Head of Admissions - Academy

Head of Admissions / Director of Admissions

Reports to:

• Business Owner / CEO / Chief Growth Officer (or equivalent leadership role)

Role Summary:

The Head of Admissions will lead and own the full admissions funnel — from lead generation to enrollment — for your Academy. This person will strategize, build, and manage the admissions team (pods), ensure processes are optimized, ensure high conversion rates, drive accountability, and collaborate closely with marketing, delivery, product, operations, and finance. In a cult-inspired / premium / high-aspiration Academy, this role becomes a key “face of the brand” to students and parents.

You are essentially hiring the person who will build the “Admissions Goutham” node in your pod-structure and scale it.

Key Responsibilities

Below are the core responsibilities. Some will be more emphasized depending on your stage (growth, scale, optimization).

Strategy & Planning

• Define annual, quarterly, and monthly admissions targets (number of inquiries, quality leads, conversions to enrollments, dropouts, yield rate, etc).
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• Build and iterate the admissions funnel (lead → inquiry → counseling → assessment → offer → enrollment) and optimize conversion metrics at each stage (drop-off, time to convert, quality of leads).
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• Work with marketing to coordinate campaigns & messaging to feed the funnel with high-intent leads (co-design campaigns, messaging, channels, nurturing, attribution).
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• Forecast admissions pipeline, revenue, conversion ratios and report to leadership; highlight risks and opportunities.
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• Design pricing, scholarships, payment plans, and financial aid / discount strategies (if applicable) aligned with admissions goals and margin constraints.

Team Leadership & Execution

• Hire, train, mentor, and manage admissions team (counselors, conversation agents, evaluation team) to meet performance metrics (number of calls, conversion %, yield, follow-ups).
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• Set clear KPIs & metrics for each team member (e.g. lead follow-up SLAs, number of counseling calls, conversion to assessment, enrollment closure, drop-off recovery).
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• Monitor performance, review pipelines, provide coaching, and hold accountability.
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• Create and run admissions training, playbooks, objection-handling, objection scripts, CRM best practices, objection labs.

Process & Operations

• Design and maintain the admissions CRM / systems / dashboards (lead tracking, pipeline stages, automation, reminders) to ensure transparency and hygiene.
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• Standardize processes: lead assignment, counselor handover, follow-up cadences, lead nurture, drop-off recovery, application evaluation.
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• Ensure data-driven decision making: analyze metrics across funnel, identify bottlenecks, run experiments (A/B), and implement optimizations.
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• Coordinate with operations, finance, delivery, and product teams to ensure enrollment logistics (payments, onboarding, batch allotments) and communication flows are smooth.
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• Manage compliance, documentation (application forms, eligibility checks, background verification, etc).

Stakeholder Management & Partnerships

• Build relationships with external referral partners (colleges, coaching institutes, schools, student communities, influencers, alumni) to drive lead pipelines.
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• Represent the Academy at outreach events, webinars, info sessions, school / college tie-ups, campus roadshows.
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• Liaise with marketing, content, brand, growth teams to ensure messaging consistency and alignment.
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• Work with leadership for brand building, PR, testimonials, social proof, alumni stories to support admissions.

Continuous Improvement & Innovation

• Keep abreast of trends in the EdTech / higher education / campus placements / student preferences; benchmark competitors.
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• Pilot new lead sources, new engagement models (e.g. AI-driven personalization), new assessment models.
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• Feed insights back to product and marketing about student pain points, objections, messaging improvements.
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• Work with data & analytics to build predictive models (which leads convert, churn risk, lifetime value) and use to optimize funnel.

Desired Qualifications & Experience

Must-Have

Nice-to-Have / Bonus

7–10+ years in admissions / enrollment management / student recruitment in an education or EdTech / higher-ed environment

Prior experience in fast-scaling / startup / high-growth EdTech

3+ years of people leadership / team management

Experience in premium / high-ticket / aspiration brand education

Excellent skills in analytics, funnel metrics, data-driven decision-making

Exposure to creating or scaling new admissions models (e.g. hybrid, cohort-based, AI personalization)

Prior P&L / target-driven accountability

Experience working with AI / automated personalization or predictive analytics

Strong communication skills (to students, parents, stakeholders)

Exposure to partnerships / alliances / school / college network building

Good process orientation, system thinking, CRM experience

Experience in higher education, international admissions, or niche domains

Comfortable working in ambiguity, high ownership mindset

Prior exposure to packaging high-value learning products, premium cohorts, subscription models

Key Performance Metrics (KPIs)

Here are some sample metrics you can hold this role accountable for:

• Number of quality leads / inquiries per month
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• Lead → QLs conversion ratio
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• QLs → SR conversion ratio
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• SR → enrollment (yield) ratio
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• Time from lead to enrollment
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• Cost-per-acquisition (CPA), ROI of campaigns
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• Counselor productivity (calls, follow-ups, conversion)
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• Pipeline coverage vs target (lead backlog)

Admission funnel leakage points & recovery rates