Director, Enrollment Strategy & Recruiting - CMU Online

About the role

CMU Online, a centralized unit at Carnegie Mellon University, is seeking a strategic, data-driven enrollment leader to oversee strategy and systems, recruiting, application management and enrollment for a growing portfolio of online graduate programs. They are responsible for developing and executing strategies that attract, enroll, and retain high-quality students while ensuring an exceptional student experience and alignment with Carnegie Mellon's standards of excellence.

Responsibilities

• Direct all aspects of enrollment strategy and recruiting for online graduate programs to ensure enrollment and retention goals are met while ensuring a positive student experience aligned with CMU standards and enrollment management best practices.

• Develop and maintain a deep understanding of program content, admission requirements, competitive landscape, target audience, student motivations and barriers to enrollment. Translate this knowledge into effective recruiting, enrollment, and retention strategies.

• Monitor and report progress toward enrollment goals. Maintain continuous visibility into enrollment performance, pipeline health and conversion rates, proactively identifying and communicating status, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions to leadership.

• Create and execute prospective student nurturing strategies via multiple communication channels (phone, email, text, etc.). Establish an enrollment culture based on consultation, responsiveness, and student support while maintaining appropriate contact cadence. Monitor and evaluate effectiveness; and continuously refine to improve results and student experience.

• Proactively share market and prospective student insights and recruiting feedback with the marketing team to inform strategy, audience, positioning, and content development to effectively support lead, conversion and enrollment targets. Plan and execute an event strategy to support funnel movement; oversee all event logistics (registration, communication, etc.), content development and delivery. Establish performance metrics, report outcomes, and refine strategy based on impact and return on investment.

• Hire, train, coach, and manage a team of three recruiting specialists to achieve enrollment and retention goals. Establish clear performance expectations and best practices, monitor pipeline health, ensure accountability on key metrics, conduct regular coaching and performance evaluations, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

• Maintain full ownership of the CRM and application management system (Slate) to support enrollment strategy. Ensure the effective design, implementation, and continuous improvement of workflows, communications, forms, automations, reporting and data integrity standards. Serve as the primary subject matter expert for enrollment-related Slate functionality and reporting.

• Independently oversee the application process, including application creation and maintenance, application review, decision release, scholarship awards and enrollment forms. Ensure all processes are executed in a timely, consistent and accurate manner.

• Maintain comprehensive, current, and accessible documentation for all enrollment strategies, processes, workflows, procedures, reports, and projects to support transparency, continuity and growth. Regularly review and update to reflect process changes and enhancements. Use data to inform decision-making across all aspects of enrollment strategy and operations. Maintain accurate records, monitor metrics, generate meaningful reports, identify trends and opportunities, evaluate effectiveness, and continuously refine enrollment activities, processes, and strategies to improve outcomes based on data.

Qualifications

• A minimum of 7-10 years of experience leading a recruiting strategy for a university; 10-12 years preferred.
• Recruiting/Sales experience in other relevant industries will be considered.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, Marketing, Higher Education Administration or related field of study required. Master’s degree preferred.
• Experience in higher education admissions, marketing or recruiting preferred.
• A combination of education and relevant experience from which comparable knowledge is demonstrated may be considered.