Director of Strategic Enrollment Marketing

The New School•Tyrone, PA

7d•Onsite

About The Position

The New School is a progressive, historic university in New York City, celebrated for redefining the boundaries of premier design, performing arts, liberal arts, and social research education. It is transitioning to a dynamic two-college model, designed to integrate all art, design, and performing arts within one college and liberal arts and social research in a second. To support this model, the Marketing & Communication (M&C) department is creating a highly supportive, integrated, and collaborative administrative ecosystem which includes two complementary and interwoven types of operating structures: one designed to provide an enterprise-wide spine of service and support and another with integrated M&C teams dedicated to each of the two colleges. Reporting to the AVP for Parsons and Performing Arts Marketing & Communications, this Strategic Enrollment Marketing Director functions as an embedded leader dedicated to this college in our new university structure. They will be assigned to support specific schools and programs within this college, which is home to the Parsons, Mannes, New School Jazz and Contemporary Music, and New School Drama brands. This position bridges deep storytelling about our education in design, creative and performing arts with rigorous, data-informed marketing strategies to support undergraduate and graduate enrollment at our Parsons and Performing Arts college. This Strategic Enrollment Marketing Director ensures an authentic, compelling, and differentiating representation of our brands, academic experience, and scholarly initiatives to prospective students and key direct or cultural influencers. This professional must be a sophisticated marketing strategist, an expert relationship builder, and a dedicated advocate for the creative, scholarly, and progressive values that define The New School, and the hallmark brands of Parsons, Mannes, Jazz and Drama, and the centers, labs, and institutes affiliated with them.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, liberal arts, advertising, or a related field required.
7–10 years of progressive experience in strategic marketing leadership, brand strategy, or conversion-driven communication roles within higher education, a non-profit organization, or an agency setting.
Proven track record of developing and executing multi-channel marketing campaigns (digital, social, print, and web) that influence audience behavior and achieve concrete student enrollment or audience acquisition goals.
Demonstrated ability to comprehend complex academic information, graduate-level research, and progressive scholarly theories, translating them into accessible, inspiring narratives for prospective students and influencers.
Exceptional interpersonal skills with the proven ability to build relationships and navigate a matrixed, shared-governance environment, earning consensus among academic deans, faculty, administrative staff, and central creative professionals.
Persuasive, nuanced, and clear oral, written, and presentation skills.
Competency utilizing current marketing tools, presentation platforms (PowerPoint, Google Slides), and familiarity with user experience (UX) principles, SEO, and digital analytics platforms.

Responsibilities

Support academic and enrollment leadership in defining and articulating unique, progressive brand value propositions and creative and intellectual contributions of Parsons and Performing Arts to the university narrative.
Author the foundational strategic and creative briefs that distill market data and college/program identities into actionable guides for Creative, Editorial, Paid Media, and Digital Content activation team members.
Collaborating closely with college-dedicated colleagues, formulate, execute, and manage comprehensive annual strategic positioning, marketing and communications plans tailored specifically to support brand awareness, reputation-building, and student recruitment and for assigned schools and programs.
Work in close, parallel alignment with Enrollment Management (EM) and recruitment communications peers to ensure a seamless, high-converting prospect experience that builds enrollment for undergraduate and graduate degree offerings.
Lead the development and deployment of prospect-focused marketing campaigns across owned and paid channels to meet institutional enrollment targets.
In collaboration with EMSP and BMC partners, establish clear success metrics and tracking KPIs for marketing initiatives, evaluating performance against targets to continuously optimize strategies and activations.
Initiate, monitor, and evaluate audience insights and competitive landscape trends in higher education and art, design and performing arts education to provide ongoing recommendations to academic leaders regarding program appeal and market trends.
Act as the core liaison for assigned schools and programs with the integrated, dedicated BMC team and central spine resources, coordinating with PR, Social Media, and Online Marketing Platforms to integrate creative-practice and scholarly content into web hubs, newsletters, external campaigns.
Integrate with the strategic marketing of major performances, events, and academic milestones to elevate the external visibility of creative education and our brands within the broader New York City and global community.

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Retirement plan administered by TIAA
Qualified Transportation Expense Plan
Paid vacation and sick leave, with accruals starting on your first day
Paid holidays and floating holidays
Career advancement and professional development opportunities
Access to university programs, lectures, and events featuring world-renowned speakers and organizations
Tuition waiver benefit for eligible employees and dependents
Employee discounts with local vendors and service providers