Director-Admissions-Lucknow Campus

JOB SUMMARY

The Director – Admissions will provide strategic leadership in driving student enrolment, strengthening the University's brand equity, and enhancing its digital presence through integrated marketing and outreach initiatives. The incumbent will be responsible for developing and executing innovative admissions strategies, leading institutional branding, overseeing digital marketing campaigns, and building strong partnerships with schools, colleges, industry, and other stakeholders. Working closely with academic and administrative leadership, the Director will ensure a seamless applicant journey while maximizing enrolment growth, brand visibility, and overall organizational excellence.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

I. Develop and implement comprehensive admissions, branding, outreach, and digital marketing strategies aligned with the University's vision, business objectives, and enrolment goals.

II. Lead the complete student recruitment lifecycle, including lead generation, counselling, application management, admissions, enrolment conversion, and student engagement initiatives.

III. Oversee the end-to-end admissions process across offline, online, outreach, counselling, operations, training, quality, and student engagement functions to ensure operational excellence.

IV. Drive institutional branding by strengthening the University's market positioning through integrated marketing campaigns, public relations, corporate communications, promotional activities, media engagement, and brand-building initiatives.

V. Lead the University's digital marketing strategy across SEO, SEM, Google Ads, Meta Ads, social media, email marketing, content marketing, marketing automation, influencer marketing, and performance marketing to maximize lead generation and conversion.

VI. Monitor and optimize the admissions and digital marketing funnel by analysing campaign performance, lead quality, conversion ratios, engagement metrics, cost per lead (CPL), return on investment (ROI), and overall marketing effectiveness.

VII. Build and strengthen strategic partnerships with schools, colleges, coaching institutes, corporates, educational consultants, government bodies, alumni, and industry associations to enhance outreach and student enrolment.

VIII. Represent the University at national and international education fairs, conferences, seminars, exhibitions, networking forums, school outreach programs, and stakeholder engagement events.

IX. Collaborate with internal departments and external agencies to conceptualize and execute integrated branding, advertising, website, social media, and promotional campaigns while ensuring consistency in institutional messaging.

X. Provide strategic leadership, mentorship, and performance oversight to cross-functional teams comprising Admissions, Outreach, Counselling, Branding, Digital Marketing, Operations, Quality, Training, and Student Engagement.

XI. Establish departmental KPIs, monitor performance dashboards, analyse admissions and marketing data, prepare MIS reports, and present strategic recommendations to senior leadership for informed decision-making.

XII. Ensure compliance with institutional policies, regulatory guidelines, accreditation requirements, and admission governance standards while maintaining operational excellence across all recruitment and marketing functions.

XIII. Manage departmental budgets, marketing investments, agency relationships, vendor partnerships, and resource allocation to maximize operational efficiency and return on investment.

XIV. Identify emerging market trends, competitor strategies, student preferences, and technological innovations to continuously enhance admissions, branding, digital marketing, and student acquisition strategies.

XV. Collaborate closely with academic schools, finance, IT, student services, corporate relations, and other stakeholders to deliver an exceptional applicant experience while driving sustainable enrolment growth and institutional excellence.

Qualification & Skills

• Master's degree in education, Business Administration, Marketing, or a related field. Ph.D. preferred.
• 18+ years of progressive experience in admissions, student recruitment, branding, digital marketing, or higher education outreach, with a minimum of 10 years in a senior leadership role.
• Proven experience in developing and executing admissions strategies, institutional branding, and integrated digital marketing campaigns.
• Strong leadership, stakeholder management, team-building, and decision-making skills.
• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and interpersonal abilities.
• Proficiency in CRM platforms, marketing automation tools, digital marketing platforms, and data analytics.
• Strong analytical mindset with experience in interpreting marketing and admissions metrics to drive business decisions.
• Ability to travel whenever required and represent the University at national and international events.