This study examined the relationship between career services staff member job satisfaction and the career services staff member-perceived authentic leadership characteristics of university career services leaders in a southeastern state. Career services offices are vital to building and maintaining employer partnerships, career development for students and alumni and employment trends in higher education. The unique challenge of recruitment, retention and community relations faced by career services requires a leadership style that enhances the work environment and promotes job satisfaction. Authentic leadership with its ability to create positive work outcomes and improve performance in the workplace has been shown in research to be a leadership style that can enhance job satisfaction for direct reports. The correlation research design conducted in this study bolsters the positive relationships found between authentic leadership and job satisfaction. The study also examined the specific authentic leadership characteristics (self-awareness, internalized moral perspective, balanced processing and relational transparency) to determine if job satisfaction was related with one characteristic over another. A stepwise multiple regression procedure was performed and revealed career services staff member's job satisfaction is best explained by balanced processing (R[superscript 2] = 0.19). [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]