Senior Director, Development & Alumni Engagement, Athletics & Recreation Full Time NEW

Join a bold, world-leading and highly accomplished development and alumni engagement team — and help UBC shape a better world.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

UBC is a global centre for teaching, learning and research, consistently ranked among the top universities in the world. As one of the largest universities in Canada, UBC attracts and nurtures close to 71,000 students and over 410,000 alumni from 145 countries on two major campuses. With over 7,300 faculty and 13,400 staff, UBC has an operating budget of $3.98 billion and provides close to $900 million in research funds for nearly 10,000 projects.

The Development and Alumni Engagement (DAE) portfolio at UBC joins development (fundraising) and alumni UBC functions under one umbrella. DAE is a one of the leading advancement teams in Canada and has oversight for fundraising and alumni engagement at all UBC campuses and locations, including UBC’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses. With over 300 employees, DAE currently raises ~ $300 million and engages close to 120,000 alumni annually.
One of the most iconic and highly decorated varsity sports programs in Canada, UBC Athletics and Recreation has 26 teams across various sports. In terms of prowess in competition, it is among the very elite. While their outstanding performance in competition is well-documented, our student-athletes are well-rounded individuals who can excel in academics as well as athletics. In 2025, the Thunderbirds had 241 student-athletes honoured as Academic All-Canadians and counts 20 Rhodes Scholars among the ranks of their alumni.

As Senior Director of Development & Alumni Engagement, Athletics and Recreation, you will be responsible for creating and operationalizing fundraising strategies to ensure that the Faculty’s strategic objectives are met. While spearheading a multi-year campaign in support of UBC Athletics and Recreation, you will manage a development and alumni engagement program with an annual goal of ~$5M+ annually. You will be responsible for moving leadership gift account strategies forward where a high degree of senior administration involvement is required. You will work in partnership with senior University administration and UBC Athletics’ leadership team to facilitate maximum private sector support and build upon and expand the strong alumni connections that already exist. You will also provide leadership to a team of management & professional employees.

The incoming Senior Director of Development & Alumni Engagement will be responsible for leading the execution of the long-term strategy for Development within UBC Athletics. The ideal candidate will bring considerable depth of experience in fundraising, strategy development and inclusive behavior practices. Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, discretion, and sound judgment are required.

The Senior Director will serve as a member of both Development and Alumni Engagement (DAE) as well as UBC Athletics leadership and be supported by specialized functions and teams in the Development office.

As UBC advances its most ambitious fundraising and alumni engagement campaign, this is an exciting time to join UBC and build partnerships to advance the mission and vision of the University. FORWARD, the campaign for UBC, will raise $3 billion and activate the power of our global alumni by doubling alumni engagement. The campaign will benefit research, teaching and learning across both the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses in three key areas—advancing healthy lives, creating solutions for the planet, and shaping thriving societies. To learn more about FORWARD, see www.give.ubc.ca/forward.

As a top tier research university, and a go-to destination for the world’s brightest minds, UBC has the opportunity to influence what our future will look like. DAE is inspired to enable UBC’s pursuit of excellence in research, learning and engagement by maximizing donor and alumni engagement.

For more information about DAE, please visit www.give.ubc.ca

Compensation Range:
$149,021 (Min.) – $186,137 (Market rate) – $223,364 (Max.) CAD Annually
The Compensation Range is the span between the minimum and maximum base salary for a position. The midpoint of the range is approximately halfway between the minimum and the maximum and represents an employee that possesses full job knowledge, qualifications and experience for the position. In the normal course, employees will be hired, transferred or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the salary range for a job.

Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person.