Associate Director of Student Recruitment & Enrollment Operation

We are a thriving nonprofit network of 23 free, public charter schools open to all students. At KIPP, we believe all children should grow up free to create the future they want for themselves and that schools can and should be a critical factor in making that vision a reality. Together with families and communities, we create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose—college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world. 

Our student community consists of over 7,100 elementary, middle, and high school students in East Palo Alto, Oakland, San Francisco, San Lorenzo, San José, Redwood City, and Stockton. 80% qualify for free or reduced price lunch, 27% are multilingual learners, and 17% receive special education services. We strive to cultivate a representative team of teachers and leaders that reflect our students’ diversity.

The Associate Director of Student Recruitment & Enrollment Operations drives key recruitment and enrollment initiatives across KIPP NorCal, ensuring schools have the systems, tools, and field support needed to meet enrollment goals. Reporting to the Director of Student Recruitment & Enrollment, this role owns defined enrollment Key Results, oversees high-stakes lottery and registration processes, drives applicant-to-student conversion and internal matriculation initiatives, and manages and develops a team of three recruitment staff.

In this role, you own a defined set of department Key Results and decide how to achieve them. You escalate trade-offs that require your Director's authority. People management is role-specific at this level and described in Core Responsibilities below.

Team Leadership & People Management

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  Coaches and develops a team of three Stockton-based recruitment staff, establishing clear goals and performance expectations and holding the team accountable for recruitment outcomes across the Stockton sub-region and schools.

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  Drives implementation of localized field recruitment strategies and grassroots outreach plans, aligning team capacity and tactics with school-specific enrollment goals and community context.

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  Uses field productivity and pipeline data to identify performance gaps, adjust staff deployment and recruitment tactics, and improve progress toward enrollment goals.

• Oversees annual application, lottery, seat-offer, and registration processes across KIPP NorCal schools, ensuring accurate execution, regulatory compliance, data integrity, and a consistent family experience.

• Drives applicant-to-student conversion by designing and implementing consistent follow-up systems, monitoring conversion performance, and adjusting approaches to improve enrollment yield.

• Designs and drives internal middle-to-high school matriculation strategies to ensure current 8th-grade families persist within the network's high school ecosystem.

• Deploy multi-audience engagement plans targeting middle school students, 7th/8th-grade staff, and parents to maximize high school retention.

• Establish progress-monitoring benchmarks for matriculation pacing to proactively identify schools needing additional targeted intervention and campaign support.

• Develop and refine the operational frameworks, tools, and SOPs required to run efficient, scalable enrollment processes across all regions.

• Analyze and track real-time lead, applicant, and registration data to build comprehensive progress reports for regional executives and the Director.

• Formulate data-driven recommendations to pivot recruitment tactics when regions are pacing behind enrollment targets, ensuring a proactive response to changing market demands.

• Aligns with Principals and School Operations Managers to understand unique neighborhood dynamics and effectively communicate enrollment pacing.

• Coaches recruitment staff to strengthen community partnerships and outreach approaches that expand localized recruitment pipelines.

• Collaborate with Regional Support Office teams—including Regional Operations, Data, Communications, and Finance—to align system workflows and campaign rollouts with organizational capacity and fiscal goals.

These competencies describe the core leadership behaviors expected at this level – they guide how we hire, develop, and grow our people at KIPP NorCal.

• Lead Self: You model vulnerability and coach others on self-awareness and reflection. You lead equity conversations and address systemic barriers in hiring and operations. You are a recognized expert who actively develops others' expertise.

• Lead People: You initiate courageous conversations with directness and empathy, shaping the culture and norms of your team or department. You seek stakeholder input, build coalitions, and create plans that anticipate the skills and resources required for success. You drive cross-functional workstreams with peers, aligning priorities across teams.

• Lead Results: You propose Key Results aligned to department strategy and ensure plans are feasible before moving to implementation. You synthesize complexity, weigh options with discernment, and bring clear recommendations to your Director. You create systems to monitor progress and hold yourself and your team accountable for outcomes.

Required Qualifications

Preferred Qualifications

• K-12 Charter Sector Experience: Prior experience working within a Charter Management Organization (CMO) or a deep familiarity with the public charter school landscape, compliance mandates, and local authorization processes.

• Advanced CRM/Systems Expertise: Familiarity with broader marketing operations ecosystems or customer relationship management (CRM) systems (such as Salesforce, HubSpot, or Marketo) that interface with core enrollment databases.

The following details describe how this role is structured and what to expect day-to-day.

Please submit a cover letter and resume by clicking apply on this page.

Email careers@kippnorcal.org