Senior Lead of Admissions Operations

About the role

The Senior Lead of Admissions Operations provides independent leadership for the operational, technical, and compliance functions of the Graduate School of Education (GSE) Office of Graduate Admission, reporting to the Director of Enrollment Operations and Student Services. This position serves as the office’s primary administrator of Slate, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system through which thousands of applications are processed each year, and exercises independent judgment in the design, configuration, and ongoing management of the backend operations on which the entire admissions function depends.

Responsibilities

• Slate System Administration & Project Management
• Serves as the GSE administrator for Slate, independently designing, building, testing, and maintaining the application forms, queries, reports, communications, decision workflows, and backend configurations that support application processing across all GSE graduate programs.
• Leads multi-step technical projects to expand and improve system functionality — scoping requirements, sequencing work, and implementing changes across the admissions cycle without day-to-day supervision.
• Led the annual audit, cleanup, and reconstruction of application and operations data, identifying and resolving data-integrity issues that, left unaddressed, would compromise the processing of thousands of application records.
• Diagnoses and resolves system errors and processing failures in a mission-critical environment, exercising independent judgment to determine root cause and corrective action.
• Translates the operational needs of faculty and academic departments into Slate workflow and configuration changes, advising on feasibility and recommending solutions that govern the flow of applications through faculty review and decision-making.
• New York State Residency Determination
• Independently administers the NYS residency determination process for more than 600 newly admitted students each year — reviewing documentation, applying SUNY and New York State residency policy, and rendering determinations that carry direct tuition, financial, and compliance consequences for both the student and the University.
• Interprets and applies evolving residency regulations, resolves complex and ambiguous cases, and maintains documentation sufficient to withstand audit.
• Serves as the office’s subject-matter expert on residency policy, advising staff, students, and academic departments.
• Supervision & Staff Leadership
• Serves as the formal supervisor of a front-line clerical staff member and student employees — setting priorities, assigning and directing work, training, evaluating performance, and providing ongoing mentorship.
• Delegates and oversees the front-line service functions (inquiry management, telephone coverage, mail processing) handled by supervised staff, intervening directly on escalated or non-routine matters.
• Trains admissions and operations staff on operational protocols, system procedures, and process changes.
• Collaboration, Service & Communications
• Works with admissions staff, communications staff, and GSE faculty to ensure admissions and admissions-related information is accurate, consistent, and transparent across all communication platforms.
• Works alongside other GSE staff to respond to and manage the office’s central email accounts and communication channels, ensuring inquiries are resolved or routed appropriately and that students receive timely, accurate information; personally manages complex and higher-level inquiries.
• Maintains current expertise in admissions policy and CRM functionality; attends and contributes to training sessions and staff meetings.
• Serves as a general member of the admissions team, supporting application review and recruitment initiatives and events, which may occasionally require work outside regular business hours and limited travel.
• Performs other operational and administrative duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
• 2 years relevant work experience
• Ability to quickly learn and use University and external technology, including but not limited to Slate and Adobe CMS
• Outstanding oral, written and presentation skills, team and collaboration skills, and able to work with a variety of stakeholders, including faculty, staff and College leadership
• Commitment to equity, diversity, justice, and inclusion, with a demonstrated understanding of working with under-represented and historically marginalized populations
• Strong project management skills, ability to manage multiple projects concurrently and meet strict deadlines
• Business acumen, ethical behavior, problem-solving with minimal direction, ability to deliver high quality work in a timely manner
• Prior proven hands-on, functional proficiency in CRM administration including but not limited to management, programming, coding, querying, and analyzing information

Skills

• Proven hands-on administrative expertise in Slate or equivalent CRM tool for higher education

Benefits

The Office of Graduate Admission seeks to meet and/or exceed specified enrollment goals by identifying, recruiting, and yielding the highest quality students whose personal, professional, and academic goals align with the core purpose of the Graduate School of Education—to inform and prepare a profession to positively shape human development, education, and the information environment in local, national, and global contexts.

Pay

$57,151 - $63,000

Schedule

Full-Time