Political Science Jobs in Madison, WI (NOW HIRING)

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Job Category: Academic Staff
Employment Type: Regular
Job Profile: Outreach Program Manager
Job Summary:
The Managing Director of UniverCity Alliance provides strategic leadership and administrative oversight for a statewide partnership program that connects Wisconsin local governments with University of Wisconsin - Madison resources to advance community-identified priorities. Housed within the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UniverCity Alliance brings together students, faculty, instructors, and community partners to address pressing local challenges through collaborative engagement rooted in the Wisconsin Idea. The Managing Director leads program planning, implementation, evaluation, and outreach efforts while fostering strong partnerships between the university and local governments.
This role is responsible for overseeing strategic initiatives, managing operational policies and budgets, supervising staff, and ensuring effective delivery of outreach programming across diverse communities. The Managing Director also leads fundraising and philanthropic engagement efforts to secure financial support from individuals, foundations, and corporate partners. The ideal candidate will bring strong leadership, communication, relationship-building, and organizational skills, along with experience in public sector collaboration, community engagement, and program management.
Position is open until filled, with an initial review date of July 17, 2026.
Key Job Responsibilities:

• Monitors the unit or program budget and approves program expenditures

• Supervises the implementation of outreach-program-focused strategic planning initiatives and objectives

• 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

Manage, design, develop, and implement fundraising strategies to secure private philanthropic support for the program from individuals, corporations, and foundations. Maintain and develop ongoing relationships to advance giving.

• Determines outreach program needs and the personnel resource allocation plan

• Reviews recommendations for and provides input on the design and development of new outreach programs or services

• Develops and implements operating policies and procedures to promote the outreach program in alignment with the strategic plan

Department:
Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UniverCity Alliance
Compensation:
Minimum $75,000. Actual pay is determined at hire and is based on experience and qualifications
Required Qualifications:
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Experience delivering and planning outreach program activities
• Experience promoting partnerships between institutions
• Leadership and/or management experience
Preferred Qualifications:
• Experience working with local governments
• Familiarity with urban studies and local government issues
• Experience with project management and facilitation
• Substantive knowledge of university-community relations
• Experience preparing for and monitoring a budget
• Experience recruiting, building relationships with, and organizing people from non-profit organizations, businesses, and/or local governments
• Demonstrated experience engaging, recruiting, and collaborating with a wide range of educators, subject-matter experts, and/or professional partners to support projects.
Education:
Required: Undergraduate degree or equivalent in Public Administration, Non-Profit Management, Public Policy, Political Science, Urban Planning, or other social science fields. Applicants with relevant professional backgrounds but different degrees will be considered.
How to Apply:
• Candidates will be required to upload a cover letter referring to related work experience and a resume/CV detailing educational and professional background. Candidates will also be presented with the option to manually enter Certifications, Education, Languages, and Website information. If you need to update materials at any point in the process, please reach out Lili Gagliano, asu.hr@ohr.wisc.edu.
• Please note that 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. UW-Madison is not an E-Verify employer, and therefore, is not eligible to employ F1 STEM OPT Extension participants.
Contact Information:
Lili Gagliano, asu.hr@ohr.wisc.edu
Institutional Statement on Diversity:
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).
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