Graduate Recruitment Officer

Overview:
The Graduate Recruitment Officer is responsible for strategic marketing and communications to attract and retain the best students who will succeed in our distinctive programs and to help ensure the Faculty meets annual graduate enrollment targets. The incumbent conducts research and analysis to inform Faculty strategy and program-specific tactics that will distinguish and clearly position Waterloo Science graduate studies. In addition, the incumbent is responsible for content creation for various channels and do serve various communications and marketing objectives. Working in close consultation with the Associate Dean, Graduate Studies, Science graduate program officers, and communications/recruitment colleagues, the role is also responsible for engaging and facilitating faculty, staff, students, and alumni in their roles relevant to graduate recruitment.

**Responsibilities**:
Marketing planning and strategy
- Develops, advises on, and implements the Faculty graduate recruitment strategy, with particular attention to customized tactics for individual programs
- Researches and identifies the most effective digital media channels to reach prospective students for our various programs, including social media engagement and advertising
- Ensures alignment of recruitment marketing with Science and University branding, in collaboration with communications and recruitment colleagues in the Faculty and in Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs

Content development, creation, and implementation
- Maintains Science faculty-level graduate webpages; ensures accuracy in program descriptions and details across all communication channels, including department webpages, and in the Graduate Studies Calendar
- Identifies and produces student, professor, employer, alumni and other appropriate testimonial stories in liaison with the academic units to create customized content to support a variety of research areas
- Produces highly engaging content for relevant websites, such as student and alumni profiles, including written stories, photography, and video
- Develops, coordinates and writes/edits program print materials; manages design, review, and approval and print processes

Knowledge, research, and consultation
- Develops and maintains up-to-date knowledge of the Faculty of Science masters and doctoral programs across the disciplines, particularly regarding their respective competitive and distinguishing features
- Develops and maintains general knowledge of graduate admissions process; internal and external graduate funding sources; University policies and procedures as they relate to graduate student experience
- Based on research, maintains an understanding of the characteristics and motivations of current prospective graduate students, including at their needs/expectations during the stages of enrolment management
- Maintains awareness of evolving post-graduation career options, particularly in non-academic fields, in order to leverage examples for recruitment and marketing purposes
- Consults with Science graduate program constituents, including the Associate Dean, Graduate Studies, graduate programs’ associate chairs, administrative coordinators, current graduate students
- Reviews and coordinates best practices and University-wide branding for graduate studies with the Manager, Graduate Marketing and Recruitment in the office of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, as well as with recruitment counterparts in other faculties.
- Attends meetings and program activities/events as appropriate to ensure currency of knowledge and to leverage events for graduate promotion content
- In consultation and coordination with key partners (mentioned above), develop and distribute surveys and other analytical tools
- Analyzes, shares, and discusses results with partners; determines recruitment strategy/tactic refinements based on data and other evidence

Budget planning and distribution
- Manages graduate recruitment budget, including equitable distribution of funds for individual program initiatives based on annual prioritization agreed upon with Associate Dean, Graduate Studies
- Using data and other relevant measures, assess return on investment regarding recruitment tactics, particularly with regard to time
- and cost-effectiveness

Communications support
- Collaborates, supports, and provides backup on various Science and University communication initiatives, either directly or indirectly related to graduate recruitment

Qualifications:

- University degree, in a field related to communications and marketing (e.g., English, communication studies, marketing, media studies); graduate degree strongly preferred
- Communications and/or marketing professional with demonstrable working knowledge of digital communications tools. Previous work experience in a post-secondary institution is required; experience studying and/or working within graduate studies is a strong asset
- Proven excellent writing, editing, a