Senior Director of Development, Clinical Specialties

Are you an experienced advancement leader driven to coach high-performing fundraisers, architect multi-department philanthropic strategies, and accelerate life-saving clinical breakthroughs across premier medical specialties? 

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) - a global leader in health sciences and medical innovation - is seeking a strategic, collaborative, and people-first Senior Director of Development, Clinical Specialties. Reporting to the Executive Director of Development, Clinical Specialties within the Office of University Development and Alumni Relations (UDAR), you will lead, mentor, and grow a team of frontline development professionals while serving as a strategic development partner to the Executive Director and clinical department chairs, division chiefs, and institute directors across high-priority clinical disciplines.

In this critical leadership role, you will empower your team to successfully navigate complex donor conversations, master grateful patient fundraising, and execute multi-stage solicitations. Alongside your leadership and strategic advisory responsibilities, you will personally carry a focused, selective portfolio of high-capacity major and principal gift prospects ($500K–$10+), modeling advanced frontline fundraising and complex gift structuring. 

Why This Role Is Unique 

• Strategic Team Leadership & Mentorship: Directly supervise, coach, and elevate frontline fundraising officers, instilling best practices in moves management, donor engagement, and bespoke solicitation strategies across clinical specialties. 
• Strategist for Complex Giving: Serve as a gift strategist for the team, collaborating on high-stakes solicitations, creative gift vehicles, and complex proposal development to maximize philanthropic revenue across departments. 
• Partnership with World-Class Clinical Leadership: Coach and guide development officers in their partnerships with department chairs, surgical leaders, and pioneering clinician-scientists to translate complex clinical innovations into visionary institutional funding priorities. 
• Focused, High-Impact Personal Portfolio: Maintain an active, targeted portfolio of major and principal gift prospects and grateful patient families, setting the pace for relationship management and gift closure. 
• Collaborative Advancement Culture: Join UDAR’s Clinical Specialties team in a flexible hybrid role based out of UCSF’s 2001 The Embarcadero location, embedded in one of the nation's premier academic medical development organizations. 

Desired Mindset & Competencies 

• Talent Development & Coaching Acumen: Demonstrated passion and track record for mentoring gift officers, diagnosing pipeline bottlenecks, building confidence in emerging fundraisers, and fostering an inclusive, high-accountability team culture. 
• Fundraising Strategy & Complex Structuring: Sophisticated grasp of major and principal gift mechanics, blended gifts, and grateful patient pipelines, with the ability to architect creative cultivation pathways. 
• Versatility & Agility: Innate ability to navigate matrixed environments, build trust with busy constituents, and translate complex concepts into accessible donor cases. 

Department Overview

At UCSF's Office of University Development and Alumni Relations (UDAR), we're proud to be the kind of place where great ideas can come from anyone, and you can do the most impactful work of your career alongside fantastic colleagues. From our pioneering work in the AIDS crisis to the creation of a silicon brain, you will experience the world-class nature of our work and the difference it makes.

UDAR is a team of innovative professionals who partner with world-class scientists, healthcare providers, and philanthropists to advance breakthrough research and life-changing patient care. We're one of the nation's top fundraising organizations, home to smart, driven people who care deeply about UCSF's mission to advance science and transform health. 

Our success comes from the combined talents of many roles: frontline fundraisers who build transformative partnerships with donors; alumni relations professionals who nurture lasting connections with the UCSF community; writers and designers who help tell the university’s story; researchers and analysts who provide critical insights; and operations and information systems experts who keep us running smoothly. 

What makes UDAR special? A commitment to growing talent from within, celebrating collective wins, and creating an environment where our staff thrive. Our culture of team-based fundraising is distinctly collaborative and we're always eager to embrace fresh approaches. 

Regardless of your role at UCSF you'll be part of a unified team operating at the very top of its game. 

Read more about UCSF here https://magazine.ucsf.edu/

40%

Manages a comprehensive fundraising program typically in a unit or department. Assignments typically require managing a fundraising staff comprised of both professionals and related administrative support.

Team Leadership, Mentorship & Staff Development

Build, manage, and mentor a high-performing frontline fundraising team, fostering a culture of strategic collaboration, continuous professional growth, accountability, and fundraising excellence across assigned clinical specialties.

• Frontline Mentorship & Skill Development: Actively guide and coach development officers on core fundraising competencies, including discovery techniques, qualification best practices, discovery-to-cultivation transitions, donor psychology, and high-impact solicitation prep.

• Performance Coaching & Pipeline Metrics: Establish clear annual performance objectives, portfolio activity metrics, and performance benchmarks for direct reports. Conduct regular one-on-one pipeline reviews to evaluate portfolio health, identify stalled leads, and co-create proactive engagement strategies.

• Shadowing & Joint Fieldwork: Participate selectively in joint donor visits and clinician briefings alongside team members to model sophisticated relationship management, provide real-time support during high-stakes meetings, and offer constructive, actionable post-meeting debriefs.

• Talent Management & Culture: Oversee recruitment, onboarding, professional development, and retention for team members. Foster a collaborative, inclusive environment centered on accountability, peer learning, and shared institutional goals.

Philanthropic Strategy, Planning & Gift Architecture

Drive comprehensive advancement strategies for assigned clinical areas, architecting innovative gift strategies and guiding the team in translating institutional funding needs into multi-year philanthropic commitments.

• Strategic Gift Architecture & Advisory: Serve as the chief strategic advisor to team members on complex solicitations, helping structure multi-year commitments, blended gifts, endowed chairs, capital naming opportunities, and seed-funding initiatives.

• Departmental Strategic Planning: Partner with department chairs, division chiefs, and institute directors to establish multi-year fundraising priorities, build departmental case statements, and align clinical development strategies with broader UDAR and campus goals.

• Proposal Development & Messaging Strategy: Review, edit, and elevate complex proposals, letters of intent, and bespoke case documents generated by the team, ensuring proposals communicate institutional impact and donor ROI with clarity and urgency.

• Clinician Engagement & Referral Systems: Design and refine strategic workflows that educate clinicians on grateful patient philanthropy, establishing streamlined, HIPAA-compliant processes for identifying and transitioning clinical leads to development officers.

35%

Portfolio Management 

Directly manage a small focused, selective portfolio of high-capacity major and principal gift prospects ($500K–$10M+), securing transformative philanthropic support for high-priority clinical and research initiatives while modeling frontline best practices.

• Targeted Solicitations: Lead strategic face-to-face and virtual solicitations for major and principal gift commitments, aligning high-net-worth donor vision with high-priority departmental and interdisciplinary projects.
• Strategic Moves Management: Design and execute tailored cultivation pathways for a focused group of individual prospects, grateful patients, family foundations, and philanthropic advisors.
• High-Touch Donor Stewardship: Deliver bespoke, high-touch stewardship—including executive briefings, direct clinician updates, and custom milestone reports—demonstrating the long-term impact of major investments.
• Portfolio Health & Exemplary CRM Practice: Maintain meticulous contact documentation, strategy notes, and pipeline velocity within the CRM, serving as an exemplar of data integrity and operational discipline for the broader team.

5%

Other Duties as Assigned

Core Objective: Maintain flexibility to support broader institutional advancement priorities, special projects, and team-wide campaigns.

• Special Campaigns & Institutional Initiatives: Support comprehensive capital campaigns, institutional milestones, or emergency funding initiatives as directed by advancement leadership.

• Departmental & Team Support: Participate in team planning, staff mentoring, and cross-departmental working groups to enhance advancement processes, templates, and collaborative workflows.

100%

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in related area and 6+ years of related experience including 5+ years of supervisory, management experience; and  / or equivalent experience / training.
• Strong knowledge of management / leadership concepts, principles and best practices.
• Strong leadership / management skills to select, train, mentor, evaluate and motivate staff.
• Strong written, oral and interpersonal communications skills and political acumen to establish and maintain good working relationships within all organizational levels and with outside constituencies.
• Strong skills to meet predetermined goals and objectives, including securing gifts and meeting fundraising goals.
• Strong strategic planning skills and skills to conceive, design, implement, evaluate and manage fundraising programs and strategies.

• Strong analytical, critical thinking, problem-solving skills.
  Strong skills in persuasion / negotiation and strong marketing skills.

  
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in healthcare administration, business, communications, or related discipline.
• 8+ years related work experience
• Prior experience working within a complex academic medical center, higher education environment, or healthcare non-profit
• Strong knowledge of the campus, its achievements, vision, mission, goals, objectives, applicable policies, infrastructure, and current issues of concern.