Associate Director, Student Admissions

Description

ABOUT THE POSITION

The Associate Director of Student Admissions leads the strategy, planning, organization, and execution of student recruitment and admissions across Urban Dove schools. This person supervises the Student Admissions Manager, who oversees the Student Admissions Assistants and leads much of the team’s direct outreach to schools, community organizations, prospective students, and families.

The Associate Director is responsible for ensuring that recruitment efforts are guided by clear goals, strong project plans, accurate data, and consistent follow-through. The ideal candidate is a strategic thinker and skilled project manager who can analyze recruitment results, identify challenges, organize the team’s work, and adjust strategies to help each school meet its enrollment goals.

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION:
The Central Office is the non-profit entity that manages the Urban Dove Charter Schools. The CMO provides a wide range of services–including back office functions, accounting, hiring, professional development, data analysis, public relations, advocacy, and more. The CMO is also responsible for providing support structures for the schools and ensuring proper replication of the model as the organization expands.

Core Responsibilities

Recruitment Strategy and Planning

• Develop and lead Urban Dove’s network-wide student recruitment and admissions strategy.
• Create annual and seasonal recruitment plans with clear goals, timelines, responsibilities, and benchmarks.
• Develop recruitment strategies tailored to the enrollment needs and communities of each Urban Dove school.
• Identify new recruitment opportunities, referral partners, geographic areas, and outreach methods.
• Anticipate enrollment challenges and develop plans to address gaps in applications, completed enrollments, and student arrivals.
• Lead planning for major recruitment periods, including summer, back-to-school, and midyear enrollment.

Data Management and Reporting

• Oversee systems for tracking prospective students from initial contact through enrollment and arrival at school.
• Develop and maintain recruitment dashboards, trackers, and reports.
• Monitor recruitment progress, enrollment projections, and conversion rates for each school.
• Analyze the effectiveness of referral sources, school visits, events, outreach campaigns, and other recruitment activities.
• Ensure that recruitment data is accurate, complete, and entered consistently.
• Provide CMO and school leaders with regular updates on progress, risks, trends, and recommended next steps.
• Use data to adjust recruitment strategies, staff assignments, and priorities.

Team Leadership and Project Management

• Supervise, coach, and evaluate the Student Admissions Manager.
• Support the Student Admissions Manager in supervising and organizing the work of the Student Admissions Assistants.
• Establish clear goals, expectations, responsibilities, and accountability measures for the admissions team.
• Lead regular team meetings, individual supervision meetings, and recruitment data reviews.
• Create project plans, calendars, checklists, and other systems that support effective execution.
• Monitor deadlines and deliverables and ensure that recruitment activities are completed on time.
• Provide training and professional development related to recruitment, project management, data tracking, communication, and admissions procedures.

Recruitment and Community Partnerships

• Guide the team’s strategy for building and maintaining relationships with schools, community-based organizations, social-service providers, and other referral partners.
• Help the Student Admissions Manager prioritize outreach based on enrollment needs and referral potential.
• Develop systems for tracking partner contacts, visits, referrals, and follow-up.
• Identify gaps in Urban Dove’s referral network and develop plans for building new partnerships.
• Represent Urban Dove at selected recruitment events, presentations, and community meetings.
• Ensure that students and families receive timely, welcoming, and consistent communication throughout the admissions process.

Admissions Systems and Collaboration

• Establish consistent recruitment and admissions procedures across Urban Dove schools.
• Ensure that applications, enrollment documents, and required follow-up are completed accurately and on time.
• Review current systems and recommend improvements that strengthen efficiency, accuracy, and accountability.
• Collaborate with School Leaders, CMO staff, school operations teams, and communications staff to support enrollment goals.
• Contribute to organizational planning related to enrollment growth, student retention, school expansion, and new-school launches.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree preferred.
• At least five years of relevant experience in student recruitment, admissions, education, nonprofit leadership, project management, community engagement, or a related field.
• Experience supervising and developing staff.
• Strong project-management skills, including the ability to organize multiple priorities, deadlines, and team members.
• Strong analytical skills and experience using data to monitor performance and guide decisions.
• Proficiency with spreadsheets, databases, dashboards, and reporting tools.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to balance strategic planning with attention to daily execution and follow-through.
• Experience working with young people, families, schools, and community organizations.
• Understanding of the needs of over-age and under-credited students strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with New York City schools and communities preferred.
• Ability to travel among Urban Dove schools and attend occasional evening or weekend events.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS:

Compensation: $85,000 to $100,000 annually based on years of experience and education.

Benefits: Urban Dove provides a robust benefits package designed to support employee well-being, including medical, dental, and vision coverage; retirement benefits with employer match; generous paid time off; paid parental leave; and employee wellness supports

OUR MISSION:
Urban Dove energizes, educates, and empowers young people through our network of UD Team Charter Schools serving over-age/under-credited high school students. UD Team's innovative model uses sports, teams, restorative practices and mentoring to create a culture of high expectations and shared responsibility. By instilling our core values of Teamwork, Leadership and Communication, we develop our students into confident young adults ready to reach their full potential.

OUR VISION:
Urban Dove envisions a world where all children receive the high-quality education and support they need and deserve. Through education, they will acquire the critical skills needed to develop into economically, socially, and emotionally independent adults who are empowered to create a more just and equitable society for future generations.

EEOC:
Urban Dove provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.