Football Operations Jobs in Wisconsin (NOW HIRING)

The Director of Student Services for Football manages the comprehensive academic, personal, and professional development programs for all student-athletes within the football program. Working directly under the athletic department's executive staff and in lockstep with the Head Football Coach, this role establishes a culture of high academic achievement. The Director proactively monitors athletic eligibility, coordinates intensive tutorial support, and coordinates life-skills programs to prepare athletes for long-term career success both on and off the gridiron.

Core Responsibilities

Academic Monitoring & Eligibility Compliance

• Eligibility Tracking: Monitor and track real-time academic progress, cumulative GPA, and progress-towards-degree requirements to ensure strict alignment with NCAA, conference, and institutional rules.
• Staff Reporting: Provide timely, transparent updates, class attendance reports, and grade checks directly to the Head Coach and position coaches.
• Early Intervention: Identify at-risk student-athletes early in the semester and construct rigorous individual academic improvement contracts.
• Scheduling Assistance: Guide football student-athletes through class registration, ensuring course loads balance practice schedules and meet degree compliance.
  

Player Support & Resource Coordination

• Tutorial Management: Coordinate the assignment of specialized tutors, mentors, and learning specialists to support individual athlete needs.
• Orientation Programming: Design and execute tailored onboarding and orientation programs specifically for incoming freshmen and transfer football players.
• Campus Liaison: Act as the primary point of contact between the football department, university faculty, campus advisors, and student support networks.
• Parent Liaison: Serve a touch point for parents in terms of housing, financial aid, etc. in the orientation process.
  

Player Development & Life Skills

• Life Skills & Leadership: Coordinate and implement critical programming around financial literacy, media training, mental health awareness, and leadership.
• Career Planning: Coordinate career development initiatives, interview prep workshops, and resume-building opportunities for life after football.
  

Recruiting Support

• Prospect Pre-Assessment: Evaluate high school transcripts and transfer portals of prospective student-athletes to determine preliminary NCAA eligibility and admissibility.
• On-Campus Visits: Meet with prospective student-athletes and their families during official and unofficial recruiting visits to present the program's academic philosophy and support systems.
• Oversight of Student Office Support. Responsible for selection, training, and scheduling of student office support.

• Identifies, proposes, and implements new or revised unit operational policies and procedures to comply with regulations, institutional policies, and academic program objectives

• Evaluates existing academic program strategy and makes recommendations to unit leadership for program enhancement

• May manage the unit budget and approve unit expenditures

• Assists stakeholders with preparing and/or maintaining documentation, financial management, and/or reporting requirements related to sponsored grants, contracts, or agreements

• Provides full service advising resources and services, provides information about educational options and academic requirements, and communicates directly with students regarding all aspects of the advising process

• Manages degree programs and/or certificates, high impact practice programming and events, and curriculum development and implementation

• Leads the development and implementation of academic program initiatives

• May exercise supervisory authority, including hiring, transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining, and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 FTE or equivalent employees

• Serves as the liaison to internal and external stakeholder groups to identify and maintain academic program-related partnerships

Wisconsin Athletics, Football

The minimum starting salary is $62,419, but may be negotiable depending on the selected candidate's qualifications and experience.

Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as:
- Generous vacation, holidays, and paid time off;
- Competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits;
- Badger gear & season tickets for Badger football, men's basketball and men's hockey, and/or the varsity sports pass.
More Benefits information can be found here.

• Minimum of 2-3 years of progressive experience advising or counseling student-athletes within a collegiate athletic department
• Proven, in-depth understanding of complex NCAA eligibility rules, transfer portals, and academic progress bylaws.
• Willingness and ability to work highly irregular hours, including early mornings, late nights, and mandatory weekends.
• Superior verbal and written communication skills to effectively translate academic challenges to coaching staffs, university professors, and 18-to-22-year-old athletes.
• Extreme level of professionalism and discretion when managing sensitive, confidential academic or personal student-athlete information.

• Minimum of 2-3 years of progressive experience advising or counseling student-athletes within a collegiate athletic department, ideally with football program exposure.

• Bachelor's degree required
• Master's degree in Sports Administration, Higher Education, Counseling, or a related field is strongly preferred.

For the best experience completing your application, we recommend using Chrome or Firefox as your web browser.

To apply for this position, select either "I am a current employee" or "I am not a current employee" under Apply Now. You will then be prompted to upload your application materials.

Important: The application has only one attachment field. Upload all required documents in that field, either as a single combined file or as multiple files in the same upload area.

Upload required documents:

• A cover letter detailing how your qualifications and experiences align with the responsibilities of the position.
• Resume
  

Please note that reference checks will be conducted for finalists. Applicants selected to proceed in the selection process will be notified directly. All applicants will receive notification once a final selection has been made and the search is complete.

Conditions of Appointment: This is a 100% Academic Staff appointment. Salary will be assigned within the appropriate range, commensurate with the candidate's qualifications and experience. An excellent benefits package is also included. Successful applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without need of employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment.

Kayla Weisensel at kw4@athletics.wisc.edu

Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. SeeRELAY_SERVICEfor further information.

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal OpportunityEmployer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgroundsand encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.

To request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodationfor any step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview, pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the Divisional Disability Representative (DDR)in the division you are applying to.Please make your request as soon as possible to help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct, including sexual violence and sexual harassment.
The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).
The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on-campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department.