Associate Director of Recruitment and Admissions

Department: Schar School Policy and Government

Classification: Professional Faculty

Job Category:Administrative or Professional Faculty

Job Type:Full-Time

Work Schedule:Full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk)

Location: Arlington, VA

Workplace Type:Hybrid Eligible

Sponsorship Eligibility:Not eligible for visa sponsorship

Salary:Salary commensurate with education and experience

Criminal Background Check:Yes

The George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government's objective is to prepare our students for high-level decision making in a complex and technological world.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Enrollment and Marketing, the Associate Director of Recruitment and Admissions provides leadership for recruitment, admissions, and enrollment activities across the Schar School's undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. The position serves two primary functions: (1) providing day-to-day leadership and management of the integrated recruitment and admissions team and (2) directly engaging prospective students through a managed recruitment portfolio.

By balancing leadership of the School's enrollment activities with personalized student engagement, the Associate Director ensures the effective execution of enrollment strategies while supporting the School's enrollment goals.

The Associate Director oversees undergraduate recruitment and yield, as well as graduate recruitment and admissions and yield, while serving as a primary point of contact for a portfolio of prospective students throughout the enrollment funnel. The position supervises professional staff and provides oversight of student/wage employees, manages the daily execution of recruitment and admissions activities, monitors enrollment performance, and identifies opportunities to strengthen processes and outcomes through data-informed decision making.

At the same time, the Associate Director maintains an active portfolio of prospective students, providing individualized advising, outreach, and engagement to support application completion, admission, yield, and enrollment.

• Lead undergraduate recruitment and yield, as well as graduate student recruitment initiatives, ensuring alignment with the School's enrollment goals and strategic priorities;
• Lead the School's candidate engagement strategy following lead acquisition, strengthening prospective student engagement while directly engaging with candidates to improve conversion throughout the enrollment funnel;
• Guide the planning, execution, and evaluation of lead generation, recruitment events, travel activities, and other top-of-funnel recruitment initiatives to support enrollment goals;
• Manage a portfolio of prospective students through individualized outreach, advising, and ongoing engagement to support application submission, completion, admission, yield, and enrollment;
• Implement undergraduate and graduate yield strategies that improve conversion, encourage enrollment, and strengthen the admitted student experience through personalized outreach, engagement, and collaboration with faculty, academic programs, and university partners; and
• Collaborate with the enrollment marketing manager to align recruitment communications, campaigns, with enrollment priorities and goals.

• Oversee Schar School admissions operations for master's, doctoral, graduate certificate, and non-degree programs, including application review, admissions workflow management, policy implementation, and timely admissions decisions;
• Oversee the effective utilization of the University's enrollment systems, including Patriot Connect (Salesforce CRM), Banner, Micro Strategy, and other enrollment management tools, to support recruitment, admissions, and yield activities, ensuring accurate data management, workflow efficiency, and pipeline visibility;
• Direct and continuously improve graduate admissions processes to ensure consistency, operational efficiency, and an exceptional applicant experience;
• Lead the graduate admissions review process by overseeing application review staff, workflows, and adherence to established…