Associate Director of Lead Nurturing and Yield Strategy

Reporting to the Assistant Dean of Enrollment and Academic Operations in the Education Programs Services Office (EPSO) nested in the Whiting School of Engineering's (WSE) Office of Graduate Education and Lifelong Learning (GELL), we are seeking anAssociate Director of Lead Nurturing and Yield Strategywho will serve as the primary GELL lead nurturing and yield strategist for the school's graduate programs, including the Whiting School's 10 departments full-time/on-campus master's and PhD programs, Engineering for Professionals online master's programs, and the Doctor of Engineering (DEng) non-residential doctoral degrees, as well as for the lifelong learning programs (pre-and post-collegiate non-degree, non-credit, and non-degree, credit programs). The Associate Director will establish, in strong collaboration with the marketing and recruitment team in the WSE Office of Marketing and Communications (MarComm) and the respective admissions directors for the graduate programs, a metrics-based strategy to meet the school's overall yield, selectivity, and matriculation goals. In collaboration with MarComm and the GELL admissions directors, the Associate Director will be responsible for building relationships with department heads, internal leadership, and external partners and vendors, with the goal to create and maintain an efficient, scalable, and effective recruitment and enrollment funnel. As MarComm focuses on lead generation and on-the-ground recruitment, the Associate Director for Lead Nurturing and Yield Strategy will develop and oversee lead nurturing and anti-melt initiatives and campaigns specifically across the GELL portfolio. When required, the Associate Director will facilitate and attend conferences and events to recruit students/admitted applicants.

The Associate Director will collaborate closely with the WSE Marketing and Communications team (MarComm) (through dotted-line oversight from the Director of Recruitment and Marketing), with the directors for admissions for residential and online graduate students and learners, the Assistant Deans for Lifelong Learning and Pre-collegiate Programs, and with the Assistant Dean for Engineering Student Affairs to achieve strategic recruitment and yield goals and analyze data to ensure the efforts meet responsible ROI thresholds. This position will support other non-degree programs as needed. Additionally, this position will supervise and be responsible for growing a team of lead nurturing and yield management staff.

The ideal candidate will be able to function collegially and effectively in a team environment, across offices, working well with others toward achieving objectives, but also working independently and serve as a transformative leader and supportive manager.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

Lead Nurturing Recruitment

• Partner closely with the WSE's Marketing and Communications Office (MarComm) to develop personalized lead nurturing and anti-melt strategies for different segments of prospective students, including high school students, graduate students (online and residential), and international applicants.
• Partner with MarComm to oversee the creation and execution of multi-channel communication plans, including email, SMS, phone calls, and social media, to engage prospective and accepted students, pre- matriculation.
• Participate in recruitment efforts to encourage more applications (online, fulltime, pre-college, lifelong learning); work directly with MarComm on lead generation
• Coordinate with Marcom to create and produce information sessions. Create and co-present information sessions in collaboration with MarComm, admissions and the GELL academic programs.

Yield/enrollment/anti-melt

• Develop and implement yield and anti-melt management strategies to convert admitted students into enrolled and matriculated students.
• Collaborate with the marketing and admissions teams to create engagement efforts (tailored messaging, webinars, in-person events, etc.) to boost yield rates.
• Collaborate with WSE Development and Alumni Relations to identify alumni connections to help yield rates.
• Create enrollment-focused communications and engagement strategies to effectively inform students of next steps and requirements at each point in the student enrollment funnel

Strategy/data

• Provide regular reports to leadership on the effectiveness of lead nurturing and yield strategies, including conversion rates, yield rates, and engagement metrics.
• Lead meetings with partner offices to discuss and plan lead nurturing/yield efforts across the funnel for all of GELL applicants (online, fulltime, pre-college, lifelong learning)
• Analyze historical application and yield data to identify trends and areas for improvement.
• Analyze the success of different efforts (email, phone calls, webinars) on application and enrollment numbers.
• Identify new communication needs, including touch points and messages, related to student enrollment and retention.

Supervision

• Supervise and provide strategic oversight to team of lead nurturer and yield management coordinators leading high touch efforts, i.e., outbound phone calls, text message campaigns and customized email follow-up that reside outside of automated email communications plans in order to help target audiences progress from inquiry to admitted/enrolled students. Current supervision of 1 FTE lead nurturer coordinator and up to 12 student workers.
• Manage time and efforts according to different enrollment priorities (online, fulltime, pre-college, lifelong learning)

Technology

• Identify technology for quality and timeliness of messaging to prospective students and applicants up to the point of enrollment/registration.
• Identify technology and opportunities to automate processes; how best to use technology and systems to increase touch points.
• Oversee and project manage the implementation of technological tools and platforms to scale, improve, and streamline lead nurturing, yield, and matriculation efforts.

Special Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Excellent written and verbal communications skills, confident presentation ability, adapt to manage multiple tasks, and organizational and creative fluency.
• Must be able to function collaboratively and effectively in a team environment, while also managing staff.
• Strong interpersonal skills, and ability to work collaboratively with diverse personalities.
• Ability to work well under pressure in an ever-changing environment.
• Requires working knowledge of Zoom, MS Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint.
• Willingness to help formulate new recruitment and yield strategies.
• Ability to evaluate effectiveness of current recruitment efforts against targets and benchmarks and recommend alternatives as needed.
• This position requires working outside normal business hours, including some travel.
• This position may attend academic/industry conferences and events, conduct onsite/virtual information sessions for potential students as needed, and other responsibilities as assigned.

• Bachelor's Degree in related field.
• Five years related experience.
• Additional education may substitute for required experience, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

• Six to eight years of related experience in higher education, enrollment services, recruitment, admissions, or related field.
• Experience working in recruitment or communications office of an educational institution, nonprofit, or private firm.
• Active and current knowledge of applicant life-cycle data strategies and marketing recruitment best practices for admissions recruitment, graduate engineering recruitment.
  

• A working knowledge of Slate or other marketing automation systems is highly desirable.

Classified Title: Communications & Marketing Manager
Job Posting Title (Working Title):Associate Director of Lead Nurturing and Yield Strategy
Role/Level/Range: ATP/04/PE
Starting Salary Range: $73,300 - $128,300 Annually (Commensurate with experience)
Employee group: Full Time
Schedule: 37.5 hrs/wk, M-F
Exempt Status:Exempt
Location:Hybrid/Homewood Campus
Department name: Academic Affairs Grad
Personnel area: Whiting School of Engineering