initiatives, and best practice developments.
• Identify critical placement issues, develop employer solutions (such as reimbursement or branding incentives), and coordinate the necessary personnel to implement, monitor progress, and evaluate effectiveness through indirect metrics like partnership-sourced placements, focusing on scalability and simplicity.
• Monitor the consistency of employer on-campus hiring events, supporting campuses remotely with standards and tools to improve usability and reduce variability.

Compliance and Accreditation:

• Ensure partnership-related activities and documentation align with accreditation and regulatory standards, in coordination with Compliance and campus teams.

Required Knowledge, Education and Experience:

Bachelor’s degree from four-year college or university and minimum two years’ experience in related field. Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of ten years related experience is strongly preferred. Experience in process simplification, system building, and enhancing stakeholder experiences in a multi-site environment is highly desirable.

Physical Environment:

Travel to various campuses is required on an as-needed basis. Most work is performed remotely in a temperature-controlled home office environment. Incumbent may sit for long periods of time at a desk or computer terminal. Incumbent may use calculators, keyboards, telephone, and other office equipment. Stooping, bending, twisting, and reaching may be required. Some work may be completed in classroom or shop environment during travel.

Other Duties:

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.