Director, Enrollment Strategy & Recruiting - CMU Online

The successful candidate will combine expertise in enrollment management, recruiting, and operational execution with strong analytical and leadership skills. They will track and report enrollment performance, proactively identify opportunities and risks and implement strategies to achieve enrollment goals. In addition to leading a team of recruiting professionals, they will own all enrollment-related systems, processes, reporting, and communications, ensuring a scalable and efficient operation that supports both current and future program growth.

This role is ideal for a highly organized results-oriented professional who thrives in a fast-paced environment, enjoys solving complex problems, and is motivated by using data, strategy, and innovation to drive measurable enrollment outcomes.

Core responsibilities include:

Enrollment Strategy

• 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.

Recruiting Leadership

• 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.

CRM System & Application Management

• 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.

Documentation & Reporting

• 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.

Adaptability, excellence, and passion are vital qualities within Carnegie Mellon University. We are in search of a team member who can effectively interact with a varied population of internal and external partners at a high level of integrity. We are looking for someone who shares our values and who will support the mission of the university through their work.

You Should Demonstrate:

• Deep knowledge of enrollment management and recruiting best practices, with a demonstrated history of developing and implementing high-impact, creative, and data-informed strategies that successfully achieve enrollment goals in competitive environments.
• Expertise in managing enrollment management systems to support enrollment strategy, communication, reporting, and efficiency. Experience with Slate strongly preferred; but experience with other systems, along with a demonstrated ability to translate that knowledge into effective processes, workflows and reporting, will be considered.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills; able to identify challenges, evaluate alternatives, and implement effective solutions with a bias toward action, even when faced with ambiguity, competing priorities, or organizational resistance.
• Commitment to data-driven decision-making; use data to identify opportunities, assess effectiveness, inform strategy, and drive continuous improvement. Able to translate complex data into clear, actionable insights for leadership.
• Ability to manage multiple programs, competing priorities, and complex projects while maintaining a high level of accuracy, organization, and attention to detail.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to build trust, influence stakeholders, and represent Carnegie Mellon University with professionalism, credibility, and discretion.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, along with strong overall technical aptitude and the ability to learn, leverage, and optimize new technologies and systems.

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

Additional Information:

• Hybrid work arrangement; fully remote will be considered in the context of the mission.
• Applications with cover letters explaining how your background aligns with this role will receive stronger consideration.