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 CalArts campus annually, and other strategic events as assigned

Primary Responsibilities ------------------------

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### 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.

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### 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.

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### 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

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### 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
• Champion responsible AI adoption throughout enrollment and marketing operations.

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### Market Intelligence

• Develop institutional expertise in competitive analysis, graduate education trends, pricing strategy, student demographics, audience research, market segmentation, program demand, and emerging creative industries
• Use research to inform institutional strategy and future academic development.

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### Leadership

• Build and lead a collaborative division responsible for admissions, enrollment operations, marketing, communications, digital strategy and creative services
• Develop a culture grounded in innovation, accountability, experimentation, continuous improvement, student-centered decision making, and data-informed leadership
• Manage relationships with enrollment marketing vendors, consultants, and external recruitment partners.

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### Budget & Resource Oversight

• Develop and manage the operating budget for the enrollment and marketing division, including CRM systems, marketing campaigns, advertising spend, vendor and agency contracts, and staffing.
• Allocate resources across admissions, marketing, and digital strategy functions to maximize enrollment ROI.
• Report budget performance and resource needs to the President and Board as part of institutional financial planning.

Key Priorities During the First 12 Months -----------------------------------------

• Develop a comprehensive enrollment growth strategy.
• Redesign the enrollment funnel from inquiry to matriculation.
• Modernize VCFA's marketing and communications strategy.
• Implement AI-enabled enrollment workflows.
• Establish enrollment dashboards and institutional KPIs.
• Strengthen institutional storytelling and national visibility.
• Increase inquiry-to-application and application-to-enrollment conversion rates.
• Build a culture of experimentation and continuous optimization.

Qualifications

### Required

• Bachelor's degree required; master's degree preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible leadership experience.
• Experience motivating and mobilizing teams
• Demonstrated ability to analyze, synthesize, report on, and use key data for informed decision-making
• Experience in higher education enrollment, mission-driven organizations, media, nonprofit, or related sectors.
• Strong understanding of enrollment strategy and CRM systems.
• Experience leading integrated marketing campaigns.
• Excellent analytical and financial management skills.
• Exceptional communication and storytelling abilities.
• Proven experience leading organizational change.

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### Preferred

Experience with

• Graduate education
• Arts education
• Low-residency or online education
• Slate CRM
• AI-powered enrollment systems
• Digital marketing analytics
• Brand development
• Creative industries

Leadership Competencies -----------------------

• Strategic thinking
• Entrepreneurial mindset
• Data fluency
• Creative problem solving
• Emotional intelligence
• Collaborative leadership
• Change management
• Strong operational execution
• Exceptional communication
• Curiosity and continuous learning

Measures of Success -------------------

• Enrollment growth
• Net tuition revenue growth
• Improved conversion rates throughout the enrollment funnel
• Growth in qualified inquiries and applications
• Brand awareness and engagement
• Marketing return on investment
• Student satisfaction during the admissions process
• Effective use of AI and automation
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Team development and retention
• Effective management of division budget and resource allocation