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Norman, Oklahoma, United States
Hybrid
The Director of Enrollment Services leads the performance, execution, and continuous improvement of an assigned enrollment portfolio. This role manages Enrollment Managers and their teams, owns departmental results, and ensures enrollment strategies and operating practices align with OUES standards, OU expectations, and higher education compliance requirements.
The successful candidate is an experienced enrollment and people leader who owns results, sets clear direction, translates goals into practical strategies, manages departmental budget and resources, and adjusts quickly when performance is off track.
Reporting to the Vice President of Enrollment, the Director partners with Marketing, Program Success, Operations, university stakeholders, and internal teams to improve student experience, remove progression barriers, and support start objectives. The Director also contributes to shaping enrollment strategy and business level initiatives alongside executive leadership, not only executing decisions made elsewhere.
The Director promotes compliant, student centered enrollment operations by ensuring teams provide accurate information, timely outreach, and guidance through established processes so prospective students can make informed decisions based on their goals, readiness, and circumstances.
Own the strategy, operational effectiveness, student experience, and performance of the assigned enrollment portfolio, including progress toward application, progression, readiness, and start objectives.
Translate organizational priorities and enrollment goals into clear departmental plans, expectations, operating rhythms, and measurable outcomes, while also contributing directly to the development of that organizational vision alongside senior leadership.
Own budget, staffing, and resource allocation decisions for the assigned portfolio, ensuring spend and headcount are deployed effectively against enrollment priorities and reported accurately to executive leadership.
Forecast performance, assess risks and opportunities, and maintain a clear view of pipeline health across programs, markets, teams, and upcoming starts.
Maintain results by assessing performance, identifying root causes, developing recovery strategies, assigning ownership, executing action plans, and monitoring progress while maintaining compliance and service quality.
Communicate performance, risks, strategy, and resource needs clearly to executive leadership and key stakeholders, and participate as a contributing voice in business level decisions that affect enrollment strategy.
Lead, motivate, coach, and develop Enrollment Managers and their teams to achieve goals while delivering a consistent, student first experience.
Establish clear expectations for leadership, outreach, follow up, student progression, quality, compliance, pipeline management, documentation, collaboration, and performance outcomes.
Create a performance culture in which strong performance is recognized and performance gaps are addressed promptly, consistently, and fairly in accordance with OUES practices and applicable policies.
Ensure performance expectations balance student experience, service quality, compliance, operational effectiveness, student progression, and enrollment outcomes.
Conduct regular one on ones, leadership coaching, talent reviews, performance check ins, and documented follow up with direct reports.
Build leadership capability and succession strength by developing managers, identifying emerging talent, and reinforcing effective coaching practices.
Foster a positive, inclusive, collaborative, and results oriented culture grounded in trust, transparency, and continuous improvement.
Develop and execute enrollment strategies that improve prospective student engagement, progression, readiness, start outcomes, and operational consistency.
Use data, quality insights, student feedback, and frontline observations to identify trends, barriers, process gaps, and opportunities for improvement.
Ensure consistent adoption of approved enrollment processes, outreach practices, CRM standards, reporting tools, conversation guides, and workflows.
Lead continuous improvement efforts that strengthen execution, scalability, compliance, employee effectiveness, and the prospective student experience.
Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies and interventions, adjust based on results, and sustain improvements through follow through.
Guide the successful implementation of new programs, tools, processes, and organizational changes within Enrollment Services, including leading teams through uncertainty and shifting priorities.
Monitor higher education enrollment trends and the competitive landscape, and bring relevant insights into departmental strategy and planning.
Partner with Marketing, Program Success, Operations, university stakeholders, and internal teams to support start objectives and improve performance and student experience across the enrollment journey.
Co own, alongside peer leaders, data informed decisions on lead quality, student progression, operational bottlenecks, program readiness, and student experience concerns, not only surfacing recommendations but shaping the resulting direction.
Represent Enrollment Services in cross functional planning, performance reviews, process design, and strategic initiatives.
Ensure departmental feedback and frontline insights are incorporated into broader organizational decisions and improvement efforts.
Collaborate with university partners and support functions to ensure prospective students receive timely, accurate, and transparent information throughout the enrollment process.
Bachelor's degree required; master's degree or higher preferred.
Minimum of 5 years of experience directly leading and managing enrollment teams.
Minimum of 2 years of experience leading people leaders (managers of managers) in a performance driven organization; this is required, not preferred, given this role manages Enrollment Managers directly.
Demonstrated experience managing a departmental budget, staffing plan, or comparable operational resources.
Demonstrated depth of experience and knowledge in higher education enrollment management best practices, student centered service, and compliant enrollment operations.
Proven success creating enrollment or operational strategies and executing them to achieve measurable outcomes while maintaining quality standards, regulatory compliance, and a student centered approach.
Demonstrated ability to own business results, diagnose performance gaps, develop corrective action plans, and lead disciplined execution.
Experienced people leader with a record of motivating teams, developing managers, and holding employees accountable in a fair, consistent, and well documented manner.
Experience leading in a fast paced, metrics driven, service oriented environment with multiple programs, goals, and start cycles.
Strong analytical capability and experience using performance data, forecasts, CRM information, quality insights, and operational reporting to guide decisions.
Proven ability to influence and collaborate cross functionally with senior leaders, peers, university partners, and operational stakeholders, including contributing to business level decisions rather than only executing them.
Working knowledge of higher education enrollment trends and the competitive landscape, with the ability to apply that awareness to departmental strategy.
Excellent communication, strategic thinking, judgment, organization, change leadership, and problem solving skills, including the ability to lead teams effectively through periods of uncertainty.
Experience with CRM, telephony, reporting, and performance management tools; Salesforce experience preferred.
Strategic Enrollment Leadership
Business Ownership & Results Orientation
Budget & Resource Stewardship
People Leadership & Talent Development
Accountability & Performance Management
Data Informed Decision Making
Cross Functional Influence & Collaboration
Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence
Change Leadership & Execution
Industry & Market Awareness
Student Centered Service
Enrollment Best Practices & Compliance
