Associate Director, Fellow Recruitment

Department

Graham Leadership & Society Initiatives

About the Department

The Leadership and Society Initiative (LSI) is a University-wide experience supporting accomplished executives in pursuing next chapters of social impact through engagement with the UChicago’s intellectual assets and environment for breakthrough ideas. LSI sits administratively within the Graham School, the University’s home for lifelong liberal arts supporting discovery and discernment through deep inquiry into timeless and timely topics.

Job Summary

The University of Chicago Leadership and Society Initiative (LSI) is a cohort-based fellowship that supports distinguished individuals at or nearing retirement to transition from their longstanding careers toward purposeful next chapters of leadership for society. The initiative has a two-part mission, to help individuals live more meaningful, connected, and fulfilling lives; and to help society by equipping these individuals with the frameworks, pathways, and community to drive significant, positive societal impact.  LSI is seeking an Associate Director of Fellow Recruitment to grow and enhance the LSI fellow community by recruiting extraordinary individuals to serve as fellows in both its full-time and part-time pathways.

Reporting to the Director of the Leadership and Society Initiative, the Associate Director will be responsible for all aspects of fellow recruitment and the candidate experience, including building the prospect pool, maintaining a robust and diverse candidate pipeline, stewarding prospects through the inquiry and application process, and delivering outstanding cohorts. Manages full LSI candidate pipeline, in three phases: 1) prospective, 2) in candidate pipeline and 3) through application and admission. This includes spearheading recruitment activities from prospect to enrollment with a pool of distinguished leaders, including initial applicant review and candidate processing in Slate. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is skilled in recruitment, executive search, and/or stakeholder engagement, and is passionate about individual growth, community building, leadership development, and societal impact.

Responsibilities

• Partners with four-person, central marketing team to design and execute outreach strategies that elevate LSI’s visibility and attract high-caliber prospects.
• Identifies and engages prospective fellows through a combination of 1x1 and network-based outreach to build a robust pipeline of high caliber candidates.
• Serves as primary point of contact for prospective candidates, introducing them to the LSI fellowship and providing individualized attention.
• Recommends recruitment targets and KPIs to deliver successful cohorts, with each cohort comprising approximately 25 Fellows. Evaluates opportunities for audience segmentation, such as by industry, region, affinity, education, and suggests strategies for effectively reaching those segments to achieve recruitment goals.
• Utilizes systems and tools, including LinkedIn Recruiter, to identify and source individual prospective fellows.
• Oversees the LSI recruitment calendar, including key events, communications, and partnerships to raise awareness of the program within our target audience and grow a healthy candidate pipeline. 
• Prepares marketing and recruitment materials, and plans and hosts recruiting events utilizing existing communications platforms to organize, disseminate, and track performance of outreach campaigns.
• Maintains awareness of activities and changes in peer programs; keeps team members apprised of relevant developments in the marketplace and recommends opportunities to differentiate LSI within our target audience.  
• Once a prospect has submitted their candidacy, manages/activates candidacies in Slate CRM, including reviewing for eligibility and quality of candidacy.
• Invites qualified candidates to proceed in the admissions process.
• Develops strong relationships with prospective fellows to convert them into the application funnel and in service of maintaining a robust and diverse candidate pipeline.  
• Conducts 1x1 outreach to provide support, clarifies the application process, answers questions about LSI and/or triage inquiries to the LSI Director or program team.
• For full applications, leverages Slate CRM to manage application pipeline and coordinates candidate reviews with the Admissions Committee.
• Works closely with LSI Director to provide candidate insights from recruitment process. Captures individual candidate engagement in Slate records.
• Once admitted into the Fellows, develops strong relationships to convert them to acceptances.
• Coordinates closely with the LSI program team to remain fully abreast of program developments to