Director of Scholar Recruitment

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California, +2 more states.

📋 Description

• Design, manage, and consistently enhance a thorough, data-driven Scholar recruitment strategy that aligns with Thrive’s organizational goals and fosters the growth of the Six-Year Program.

• Establish annual recruitment targets and create leading indicators and dashboards to track progress throughout the recruitment cycle; perform a comprehensive end-of-cycle analysis to assess effectiveness and promote ongoing improvement.

• Develop and oversee the systems, workflows, and processes governing the Scholar recruitment and application experience—ensuring clarity, consistency, and scalability as Thrive expands into new markets.

• Craft the applicant communication and stewardship strategy, including the sequencing and framing of outreach to prospective and applied students, to optimize both application completion and yield of accepted scholars.

• Formulate and lead Thrive’s recruitment partnership strategy—identifying, nurturing, and managing relationships with high schools, school districts, community-based organizations, and other partners in both established and emerging markets, focusing on building sustainable and recurring student pipelines.

• Manage the Scholar Recruitment budget; provide budget recommendations based on resource requirements and strategic priorities, ensuring responsible cost management.

• Stay informed on trends in student recruitment, college access, and the broader competitive landscape; incorporate external insights to enhance internal strategy.

• Recruit, onboard, mentor, manage performance, and develop talent within the Recruitment team, fostering a culture of accountability, ambition, and continuous improvement.

• Offer ongoing coaching and guidance to Recruitment staff on data-driven outreach, yield strategies, and partnership development—ensuring all team members are equipped to achieve ambitious objectives.

• Encourage continuous learning and development by identifying areas for team growth and implementing suitable strategies in collaboration with relevant organizational leaders.

• Promote a positive team culture by connecting tasks to mission impact and nurturing an environment of dialogue, feedback, and shared success.

• Lead the design and strategic framework for the Scholar application and selection process across all programs in collaboration with program directors and the Associate Director of Admissions and Enrollment.

• Establish evaluation rubrics, selection criteria, and quality standards for the admissions process; ensure consistent, equitable, and high-quality evaluation at scale.

• Collaborate with the Operations team to ensure recruitment and admissions data is tracked, reported, and utilized to inform decisions.

• Cultivate relationships with university admissions offices and other external partners relevant to scholar recruitment and enrollment.

• Work with program directors across College Access, College Success, Summer Academy, and Career Development to ensure the recruitment strategy aligns with broader program goals and enhances the scholar experience.

⛳️ Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required.

• 8+ years of experience in student recruitment, college admissions, or a related field within a nonprofit or educational environment.

• 3+ years of direct people management experience, with a proven history of leading teams towards ambitious goals.

• Demonstrated ability to design and manage complex recruitment or admissions strategies, build systems from the ground up, and adapt to changing organizational needs.

• Strong analytical skills with experience in utilizing data, dashboards, and leading indicators to inform strategy and evaluate results.

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, capable of leading large group presentations and workshops for diverse audiences.

• Highly adept relationship-builder with experience in cultivating partnerships with high school counselors, community-based organizations, and other external stakeholders.

• Proficiency in CRM systems is required; experience with Salesforce is preferred.

• Alignment with Thrive’s mission and a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion across all aspects of the role.

• Entrepreneurial mindset focused on continuous improvement and innovation.

🏝️ Benefits

• High-quality health and dental insurance

• Paid vacation

• Employer-matched retirement plan