Senior Director of Admission and Enrollment

Job Description

DEPARTMENT: Office of Admission and Financial Aid (OAFA)​

POSITION TITLE: Senior Director of Admission and Enrollment

FLSA CODE: Exempt NORMAL WORK HOURS: 40 hours per week, Monday-Friday

IMMEDIATE SUPERVISOR: Chief Enrollment and Student Engagement Officer

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Director of Admission and enrollment is the senior operating leader of Olin’s undergraduate admission function and the Chief Enrollment and Student Engagement Officer’s (CESEO) principal partner in shaping and delivering the College’s enrollment strategy. The role carries dual accountability: achieving recruitment and selection outcomes that shape each entering class, including volume, academic strength, geographic and demographic breadth, and yield—and building a small, high-performing admission team whose members demonstrate measurable professional growth during their time at Olin.

In a small admission office where leadership responsibilities are both strategic and hands-on, the Dean of Admission and Enrollment sets strategy, manages the budget, oversees admission technology and the operational calendar, and remains actively involved in reading applications, traveling, and presenting. Success in this role requires the ability to move seamlessly between multi-year enrollment planning and the details of CRM workflows without losing sight of either. A particular emphasis of the position is broadening participation in engineering, including students historically underrepresented in the field and those who have overcome significant educational or economic barriers.

This is an in-person/on-campus position based in Needham, MA.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

Performance in this role is evaluated against outcomes, not activity. Specific targets are set annually with the CESEO.

• Achievement of annual inquiry, application, admit, yield, and class-composition targets
• Growth in applications and enrollment from students with a broad range of backgrounds, experiences, and educational pathways, including those who have faced barriers to accessing engineering education.
• Staff retention, demonstrated staff growth, and completion of individual development plans
• On-time, error-free delivery of every milestone in the admission cycle calendar
• Admission operating budget managed to plan, with demonstrated return on recruitment spend
• Reach and quality of counselor, educator, CBO, and partner-institution relationships
• Data integrity — reported admission figures reconcile across CRM, SIS, and institutional reporting

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Strategic Leadership and Enrollment Planning

• Partners with the CESEO to develop the College’s multi-year enrollment strategy, the annual recruitment plan, and the KPIs by which both are measured; owns execution of the admission components.

• Builds the annual recruitment and travel plan using funnel data, market research, historical yield by segment, and institutional strategic priorities; recommends entry into new markets and the sunsetting of underperforming ones.

• Analyzes and reports on funnel performance throughout the cycle — inquiry, application, admit, yield, summer melt — and adjusts tactics in-cycle based on what the data shows.

• Serves as a thought partner to the CESEO on pricing, financial aid leveraging, and the net tuition revenue implications of recruitment and selection decisions, in close coordination with financial aid leadership.

• Monitors the external landscape — demographic shifts, test policy, the legal and regulatory environment for admission, and the competitive position of small engineering colleges — and advises senior leadership on implications for Olin.

• Prepares analysis and materials for cabinet, Board, and faculty audiences on admission performance and strategy.

• Represents the admission office and acts on behalf of the CESEO in the CESEO’s absence.

• Selection, Evaluation, and Compliance

• Leads the application review and selection process: reader training and calibration, rubric design and refinement, committee facilitation, and decision quality control.

• Reads and evaluates applications and confirms admission decisions recommended by other readers.

• Ensures the admission process complies with applicable federal and state law, institutional policy, and the ethical practice standards of NACAC; escalates questions of legal interpretation to the CESEO and General Counsel.

• Serves as primary liaison to application membership organizations — the Common Application and the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success — including oversight of the annual application build, testing, and maintenance.

• Recruitment, Outreach, and External Partnerships

• Develops, implements, and evaluates targeted recruitment strategies for priority student populations, including first-generation, women, international, out-of-state, and students from under-resourced schools. Establishes recruitment goals with the CESEO and measures outcomes.

• Oversees outreach and relationship-building strategies with high school counselors, independent educational consultants, community-based organizations, STEM pipeline programs, and other external partners.

• Collaborates with faculty to develop and deliver hands-on engineering workshops and other outreach programs that showcase Olin’s distinctive educational model. Coordinates faculty participation, school partnerships, programming, and assessment.

• Designs and manages counselor and educator fly-in programs to introduce school counselors, STEM teachers, and community-based organization advisors to Olin’s educational approach.

• Develops collaborative recruitment initiatives with Wellesley College and Babson College, including joint travel, events, and outreach. Serves as the primary liaison for the Wellesley–Olin 4+1 program, overseeing applications, faculty committee coordination, and admission decisions.

• Partners with Student Affairs and Academic Affairs to develop recruitment and transition programs that support access and the successful enrollment of students from varied educational and economic backgrounds.

• Collaborates with Marketing and Communications on recruitment messaging, audience segmentation, communication strategies, and enrollment marketing initiatives. Manages external vendors and evaluates recruitment sources for effectiveness and cost.

• Develops and oversees parent and family engagement strategies, including targeted communications, campus programming, and a parent volunteer network supporting prospective students and their families.

• Engages faculty, students, alumni, and parent volunteers in recruitment activities, establishing sustainable partnerships and opportunities for participation.

• Represents Olin through recruitment travel, school visits, college fairs, interviews, information sessions, and other on- and off-campus events.

• People Leadership and Staff Development

• Sets annual individual goals aligned to departmental strategy; holds regular one-on-ones, delivers timely and candid performance reviews, and addresses performance concerns promptly in partnership with Human Resources.

• Oversees the recruitment, training, and evaluation of student ambassadors, tour guides, and seasonal staff, and trains the faculty and staff who participate in recruitment and application reading.

• Sustains their own professional growth and Olin’s visibility in the field through active association involvement, presenting, or committee service.

• Operations, Systems, and Budget

• Directs day-to-day admission operations: inquiry and application processing, records management and imaging, data integrity, and the operational cycle calendar.

• Owns the admission CRM roadmap — workflow design, forms, communication architecture, reporting, user permissions, and integration with the student information system — in partnership with IT and Institutional Research.

• Establishes and enforces data governance and data quality standards; ensures the office’s reported figures reconcile with institutional reporting (IPEDS, Common Data Set, cabinet and Board reporting).

• Manages the admission operating budget: builds the annual request, forecasts, monitors spend, reports to Financial Affairs, and allocates resources against strategic return rather than historical precedent.

• Partnering with the Assistant Director, oversees the on-campus visit experience and signature programs Maintains documented procedures and continuity plans for all critical cycle functions.

• Institutional Engagement

• Serves on campus committees and working groups and contributes to cross-divisional initiatives.

• Represents Olin in the broader admission and engineering education community.

• Other duties as assigned.

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