Deputy Director of Marketing and Communications

Set in the heart of Houston, Texas, the nation’s fourth-largest city, Rice is a comprehensive research university that fosters diversity and an intellectual environment that produces the next generation of leaders and advances tomorrow’s thinking.

The Deputy Director of Marketing and Communications is an integral part of the newly created Marketing and Communications team within the Enrollment division and will report to the Director of Enrollment Strategy, Marketing, and Communications. The team goals are to consistently communicate the brand and identity of Rice University and its seven undergraduate schools to prospective students, parents, and school educators and to accurately and persuasively represent and market the university and its undergraduate academic programs to prospective students and others. The team works to ensure that the enrollment division uses the most contemporary and effective approaches to reach prospective students and coordinates innovative communications initiatives through a variety of media including print, web, email, social, and video.

The Deputy Director will be a key leader in the enrollment division, responsible for managing the engagement between the admission and financial aid offices and the marketing and communication team towards the objectives to enroll and aid a highly talented undergraduate class. S/he will serve as a thought partner and leader within the enrollment division and supervise a team of admission officers to ensure their development as professionals including aligning projects, initiatives, and processes to the goals of the division and priorities of the university.

The ideal candidate for this position should be a seasoned admission professional with a deep understanding of the college admission field including holistic application evaluation (preferably committee-based evaluation), targeted recruitment strategies, educational trends in secondary and post-secondary education, and admission policies and theories in a highly selective admission environment. S/he will have highly developed process and project management skills, team management and oversight, strategic planning, budget management, measurement, accountability, admissions practices and policies, and constituent communications.

Education Required: Bachelor’s degree required

Education Preferred: Master’s degree

Experience Required: 6 years

Specify Type of Experience: Related experience in selective college admission environment

Skills Required

• Familiarity with the multiple work areas of a modern admissions office including CRM systems, reporting, and analytics, recruitment, evaluation and selection, marketing including social media, access and inclusion, on-campus programming, staff training, budget management, and staff development
• Ability to manage projects utilizing project management skills and a proven ability to develop these skills in others
• Ability to create solutions that enhance the way prospective undergraduate students interpret information thereby seeking engagement with the campus.
• Ability to use admission and enrollment analysis to make fact-based decisions to assess goals and develop new processes.
• Play a key role in collaborating and building relationships with internal and external stakeholders and key strategic partners
• High level of proficiency in MS Office suite including Excel and Access
• Excellent communication, presentation, and customer service skills
• Possess the ability to exercise independent judgment

Essential Functions

• Serves as a key member of the unit’s management team to develop strategies and initiatives to achieve the goals of the division aligned to the priorities of the university
• Supervises and coaches a team of highly skilled admission professionals including the development of process and project management skills, year-over-year planning, measurement and accountability, and admissions practices and policies
• Manages a key work area within admission, enrollment, and marketing and develops successful long-term objectives that build on the strengths of the assigned team members
• Serves as a thought leader within the unit and in the field on best practices for college admission, recruitment, selection, accountability, and measurement
• Works with administrative lead to co-manage unit budget and promotes professional stewardship of funds and accountability toward growing efficiency and effective resource utilization
• Ensures compliance with federal and state laws concerning college admission, FERPA, and affirmative action
• Performs all other duties as assigned

Preferences

• Experience in a leadership or supervisory role
• Experience in a highly selective college admission environment
• Experience with committee-based evaluation is highly desired
• Familiarity with the evaluation and selection process in a highly selective admission environment
• demonstrated ability to lead staff through change management
• Sense of humor and ability to rebound after inevitable set-backs
• Proficiency with Slate by Technolutions
• Demonstrated leadership, communication, marketing, planning, and public speaking skills highly desired
• Planning large-scale campus-wide events such as Yield (Owl Days, Vision, Owl Arrive) and recruiting events
• Project management for large events including budgeting, logistics, staff and volunteers, and meeting all deliverables.

Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability or protected veteran status.

Current Rice University COVID policies, which include vaccination, face mask, testing, gatherings, occupancy limits, and travel policies can be found here: https://coronavirus.rice.edu/policies