Chief Enrollment & Marketing Officer at CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS in MONTPELIER, VT 05602

Job description

• Overview
• 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

Responsibilities

• 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
• 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.
• Marketing & Brand Strategy
• 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.
• Communications
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Requirements

• 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.
• Graduate education
• Arts education
• Low-residency or online education
• Slate CRM
• AI-powered enrollment systems
• Digital marketing analytics
• Brand development
• Creative industries
• Strategic thinking
• Entrepreneurial mindset
• Data fluency
• Creative problem solving
• Emotional intelligence
• Collaborative leadership
• Change management
• Strong operational execution
• Exceptional communication
• Curiosity and continuous learning

Skills

Preferred

• Experience with graduate education
• Experience with arts education
• Experience with Slate CRM
• Experience with brand development
• Experience with creative industries

Benefits

• $110,000.00 - $125,000.00 Salary/year