Head – Admissions & Marketing

Job Title: Head Admissions & Marketing

Function: Admissions & Marketing

Reporting To: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Location: Chennai / Coimbatore with travel to all existing and new campus locations.

Experience: ~15 years total experience (K12 education strongly preferred)

Role Purpose

The Head Admissions & Marketing is a senior leadership role responsible for driving student enrolments and strengthening brand positioning across a multi-campus, multi-city K12 school network. The role entails a 60% focus on Admissions and 40% focus on Marketing , with direct accountability for admissions performance, parent engagement, lead conversion, brand visibility and campaign effectiveness across both offline and digital channels.

This role requires deep exposure to K12 admissions operations , preferably across multiple curricula and cities , strong parent-facing capabilities and the ability to work with structured data, dashboards and international reporting frameworks.

Key Responsibilities

A. Admissions Leadership (60%)

1.Admissions Strategy & Planning

• Develop and execute a comprehensive admissions strategy aligned with annual enrolment targets and long-term growth plans.
• Translate institutional goals into campus-wise, curriculum-wise, and city-wise admissions plans.
• Drive new admissions, lateral entries, re-registrations, and retention across all campuses.
• Own enrolment forecasting, capacity planning, and grade-wise intake optimisation.
• Identify and unlock growth opportunities in existing and new markets.

2. Admissions Operations Management

• Oversee end-to-end admissions processes across multiple campuses and cities, ensuring consistency, compliance, and quality of parent experience.
• Standardise admissions workflows, SOPs, scripts, eligibility norms, and service standards across cities and curricula.

3.Admissions Performance & Conversion

• Set campus-wise and city-wise admissions targets, KPIs, and conversion benchmarks.
• Monitor daily / weekly / monthly admissions dashboards and MIS.
• Drive productivity, quality, and accountability of admissions team members and managers.
• Own enrolment targets, lead-to-admission conversion ratios, retention metrics, and yield analysis.
• Monitor daily, weekly, and monthly admissions dashboards and take corrective actions proactively.

4. Parent Engagement & Experience

• Ensure high-quality parent interactions, campus visits, open houses, and admission events.
• Strengthen counselling quality with a strong focus on academic differentiation, curriculum articulation, and value proposition.
• Manage escalations and critical parent cases, where required.
• Ensure a high-quality, transparent, and trust-driven admissions experience.

5.Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, mentor, and evaluate central and campus-level admissions teams.
• Define KPIs, performance dashboards, incentive structures, and training frameworks.
• Design training frameworks for admissions counsellors focusing on communication, curriculum articulation, and objection handling.

6.Data & Reporting

• Own admissions MIS, dashboards, and forecasting models.
• Track enrolment trends, drop-offs, retention metrics, and market intelligence.
• Prepare leadership and board-level reports; exposure to international or global reporting frameworks is an added advantage.
• Analyse trends, seasonality, demographic insights, and funnel effectiveness.

7.Stakeholder Management

• Work closely with Heads of School, Academic Leaders, Operations, and Finance teams to align capacity, staffing, and infrastructure with admissions plans.
• Act as a key escalation point for complex parent cases and high-value admissions.

B. Marketing & Brand Management (40%)

1.Marketing Strategy & Brand Positioning

• Develop and execute annual marketing strategies to support admissions growth and brand visibility.
• Drive integrated marketing across digital, performance marketing, events, partnerships, outdoor, and print.
• Optimise marketing spends through ROI-led decision-making.

2.Brand Positioning

• Strengthen institutional brand positioning across cities and curricula.
• Ensure consistent messaging, tone, and visual identity across all touchpoints.
• Position the school network as a trusted, high-quality K12 education brand.

3.Offline Marketing

• Plan and execute offline initiatives including school events, open houses, roadshows, education fairs, print campaigns, outdoor media, and local partnerships.
• Evaluate ROI and effectiveness of offline campaigns city-wise.

4.Digital & Online Marketing

• Oversee digital marketing efforts including website optimisation, performance marketing, SEO/SEM, social media & lead-generation campaigns.
• Ensure strong lead quality by working closely with agencies and internal teams to optimise cost per lead and cost per admission & maximise digital performance.

5.Campaign Planning & Execution

• Design annual and seasonal admission campaigns aligned to academic calendars.
• Ensure coordination between marketing campaigns and admissions readiness at campus level.

6.Communications & Outreach

• Guide content strategy including brochures, presentations, parent communication, campus collateral, and community outreach programmes.

7.Market Intelligence

• Track competitor landscape, pricing, parent preferences, curriculum trends, and regulatory changes.
• Use insights to refine admissions pitches, campaigns, and market entry strategies (in new markets).

8.Analytics & Reporting

• Track marketing KPIs such as lead sources, CPL, CAC, campaign ROI, brand reach, and engagement metrics.
• Present actionable insights and recommendations to senior leadership.

Key Stakeholder Management

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
• Academic/ Operations Leadership & Heads of School
• Operations, Finance, and IT teams
• External agencies, vendors, and marketing partners
• Parents and prospective families

Candidate Profile

Experience & Background

• Approximately 15 years of overall experience, with significant exposure to K12 admissions and marketing.
• Proven experience managing multi-city and multi-campus admissions operations.
• Experience across multiple curricula (IB, Cambridge, CBSE & NIOS or equivalent) is strongly preferred.
• Exposure to international or global data reporting frameworks is an added advantage.

Education

• MBA / Masters degree in Marketing, Management, or a related discipline (preferred).

Skills & Competencies

• Strong parent-facing communication and counselling skills.
• Demonstrated leadership and people management capability.
• Strategic thinking combined with strong operational execution.
• High data orientation with comfort in dashboards, CRM systems, and MIS.
• Proven experience in both offline and digital marketing.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, target-driven environment with high accountability.

Success Measures (Indicative)

• Achievement of enrolment targets and conversion ratios.
• Cost per admission and marketing ROI.
• Parent satisfaction and experience metrics.
• Admissions process standardisation and compliance.
• Brand visibility and lead quality improvement across cities.