Graduate Recruitment Lead - Strategy, Outreach & Leadership

Iowa State University - College of Design; Ames (IA); On-site; USD 52,000 - 66,000; Full time

Job summary

Iowa State University is seeking a collaborative, student-focused Student Recruiter III to lead graduate recruitment initiatives and support a team dedicated to guiding prospective graduate students from inquiry through enrollment.

The role emphasizes leadership, communication, and strategic outreach, including domestic and international engagement, with occasional evening/weekend commitments and travel.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of related experience.
• Experience in higher education graduate student recruitment.
• Experience engaging with domestic and international student populations or supporting recruitment initiatives across different geographic markets.
• Experience supervising, coaching, mentoring, or providing leadership and direction to staff or teams.
• Experience using customer relationship management (CRM) systems, such as Salesforce, to manage prospective student engagement, communication campaigns, and follow-up activities.
• Experience analyzing recruitment, enrollment, or outreach data to evaluate outcomes, identify trends, and guide strategic decisions.

Responsibilities

• Graduate Recruitment Strategy: Collaborate with the supervisor to support the development, implementation, and evaluation of graduate recruitment strategies, including on-campus, online, and hybrid non-thesis master’s programs.
• Supervise and Develop Staff: Provide leadership and direction to recruitment staff through coaching, mentoring, performance management, employee development, and team engagement.
• Manage Recruitment Outreach: Oversee an assigned recruitment territory or prospect population, coordinate outreach efforts, and guide team strategies to engage prospective students from initial inquiry through enrollment.
• Support Prospective Graduate Students: Provide guidance on graduate programs, application requirements, admission decisions, enrollment processes, and available resources.
• Coordinate Recruitment Events and Visits: Lead the planning and execution of graduate recruitment events, campus and virtual visits, information sessions, and yield activities.
• Build Campus and External Partnerships: Develop and maintain relationships with the Graduate College, academic departments, scholarship representatives, international student services, educational institutions, and external recruitment partners.
• Lead Recruitment Communications: Develop and coordinate targeted recruitment campaigns, Salesforce Journeys, and follow-up strategies to strengthen prospective student engagement and support enrollment goals.
• Use Data to Drive Decisions: Analyze recruitment trends, develop dashboards, evaluate outreach effectiveness, and use enrollment data and student feedback to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Support Recruitment Travel and Budget Planning: Coordinate domestic and international recruitment activities, oversee team travel and event coverage, monitor recruitment spending, and evaluate recruitment outcomes.
• Improve Recruitment Operations: Provide guidance on recruitment systems, staff training, communication practices, and process improvements to ensure consistent, responsive, and effective service to prospective students.

Skills

Staff leadership

Graduate recruitment

Student engagement

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Salesforce

Job description

Iowa State University is seeking a collaborative, student-focused Student Recruiter III to lead graduate recruitment initiatives and support a team dedicated to guiding prospective graduate students from inquiry through enrollment.

The role emphasizes leadership, communication, and strategic outreach, including domestic and international engagement, with occasional evening/weekend commitments and travel.