Executive Director, Experience and Engagement

Job Posting Location:

Claremont, CA

Job Posting Title:

Executive Director, Experience and Engagement

Job Description:

ABOUT POMONA COLLEGE: Located near Los Angeles, California, Pomona College is widely regarded as one of the nation's premier liberal arts colleges. Established in 1887, Pomona College is known for small classes, a challenging curriculum, close relationships between students and faculty, and a range of student research and leadership opportunities. Pomona is a member of The Claremont Colleges.

JOB PURPOSE:

The Executive Director of Engagement and Experience provides strategic leadership for Pomona College's alumni engagement, family engagement, volunteer leadership, constituent experience, and institutional events portfolio. Reporting to the Chief Experience and Engagement Officer and serving as a member of the Experience and Engagement Leadership Team, this position is responsible for designing and advancing a comprehensive engagement ecosystem that fosters lifelong connections between the College and its constituents while advancing institutional, campaign, and philanthropic goals. The Executive Director will set clear and measurable goals leading the efforts to create and sustain strong value connections for constituents across the state, country, and around the world.

This role serves as a lead architect of constituent engagement and experience strategies that deepen affinity, strengthen belonging, increase participation, cultivate volunteer leaders, and create pathways to philanthropy. The Executive Director oversees Alumni and Family Engagement and the Office of College Events, ensuring alignment between engagement strategy and the experiences that shape constituent relationships with the College.

At a pivotal moment in the College's history and on the eve of a comprehensive campaign, the Executive Director will lead efforts to advance engagement practices; strengthen alumni, family, and volunteer engagement; expand constituent participation; elevate institutional events and traditions; and implement measurable, data-informed strategies that advance the College's long-term goals. This highly motivated and collaborative leader will contribute to the success of the Advancement division by increasing alumni and family engagement through the strategic use of CASE Alumni Engagement Metrics and other industry best practices.

The Executive Director provides strategic leadership for a portfolio that includes alumni engagement, family engagement, student-to-alumni transition initiatives, volunteer leadership, campus traditions, institutional events, regional engagement, campaign events, donor experiences, external event partnerships, and constituent experience design across the engagement lifecycle. As a senior leader within Advancement, the Executive Director works collaboratively across the College to create meaningful opportunities that increase engagement, strengthen loyalty and belonging, and build lifelong relationships that support the institution's mission and philanthropic priorities.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

Strategic Leadership and Vision

In partnership with the CEEO, develop and implement a multi-year engagement and experience strategy aligned with institutional priorities, campaign goals, and Advancement objectives.

Serve as a leader within Advancement and the Experience and Engagement team, helping shape the College’s constituent engagement vision.

Advance innovative, constituent-centered engagement and experience programs that strengthen lifelong relationships and institutional affinity.

Establish goals, performance measures, and assessment frameworks to evaluate participation, experience quality, volunteer engagement, and overall impact.

Monitor emerging trends and best practices in engagement, volunteer leadership, constituent experience, and events management.

Design engagement pathways that move constituents from connection to participation, volunteer leadership, and philanthropy.

Establish standards for hospitality, accessibility, inclusion, and service excellence across engagement programs and events.

Lead a culture of assessment and continuous improvement through the strategic use of data, constituent feedback, CASE Alumni Engagement Metrics, and performance reporting to measure impact, inform decision-making, and advance institutional goals.

Build, lead, and develop a high-performing engagement and events team by establishing clear priorities, promoting professional growth, and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, accountability, and service.

Provide strategic oversight of departmental budgets, staffing, resource allocation, and operational planning to ensure organizational effectiveness and achievement of institutional goals.

Work collaboratively with the Advancement Communications Team to support the strategy and development of print and digital communications that support programming and strategic objectives.

Alumni and Family Engagement Leadership

Provide strategic oversight of the College’s alumni, family, volunteer, and student-to-alumni engagement programs and initiatives.

Develop and execute integrated engagement strategies that increase participation, strengthen affinity and belonging, expand volunteer leadership, and support lifelong engagement and philanthropic readiness.

Serve as advisor, chief budget officer, and Treasurer of the Alumni Association Board and other volunteer leadership groups, ensuring their work advances institutional priorities and campaign objectives.

Oversee reunions, affinity programs, regional engagement, mentoring, networking opportunities, lifelong learning initiatives, volunteer programs, and other signature engagement experiences.

Develop and strengthen volunteer pathways that support mentoring, career engagement, admissions, campaign participation, ambassadorship, and philanthropy, while building sustainable leadership pipelines and succession plans.

Partner with colleagues across Advancement and the College to create seamless pathways from student engagement to alumni engagement and strengthen lifelong connections to Pomona.

Expand meaningful family engagement opportunities and alumni-student connections through networking, mentoring, professional development, and experiential learning opportunities.

Ensure care and stewardship of the College’s Seaver Alumni House facilities.

Office of College Events Leadership

Provide strategic leadership and oversight of the Office of College Events and the College’s comprehensive events portfolio, ensuring alignment with institutional priorities, academic objectives, and the Pomona College mission.

Lead the development of a campus-wide events and experience strategy that advances the College’s educational mission, strengthens community, elevates constituent experiences, and enhances Pomona’s reputation among internal and external audiences.

Leverage the College’s events portfolio as a strategic platform for advancing Pomona’s academic mission, strengthening community, building institutional affinity, enhancing visibility and reputation, and creating meaningful connections among students, families, alumni, faculty, staff, community members, and external partners.

Partner with academic and administrative departments, faculty, senior leaders, and campus stakeholders to design meaningful experiences and support programs, conferences, lectures, ceremonies, traditions, and special events that enrich the intellectual, cultural, and community life of the College.

Oversee the successful execution of major institutional events, including Commencement, Family Weekend, Alumni Weekend, Founders Day, presidential and trustee events, campaign events, donor experiences, academic conferences, and other signature programs.

Establish and maintain standards for hospitality, accessibility, inclusion, service excellence, budget stewardship, and operational effect