Description

POSITION OBJECTIVE 

The Senior Director of Recruitment and Enrollment Strategy will partner with the Associate Dean in developing and managing key relationships with third-party recruiting firms and prospective students for our master programs. This role leads the recruitment, enrollment, and matriculation processes, collaborates with faculty directors on meeting enrollment targets, and focuses on increasing the number of qualified domestic applicants. The Senior Director is also responsible for addressing enrollment melt, ensuring the final enrollment numbers for our working professional programs, and supporting recruitment efforts across the entire portfolio. Additionally, this role will oversee a small team and work cross-functionally within the enrollment and recruitment team and across other functional departments.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS  

Recruitment and Enrollment Management: Lead the recruiting process to seamlessly deliver activities on time, meeting enrollment goals. Assess applicants alignment with the program, share and educate candidates about the program, and encourage enrollment with the most qualified candidates. Facilitate strategy discussions, execute recruiting activities using cost-effective methodologies, and develop plans to enhance outreach. Oversee a comprehensive recruitment portfolio, including preparation, travel, fairs, events (in person and virtual) sessions, class visits, and follow-ups to achieve admission and enrollment objectives. Develop strategies to involve faculty, alumni, and current students in recruitment, and consult with Deans, Faculty Directors, and Program Directors to profile the desired applicant pool. Develop sourcing strategies, including lead generation, cold calling, and networking, to build a robust applicant pipeline. Actively promote programs to target groups and referral sources and identify and attend events to drive applications. Extensive travel is required to represent WSOM at recruitment and marketing events. (40%)
Enrollment Process Management: Drive the enrollment process, ensuring guidelines, policies, and expectations are met. Convene committees to determine admission decisions and scholarships, develop strategies for onboarding and yielding candidates, and provide status updates and forecasting of final enrollment and scholarship numbers. Focus on improving the quality and increasing the number of applicants for working professional programs, while supporting the entire portfolio as needed. Manage all applicant assessment activities, including application review, interviews, merit-based scholarship decisions, and overseeing matriculation. Manage team members focused on meeting enrollment targets. (40%)
Marketing and Strategy Collaboration: Work closely with marketing and communications, and program directors overseeing student success within working professional programs to develop and execute appropriate marketing and outreach strategies. Track and analyze the effectiveness of marketing initiatives and activities. Benchmark Weatherhead recruiting activities against peer and top-tier business schools. Conduct thorough analysis of recruitment and admission activities to implement more effective and efficient practices. Research additional ways to reach desired candidates and referral sources. (10%)
Vendor Relationship Management: Build and manage subcontracted agencies and vendor relationships to increase market presence, lead generation, and applicant numbers for all master¿s programs. (10%)
 

NONESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS  

Perform other duties as assigned. (<1%)

CONTACTS 

Department: Regular contact with all Weatherhead faculty and staff for the purpose of recruiting students. Work closely with the Executive Director of Recruitment and Placement, Executive Director of Enrollment, Career Development and Student Experience, Program Directors, Directors of Admissions, Recruitment and other Admissions team members.

University: Regular contact with Case Western Reserve University admissions, central marketing, alumni relations, IT, security and facilities personnel among others for recruiting efforts.

External: Continuous contact with prospective students, alumni, friends of Weatherhead and outside vendors for recruiting efforts (including international recruiting agencies. 

Students: Continuous contact with Weatherhead students and occasional contact with students from other schools within the University for the purpose of recruiting students.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

Direct supervisory responsibility for Director of Admissions, Senior Recruiter. Responsibility includes the authority to hire, transfer, suspend, layoff, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline subordinate employees or effectively recommend such actions.  

QUALIFICATIONS

Experience: 10 years of related experience in sales, recruiting or admissions roles. Prefer direct experience in recruiting graduate (especially MBA) business students or some background in executive search and corporate recruiting

Education/Licensing: Master¿s degree in business or related areas  

REQUIRED SKILLS

Strong background in marketing, sales, and business development, consistently driving growth and success.
Proven experience in developing talent and optimizing processes to achieve outstanding results.
Skilled in managing budgets, including setting priorities, forecasting, and meeting financial targets.
Demonstrated track record of exceeding sales goals and recruiting top-tier talent.
In-depth knowledge of executive search and talent acquisition methodologies, tools, and technologies.
Superior interpersonal, listening, oral, and written communication abilities, paired with excellent presentation skills.
Ability to connect with a wide array of stakeholders, including corporate C-suite partners, civic leaders, prospective and current students, alumni, and faculty from varied cultural backgrounds.
Superior organizational skills with the capacity to manage both detailed and large-scale objectives concurrently.
Creative thinker who can devise and implement out-of-the-box solutions to reach established goals.
Willingness to work evenings and weekends as needed, along with the ability to travel domestically and internationally.
Skilled at navigating organizational structures and processes to achieve goals efficiently.
Proficient with MS Office and experienced in managing Slate databases.
Demonstrated history of successful support, education, and advocacy for all students, aligned with the values, mission, and messaging of the university, while adhering to the staff policy on conflict of commitment and interest.
Consistently reliable with the ability to maintain regular attendance.
Competent in engaging with colleagues, supervisors, and customers directly, face to face.
 

WORKING CONDITIONS

General office working environment. Evening and some weekend work required. Domestic and international travel required.

Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS

Experience: 10 years of related experience in sales, recruiting or admissions roles. Prefer direct experience in recruiting graduate (especially MBA) business students or some background in executive search and corporate recruiting

Education/Licensing: Master¿s degree in business or related areas