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Employment Opportunities > Assistant Director of Student Engagement

Assistant Director of Student Engagement

Reports to: Executive Director of Career Services and Student Engagement

Position Type: Full-time, 12 months, Exempt

Compensation: $71,000 – $76,000 DOE

Position Summary

The Assistant Director of Student Engagement provides leadership for student engagement, campus life, student organizations, basic needs support, and co-curricular learning. This position advances a holistic approach to engagement that recognizes student involvement as more than event attendance. Meaningful engagement includes belonging, well-being, leadership, connection, identity development, resilience, and preparation for life beyond Menlo. The Assistant Director plays a key role in integrating the Menlo Edge: Future-Ready Initiative into student engagement experiences. This position helps students connect their involvement, leadership, wellness, service, and campus experiences to future-ready competencies.

This role is ideal for a collaborative student affairs professional who can design student-centered programs, build cross-campus partnerships, support academic and non-academic student organizations, manage student resources, and help students understand how their co-curricular experiences contribute to their learning, well-being, and future success.

Key Responsibilities

Student Engagement & Leadership
  • Develop, implement, and assess student engagement programs that foster belonging, wellness, leadership, community, and student success.
  • Oversee the collaborative planning and implementation of New Student Orientation and Weeks of Welcome, working closely with Admissions, Student Success, , Academic Affairs, student leaders, and other campus partners to support student transition, belonging, and early engagement.
  • Advise and support student government, clubs, organizations, and student leaders, including training, policy guidance, leadership development, event planning, and organizational effectiveness.
  • Work closely with Academic Affairs and faculty partners to support academic student clubs and strengthen the connection between academic programs and co-curricular engagement.
  • Oversee student organization registration, advisor support, leadership development, and student organization training.
  • Plan and support major campus traditions, student activities, leadership initiatives, and community-building programs.
  • Maintain a coordinated student engagement calendar and help ensure effective communication, appropriate supervision, accessibility, and risk management for student events.
  • Support assigned student spaces, such as the Student Union, Fitness Center, or other engagement-related areas, ensuring they are welcoming, accessible, and responsive to student needs.
  • Support transition-related courses or programs, including Menlo 101 or similar initiatives, by helping students build connections, navigate campus, and engage meaningfully in the Menlo community.
Future-Ready and Co-Curricular Learning
  • Integrate the Future-Ready Initiative into student engagement, leadership, wellness, student employment, student organizations, and campus life programs.
  • Help students connect co-curricular experiences to future-ready competencies, including leadership, teamwork, communication, professionalism, equity and inclusion, critical thinking, technology, and career and self-development.
  • Embed reflection, meaning-making, and competency language into student programs, trainings, leadership roles, and organization advising.
  • Collaborate with Career Services, Student Success, Academic Affairs, International Student Services, Athletics, and other campus partners to help students translate involvement experiences into learning narratives, digital badges, ePortfolios, LinkedIn profiles, internship preparation, and career readiness.
  • Support campus partners in mapping engagement experiences to future-ready outcomes and identifying opportunities for deeper student learning.
Holistic Well-Being and Basic Needs Support
  • Develop and support engagement initiatives that recognize the connection between involvement, belonging, mental health, wellness, basic needs, and student success.
  • Collaborate with Health and Wellness, Counseling Services, Residential Life, Athletics, Academic Affairs, and other campus partners to promote student well-being and help-seeking behavior.
  • Serve as a student-facing resource who helps students connect with campus and community resources related to belonging, wellness, basic needs, and support.
  • Manage the Oak Shack campus food pantry, including inventory, distribution, outreach, assessment, donor coordination, and partnerships that address student food insecurity.
  • Collaborate with Advancement to prepare funding proposals to support the Oak Shack.
  • Coordinate off-campus travel for food pickup and pantry-related needs in collaboration with community donors and external partners.
  • Identify barriers to student engagement and basic needs access, particularly for students who may experience financial constraints, isolation, limited informal networks, or competing responsibilities.
Collaboration, Assessment, and Administration
  • Build strong partnerships across departments and functional areas to advance shared goals related to engagement, wellness, belonging, retention, and future readiness.
  • Facilitate regular cross-campus planning meetings to align engagement efforts, reduce duplication, and increase student access and participation
  • Represent student engagement on committees, working groups, and campus initiatives related to student success, student well-being, basic needs, leadership, and co-curricular learning.
  • Use student feedback, participation trends, equity-minded assessment, and learning outcomes data to improve programs and identify barriers to engagement.
  • Prepare reports on student engagement, student organization activity, basic needs support, wellness initiatives, leadership development, and future-ready outcomes.
  • Hire, train, supervise, and evaluate student employees, interns, ambassadors, or student leaders supporting engagement and basic needs initiatives.
  • Manage assigned budgets responsibly and ensure compliance with College policies, risk management expectations, accessibility standards, and relevant laws or regulations.
  • Support evening and weekend programs, campus events, student activities, food pantry operations, and institutional initiatives as needed.

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in education, social sciences, public health, business, or a related field.
  • Two to three years of progressively responsible experience in student engagement, student activities, leadership development, wellness, basic needs, student success, residence life, orientation, or a related higher education area.
  • Demonstrated commitment to student belonging, equity, inclusion, well-being, and holistic student development.
  • Experience designing, implementing, and assessing student programs, events, trainings, or co-curricular learning experiences.
  • Experience advising student organizations, student leaders, or student employees.
  • Strong ability to collaborate across departments and build partnerships with faculty, staff, students, and external partners.
  • Excellent communication, facilitation, organization, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills.
  • Ability to support students from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences with cultural humility and care.
  • Familiarity with student learning outcomes, reflective learning, competency-based education, or co-curricular assessment.
  • Proficiency with technology, digital communication tools, social media, data tracking, and office software.
  • Ability to work evenings and weekends as required.
  • Valid driver’s license and ability to travel off campus for food pantry pickups, donor coordination, and related program needs.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Master’s degree in higher education, student affairs, counseling, public health, education, leadership, or a related field.
  • Experience with food pantry operations, basic needs initiatives, community partnerships, or donor-supported student resources.
  • Experience working with academic student organizations or faculty-sponsored student groups.
  • Experience with career readiness, future-ready learning, NACE competencies, digital badges, ePortfolios, student employment learning outcomes, or co-curricular pathways.
  • Experience using data and assessment to improve student programs and reduce barriers to participation.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

The successful candidate will demonstrate the ability to:

  • View student engagement as a holistic practice connected to belonging, well-being, leadership, learning, and future readiness.
  • Build bridges across departments and help campus partners advance shared student success goals.
  • Support both academic and co-curricular student organizations.
  • Translate student involvement into language students can use to describe their growth, skills, and readiness.
  • Manage basic needs resources with care, reliability, discretion, and attention to student dignity.
  • Use assessment and student feedback to make evidence-informed improvements.
  • Communicate clearly with students, colleagues, donors, community partners, and external stakeholders.
  • Balance strategic planning with direct student support and daily program operations.
  • Lead with collaboration, accountability, creativity, cultural humility, and care.
  • Navigate and influence across organizational boundaries to align efforts and priorities.

About Menlo College

Menlo College is doing transformative work with an incredibly diverse population of students, about one-third of whom are the first in their families to attend college. Almost 100 years old, this small gem of a private college – with less than 900 students – is changing lives and providing a stream of inspiring, diverse and capable graduates to Silicon Valley companies and organizations. The private school offers four-year undergraduate degrees in business and psychology, and two graduate programs that leverage key areas of excellence within the College.

Menlo College faculty members teach and mentor from their perspectives as scholars, entrepreneurs, managers, and community leaders. Menlo College attracts students from all over the world — young adults who are committed to learning, playing intercollegiate sports, starting and leading organizations, and volunteering in the community. The campus is located 30 miles south of San Francisco in Silicon Valley, one of the world’s most entrepreneurial and innovative locations. Silicon Valley is renowned as an innovation incubator with many opportunities for experience-based learning.

Menlo College is consistently included in lists of America’s best colleges, including citations by the Princeton Review. AffordableCollegesOnline.org (AC Online) has brought additional recognition to the quality of the Menlo College experience when the organization named Menlo as one of the 4-year colleges in California with the best lifetime return on investment (ROI). The diversity of Menlo students is reflected in two federal designations: as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and as an Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (a dual designation earned by only 1% of all colleges and universities in the U.S.). Menlo is also one of the safest campuses anywhere; Universities.com ranks Menlo first in California, and fourth in the nation as the “safest college campus in America.”

Application Process

Interested and qualified candidates should submit a resume and cover letter via email to:

Menlo College

Attn: Human Resources Department

1000 El Camino Real, Atherton, CA 94027-4301

Or via email to hr@menlo.edu

Menlo College is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a strong commitment to diversity. All prospective Menlo College employees are required to satisfy a background check, as well as clearance annually for the operation of a motor vehicle on behalf of Menlo College.

Applicants should be authorized to work in the United States without visa sponsorship.

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