Associate Dean for Recruitment and Admissions (Hybrid) - Olin Business

About the role

The Associate Dean for Admissions is the senior recruitment and admissions leader in Olin Business School, responsible for the Full-Time MBA program. Key responsibilities include refining and operating a high-performance enrollment system, creating a high-touch recruitment model, hiring and managing a team, deploying scholarship strategies, and positioning the Full-Time MBA in the domestic market.

Responsibilities

• Build the Domestic Recruitment Engine
• Create and execute a comprehensive domestic recruitment strategy for all full-time graduate programs, with the Full-Time MBA as the anchor product.
• Define geographies, assign territories, build travel plans, and systematize in-person engagement to generate qualified leads and deposits.
• Identify and penetrate high-yield candidate pools including early-career professionals, career changers, and nontraditional applicants through structured outreach and experimentation.
• Own domestic lead generation, application volume, admit quality, and deposit conversion as primary performance metrics.
• Develop and manage partnerships within the broader business ecosystem.
• Lead, Coach, and Performance-Manage the Recruitment Team
• Hire, onboard, and develop a team of recruiters with a shared sales methodology, clear activity standards, and strong individual accountability.
• Create a coaching cadence: regular pipeline inspections, skills development sessions, and performance conversations.
• Build a team culture rooted in competitive ambition, mutual support, continuous improvement, and resilience.
• Set and manage to individual and team KPIs for outreach volume, event conversion, application generation, admit yield, and deposit rates.
• Make personnel decisions quickly and with integrity when performance standards are not met.
• Operate the Pipeline and Conversion System
• Install and run a rigorous operating system: pipeline reviews, stage definitions, conversion targets, yield interventions, and dashboarding.
• Define pipeline stages with precision, inspect movement across stages weekly, and intervene where conversion stalls.
• Partner with CRM, marketing/communications, and analytics to improve funnel efficiency end-to-end.
• Create a culture of data-driven decision-making and continuous experimentation within the admissions team.
• Deliver weekly and monthly performance reporting to senior leadership with clear narrative on variance and corrective action.
• Own Scholarship Strategy and Steward the Full-Time MBA
• Design and execute a financial aid and scholarship strategy that optimizes yield, candidate quality, class composition, and net tuition revenue across an eight-figure budget.
• Position the Full-Time MBA as a flagship product: oversee candidate experience design, admit engagement, and competitive positioning against peer programs.
• Partner with career services, student life, academic leadership, and advancement to align admissions outcomes with employment outcomes, student satisfaction, and donor engagement.
• Monitor competitive market dynamics, peer school positioning, and ranking inputs to inform admissions and scholarship strategy.
• Cross-Functional Partnership and Market Intelligence
• Collaborate with marketing and communications on strategy and channel mix: events, digital campaigns, content, and brand messaging.
• Develop and maintain deep market intelligence on competitor programs, domestic enrollment trends, employer demand signals, and candidate decision drivers.
• Partner with advancement and corporate relations where employer partnerships, alumni engagement, and philanthropic opportunities intersect with recruitment.
• Serve as the admissions voice in school-wide strategic discussions, faculty governance, and external engagement.

Requirements

The ideal candidate is drawn to hard problems, repetitive refinement, and long-range performance building. They are competitive, process-oriented, and energized by the discipline of improving something measurable over time. They want to build something that did not exist before—and they want to be judged on whether it works.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree
• Master's degree in Business, Communications, Journalism, Marketing, or Public Health preferred
• Relevant experience (10 years)

Skills

Not applicable

Benefits

Washington University in St. Louis provides a comprehensive and competitive benefits package to its employees. Eligibility for benefits is subject to employment status, full-time equivalent (FTE) workload, and weekly standard hours. For more information, visit our website.

EEO Statement

Washington University in St. Louis is committed to the principles and practices of equal employment opportunity. It is the University’s policy to provide equal opportunity and access to persons in all job titles without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, citizenship (where prohibited by federal law), age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information.