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Columbia University

Career Placement Officer

🇺🇸 Morningside, NY

🕑 Full-Time

💰 $73K - $75K

💻 Other

🗓️ July 9th, 2025

Edtech.com's Summary

Columbia University is hiring a Career Placement Officer for the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The officer will lead the placement of MS and PhD students in full-time positions and internships by cultivating employer relationships, managing placement events, and supporting career development initiatives within the department.

Highlights
  • Lead placement of Biomedical Engineering MS and PhD students in full-time jobs and internships.
  • Develop and maintain relationships with current and prospective employers.
  • Plan and execute career placement strategies and events.
  • Collect and analyze employment data to generate placement reports for the department and school.
  • Support placement of BS students and assist with related student affairs as needed.
  • Proficient in Google Suite, Microsoft Office (Excel with Pivot Tables and VLookup), publishing software, and social media.
  • Requires a bachelor's degree with 2-4 years of related experience; graduate-level coursework preferred.
  • Experience in career counseling, marketing, workshop planning, or administration, especially in biomedical engineering jobs and employers.
  • Ability to communicate effectively with diverse populations including staff, faculty, students, employers, and alumni.
  • Salary range from $73,000 to $75,000 annually.

Career Placement Officer Full Description

  • Job Type: Officer of Administration
  • Bargaining Unit:
  • Regular/Temporary: Regular
  • End Date if Temporary:
  • Hours Per Week: 35
  • Standard Work Schedule:
  • Building:
  • Salary Range: $73,000 to $75,000

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.
 
Position Summary
Reporting to the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME)  Director of Finance and Administration (DFA) and the SEAS Graduate Career Placement Team Assistant Dean, the Career Placement Officer assumes leadership for the placement of BME students in full time positions and internships. Career Placement Officer’s primary responsibility is to place all of the students enrolled in the MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering in full time positions and internships. The Career Placement Officer will broaden and deepen relationships with current and prospective employers as well as develop and support events, initiatives and strategies to achieve the goal.

Additional responsibilities include: collecting/analyzing employment data, generating placement and related reports for the Department/School, assisting with the placement of BS students as needed, supporting admissions and other student affairs related needs as they intersect with professional development and career placement, and other projects as requested.

Responsibilities
(70%) Place BME students in full time positions and/or internships.  To achieve this goal, the officer may engage in the following activities:
  • Plan, manage and execute career placement strategies.
  • Source, cultivate and maintain relationships with employers to encourage the hiring of students in the discipline of Biomedical Engineering.
  • Establish a liaison role between Department, Columbia Engineering Graduate Placement Team, and Professional Development and Leadership Team concerning career placement.
  • Manage employer, alumni and student events and initiatives.
  • Post/advertise employment opportunities (full time, internships and part time).
  • Counsel students individually and in groups to achieve career readiness and to become familiar with as many students as possible.
(10%) Support and manage events and initiatives and collect/analyze accurate placement statistics; generate reports for admissions, recruiting,  etc. Generate ad-hoc reports of student placement and related employment statistics.
(10%) Collaborate with the Graduate Career Placement Team and Professional Development and Leadership Team on multi-disciplinary employers, cross-departmental events, education, and school-level efforts tailored to the needs BME students.
(5%) Assist with the placement of BS students in BME.
(5%) Other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications
  • A bachelor's degree is required; graduate-level work is preferred. Minimum of 2-4 years of related experience required.
  • Familiar with jobs and employers for biomedical engineering. Previous experience in career counseling, marketing, workshop planning or administration.
  • Understand the career development opportunities and challenges affecting the constituents, consisting of a diverse population, domestic and international.
  • Strong computer literacy/proficiency required: an understanding and appreciation of student services database software and online resources, and the willingness and enthusiasm to respond to the needs of PDL program students in an increasingly technologically-oriented society.
  • Proficiency with Google suite of products, MS office (Excel (Pivot Tables, VLookup a plus), PowerPoint, publishing software, social media, etc. Ability to analyze and work with a large volume of students, employer and related data.
  • Must be willing to work on occasional evenings and weekends, on a need basis.
  • Possesses excellent interpersonal and administrative skills. Ability to work independently and under pressure, with high level of attention to detail.
  • Candidate must exercise good judgment and flexibility.
  • Must be able to prioritize multiple tasks with minimal supervision. Must be able to communicate effectively and tactfully with staff, faculty, students, employers, and alumni in small and large group settings. Excellent command of English (verbal and written).
  • Positive, mission-oriented, forward-thinking attitude and sense of humor are a must.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran
Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.