Chief Enrollment & Marketing Officer

Position Summary The Chief Enrollment & Marketing Officer (CEMO) serves as the institution's senior executive responsible for the entire student recruitment and enrollment ecosystem, as well as institutional marketing, communications, and brand strategy.

Reporting directly to the President and serving as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, the CEMO will develop and execute a comprehensive strategy that integrates enrollment management, admissions, marketing, communications, digital engagement, CRM strategy, and market intelligence into a single high-performing operation.

This leader will be expected to build a modern enrollment organization that leverages data, storytelling, AI, automation, and personalized student engagement to drive sustainable enrollment growth while strengthening VCFA's national reputation.

The successful candidate is both strategist and builder—someone equally comfortable analyzing enrollment funnels, developing institutional strategy, inspiring creative marketing campaigns, and leading teams through change.

Location:

Remote with required in-person attendance at VCFA's two nine-day residencies on the Cal Arts campus annually, and other strategic events as assigned

Primary Responsibilities Enrollment Strategy Develop and execute VCFA's comprehensive enrollment strategy.

Establish annual and multi-year enrollment goals aligned with institutional priorities.

Build predictive enrollment models and forecasting tools.

Lead all admissions operations from inquiry through matriculation.

Optimize every stage of the recruitment funnel.

Develop recruitment strategies for domestic and international students.

Create new pathways into graduate arts education, including certificates, professional studies, and future academic offerings.

Monitor enrollment KPIs and regularly report progress to executive leadership and the Board.

Identify and develop institutional partnerships, recruitment collaborations, and audience expansion opportunities.

Establish institutional yield and melt-reduction strategy, including benchmarking against peer institutions.

Admissions Leadership Provide leadership for graduate admissions, recruitment, admissions operations, CRM management, student communications, financial aid collaboration, and enrollment analytics

Responsibilities include:

Designing high-touch applicant experiences.

Improving application conversion.

Managing admissions communications.

Overseeing recruitment events, virtual events, residencies, and information sessions.

Creating scalable recruitment workflows.

Own institutional scholarship strategy and rubric development, ensuring program chairs are informed of program-specific scholarship opportunities.

Marketing & Brand Strategy Lead all institutional marketing including:

Brand strategy,digital marketing,website strategy,content marketing,social media,email marketing,video storytelling,public relations,creative campaigns,and institutional messaging

Develop an integrated marketing strategy that reflects VCFA's position as a national leader in creative graduate education.

Communications Provide strategic oversight of: institutional communications,enrollment communications,marketing content,editorial calendar,media relations,crisis communications (in partnership with the President), brand voice and messaging.

Hold final authority over the institution-wide editorial calendar and approve what is published and when, even when content is drafted by other team members

Digital & AI Strategy Lead the modernization of VCFA's enrollment technology ecosystem through CRM optimization, marketing automation, AI-powered recruitment, agentic AI workflows, predictive analytics, enrollment dashboards, personalized student engagement, and digital advertising optimization

Champ…