Director, Undergraduate Admissions

 | Department: ADMISSIONS
| Salary:
| Description: The Director of Undergraduate Admissions is an innovative, collaborative, and experienced enrollment professional with a sincere appreciation for students, their families, and the university experience. Develops and implements recruitment plans, tactics, and strategies to recruit a talented and growing student population. Operationally, the Director manages the day-to-day functions of the admissions office. As such, the director hires, trains, supervises, and mentors admissions staff; monitors the budget; develops and tracks the office's KPIs; guides communication flow to prospective students; directs staff travel and recruitment efforts; and oversees the application review process. The director collaborates extensively with other Enrollment Management areas and the University’s leadership, faculty, staff, and other key internal and external partners. Strategically, the director is a senior team member in the enrollment management unit who assists with setting overall enrollment goals, develops a comprehensive recruitment plan, identifies salient trends in the market, and works directly with the University’s faculty and staff to help ensure optimal enrollment across all programs. The primary responsibility of the Director is the execution of an overall undergraduate admissions strategy providing the University with a cohesive and centralized undergraduate admissions operation while meeting the unique recruitment needs of each student and program. The Director of Undergraduate Admissions is responsible for creating and maintaining internal and external relationships with multiple university stakeholders to meet established enrollment goals and ensure access to the University. Communications, programs, and services provided to prospective students, students, parents, and other university stakeholders are developed in collaboration with appropriate university personnel and are designed to support student learning and academic success. Duties: Manages the undergraduate admissions staff, including hiring, supervising, training, and evaluating direct reports. Provides professional development and coaching to support the growth and development of staff. As the undergraduate admissions office’s chief accountability officer, serves as an influential and strategic contributor to the University’s ongoing success, ensuring the undergraduate admissions office develops, plans, and implements approved programs and initiatives to meet or exceed enrollment goals and metrics. Provides regular updates to University leadership and colleagues about the status of recruitment efforts, initiatives, and outcomes. Develops an operational understanding of and familiarity with all admissions, academic, career opportunities, student life, student services, and financial aid programs and processes at the University. Creates and continuously implements a professional development training program to ensure currency of self and staff relative to these areas. Professionally represents the University to a range of outside constituencies, including prospective students, parents and guardians of prospective students, school counselors, community-based organizations, educational consultants, teachers, and other educators. Uses data-driven strategies and tactics to develop and implement a strategic recruitment plan that meets enrollment goals and attracts a promising student body. Builds a comprehensive recruitment event and travel calendar for individual recruitment staff; ensures that the goals of the recruitment plan are met. Implements and continually improves upon a comprehensive recruitment plan that guides the efforts of the undergraduate admissions staff as it raises the visibility and strengthens the University’s position in the marketplace. Communicates key differentiators that position the University as a smart investment in the highly competitive higher education marketplace. Increases enrollment for established programs and degrees, as well as certificates, credentials, and continuing education programs for the growing demographic of non-traditional students. Oversees all aspects of the online application review process, working closely with campus staff and faculty as well as prospective students, to ensure that applications are reviewed in a timely manner. Is highly engaged with and is responsive to the University’s dedicated partners, including but not limited to senior leadership, faculty, staff, teachers, school counselors, students, parents, and alumni. Thinks and acts creatively and holistically about resource allocation to support the challenges of shifting demographics and the needs of students. Informs and supports strategies designed to meet financial aid and revenue goals. Analyzes quantitative and qualitative data to shape strategic directions and regularly assesses the effectiveness of the University’s admission policies and recruitment activities. Leads the office in using data to inform strategic decisions, establish and monitor key performance indicators, benchmark progress and program outcomes, monitor trends, identify opportunities, and adjust direction and tactics. Effectively utilizes campus databases, systems, and technology to advance the University’s enrollment goals and further develop an effective and efficient enrollment operation. Fosters a culture of excellence in appropriately leveraging data and sharing information within the undergraduate admissions office and across the University’s enrollment team. Provides expert knowledge in using and analyzing admissions data sharing information and reports regularly, transparently, and appropriately with campus partners. Partners with the marketing department to strategize and develop recruitment communications, including content for email campaigns and text communications to prospective students, applicants, and admitted students. Provides direction and collaborates with the marketing team on the creation and execution of undergraduate admissions marketing materials and the University’s website. Contributes to the organization, re-design, implementation, and coordination of web pages and web-based services for relevant areas. Serves as a dynamic and knowledgeable representative for the University on undergraduate admissions, affordability, and the value and transformational power of higher education. Supports the University’s commitment to transfer students, adult students, and first-generation college students. Ensures the smooth and seamless transition of new students into support systems of adjacent offices and through new student advising, financial aid, registration, housing, and billing. Assists in the preparation and management of the undergraduate admissions budget. Serves on various university committees and performs related duties as assigned.Required Qualifications: Bachelor's degree. Minimum five years of experience in undergraduate admissions or enrollment management in higher education.Preferred Qualifications: Master's degree.Knowledge, Skills and Abilities: Working knowledge of a student information system. Excellent interpersonal communication and customer service skills to advance department services. Ability to interact effectively with a diverse student population. Ability to work independently with minimal supervision. Proficiency with PC software applications in a Windows environment. Ability to exercise discretion and independent judgment and act upon decisions within scope of delegated authority.
| All positions at the University of Houston-System are security sensitive and will require a criminal history check. The University of Houston System and its universities are an Equal Opportunity Institution.