Associate Dean for Recruitment and Admissions (Hybrid) - Olin Business

Washington University in St. Louis•Lakeland, FL

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Dean for Admissions is the seniormost recruitment and admissions leader in the school and serves as the chief strategist and operator for the domestic recruitment engine in Olin Business School’s full-time graduate programs, with primary stewardship of the Full-Time MBA as Olin’s flagship product. It is the responsibility of the leader to refine and operate a high-performance enrollment system—with clear accountability for pipeline, conversion, yield, and revenue outcomes. The Associate Dean will create a high-touch recruitment model, install a rigorous weekly operating rhythm, hire and performance-manage a team of recruiters against measurable targets, deploy scholarship and financial aid as strategic yield levers, and position the Full-Time MBA in the domestic market. The role requires commercial instinct, builder temperament, and operator discipline in equal measure. Olin is in the middle of a deliberate institutional transformation—diversifying revenue, sharpening market position, and creating greater impact. This role is central to that transformation. The Associate Dean reports to the Deputy Dean and works in close partnership with marketing, analytics, CRM, faculty leadership, and advancement. The ideal candidate is drawn to hard problems, repetitive refinement, and long-range performance building. You are competitive, process-oriented, and energized by the discipline of improving something measurable over time. You want to build something that did not exist before—and you want to be judged on whether it works.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree
Relevant Experience (10 Years)
A driver's license is not required for this position.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree - Business
Master's degree - Communications
Master's degree - Journalism
Master's degree - Marketing
Master's degree - Public Health
Progressively Responsible (10 Years)

Responsibilities

Build the Domestic Recruitment Engine: Design and execute a comprehensive domestic recruitment strategy for all full-time graduate programs, with the Full-Time MBA as the anchor product. Create a territory-owned regional field recruitment model: define geographies, assign territories, build travel plans, and systematize in-person engagement to generate qualified leads and deposits. Identify and penetrate high-yield candidate pools—including early-career professionals, career changers, and nontraditional applicants—through structured outreach and experimentation. Own domestic lead generation, application volume, admit quality, and deposit conversion as primary performance metrics. In partnership with key university teams, develop and manage partnerships within the broader business ecosystem.
Lead, Coach, and Performance-Manage the Recruitment Team: Hire, onboard, and develop a team of recruiters with a shared sales methodology, clear activity standards, and strong individual accountability. Create a coaching cadence: regular pipeline inspections, skills development sessions, and performance conversations. Build a team culture rooted in competitive ambition, mutual support, continuous improvement, and resilience. Set and manage to individual and team KPIs for outreach volume, event conversion, application generation, admit yield, and deposit rates. Make personnel decisions quickly and with integrity when performance standards are not met.
Operate the Pipeline and Conversion System: Install and run a rigorous operating system: pipeline reviews, stage definitions, conversion targets, yield interventions, and dashboarding. Define pipeline stages with precision, inspect movement across stages weekly, and intervene where conversion stalls. Partner with CRM, marketing/communications, and analytics to improve funnel efficiency end-to-end. Create a culture of data-driven decision-making and continuous experimentation within the admissions team. Deliver weekly and monthly performance reporting to senior leadership with clear narrative on variance and corrective action.
Own Scholarship Strategy and Steward the Full-Time MBA: Design and execute a financial aid and scholarship strategy that optimizes yield, candidate quality, class composition, and net tuition revenue across an eight-figure budget. Position the Full-Time MBA as a flagship product: oversee candidate experience design, admit engagement, and competitive positioning against peer programs. Partner with career services, student life, academic leadership, and advancement to align admissions outcomes with employment outcomes, student satisfaction, and donor engagement. Monitor competitive market dynamics, peer school positioning, and ranking inputs to inform admissions and scholarship strategy.
Cross-Functional Partnership and Market Intelligence: Collaborate with marketing and communications on strategy and channel mix: events, digital campaigns, content, and brand messaging. Develop and maintain deep market intelligence on competitor programs, domestic enrollment trends, employer demand signals, and candidate decision drivers. Partner with advancement and corporate relations where employer partnerships, alumni engagement, and philanthropic opportunities intersect with recruitment. Serve as the admissions voice in school-wide strategic discussions, faculty governance, and external engagement.