Description

Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) seeks a Director of Business Development to create new employer partnerships that advance two strategic goals: (1) create revenue-generating educational pathways that enable companies and organizations to upskill their workforce through academic programming, and (2) establish recruiting relationships connecting MCPHS students to internships, clinical placements, and career opportunities across healthcare, life sciences, public health, and related industries.

The Director conducts proactive, outbound prospecting to identify and cultivate relationships with employers, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. Through consultative discovery conversations with executives, HR and talent acquisition leaders, learning and development professionals, and clinical administrators, the Director surfaces opportunities across a full spectrum of partnership types—from high-value employer-sponsored degree cohorts and customized workforce training programs to student recruiting relationships, clinical site partnerships, and advisory collaborations.

Operating as an individual contributor with measurable annual targets for revenue generation, new partnership development, and cross-campus opportunity creation, the Director manages a diverse portfolio of employer accounts and advances prospects through a structured partnership development cycle. The role demands an outbound sales mindset combined with the ability to translate organizational workforce needs into viable educational solutions, and coordinate implementation across multiple University units, including the School of Professional Studies, Career Development Center, and Clinical Affiliations offices.

The Director is housed within the School of Professional Studies and reports to the Dean while serving partnership development needs across the institution. Success in this role requires comfort with consultative selling, ability to engage senior-level stakeholders, pipeline management discipline, and the agility to balance competing priorities across a pan-institutional mandate.

The Director of Business Development plays a critical role in MCPHS’s growth strategy by converting strong market demand for clinical, life sciences, biotech, and workforce education into sustainable revenue, employer partnerships, and student career development opportunities. As MCPHS rapidly launches new academic and workforce programs, this role ensures the University captures, shapes, and delivers high-value partnerships at the pace the market demands.

This position is an individual contributor with targets for annual revenue, partnership development, and cross-campus opportunity-generation.

Business Development & Outbound Prospecting (80%)

• Identify and cultivate employer, nonprofit, and government partners through proactive outreach (e.g., email, phone, LinkedIn, events, industry associations) building relationships with healthcare systems, biotech firms, life sciences companies, and public agencies that can support MCPHS programs through hiring, training, clinical placements, and sponsorships.
• Build and manage a pipeline aligned with MCPHS academic programs, workforce priorities, and institutional partnership needs across the School of Professional Studies, Career Development, clinical placements, and other units.
• Conduct discovery conversations with industry executives, HR leaders, talent acquisition teams, learning and development professionals to surface both revenue-driving and mission-focused opportunities.
• Qualify opportunities and advance them through a structured, consultative partnership-development cycle.
• Manage and grow a diverse portfolio of employer accounts, identifying both large-scale collaborations and smaller engagements that advance the University mission.
• Present the full menu of MCPHS partnership opportunities to current and prospective partners, which includes: employer-sponsored cohorts and tuition-benefit pathways, short courses/workshops aligned to employer needs, customized training for incumbent workers, student recruiting for jobs, internships and clinical placements, curriculum advisory contributions.
• Draft partnership proposals and scopes of work in collaboration with academic leadership and internal stakeholder units.

Cross-Campus Coordination & Opportunity Routing (10%)

• Serve as a central intelligence hub for employer needs and opportunities; ensure leads are shared across the School of Professional Studies, Career Development, clinical placement offices, and other departments.
• Partner with the Career Development Center to expand internship pipelines, employer recruiting relationships, and student career pathways.
• Collaborate with Clinical Affiliations teams to support identification of new clinical sites and strengthen relationships with existing partners.
• Connect employers to other areas when opportunities arise for mentors, judges, advisors, or collaborative innovation activities.

Program Implementation & Employer Support (10%)

• Collaborate with academic units, career development center, clinical placement staff, and other strategic units to support the implementation of employer partnerships.
• Coordinate marketing needs for MCPHS business development activities (i.e., information sessions, collateral, content, advertising).
• Provide high-touch account support to ensure employer satisfaction and learner success across all partnership types.

Requirements

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 7-10 years of experience in business development, employer partnerships, workforce development, B2B outreach, or related consultative partnership roles.
• A valid drivers’ license
• Demonstrated success in generating revenue, building strategic partnerships, and achieving performance targets.
• Strong outbound outreach capability with experience engaging HR, talent acquisition, L&D, clinical, and executive stakeholders.
• Excellent presentation and proposal writing skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to effectively communicate with internal and external customers.
• Experience using CRM systems.
• Ability to work independently while navigating a complex institutional environment.

Preferred:

• Experience working in higher education, healthcare, life sciences, workforce development, or professional/continuing education.
• Understanding of internship pipelines, clinical placements, and employer-sponsored education benefits.
• Familiarity with revenue targets, forecasting, pipeline management, and reporting.
• General understanding of regional labor market and industry needs.
• Experience using Salesforce or comparable CRM.

Physical Requirements:

• Typical office and administrative working conditions.
• Must be able to talk, listen, and speak clearly on the telephone and via video conference.
• The ability to travel by car, air, and/or rail approximately 30% of time locally and domestically