Head of Admissions & Community Relations
Abu Dhabi
AED 17,000 per month
Our client is an established growing education brand in the GCC. The Head of Admissions and Community Relations will lead the school’s marketing, enrolment, and retention strategies, ensuring sustained growth and exceptional family experience. A key part of the role is building strong, lasting relationships with both existing and prospective parents, while overseeing the school’s marketing and admissions functions. This role will strengthen the school’s reputation in the community, drive enrolment growth, and foster positive community relations through proactive communication, engagement, and events. Someone with strong marketing orientation. A candidate who can think beyond admissions administration and genuinely drive the school’s market presence, enrolment growth, retention and community engagement. A strong track record in developing and executing marketing and retention strategies is therefore important. Our client offers great benefits including school discount fees for up to two children. Please read and respect the criteria requirements mentioned and only apply if you meet these as you will not be considered if you do not, this role is not open to candidates who do not currently reside here.
Description:
- Lead the development and execution of marketing strategies to attract new enrolments and retain existing families, ensuring alignment with the school’s brand and growth objectives.
- Drive enrolment and retention performance, ensuring targets are met each academic year.
- Lead and manage the Registrar, Parent Relations Executive (PRE), and Reception teams, ensuring they deliver an exceptional parent experience.
- Design and deliver parent engagement initiatives, events, and communications that build loyalty, strengthen advocacy, and create a sense of belonging within the school community
- Drive the retention process with the SLT, supported by clear reporting, analysis, and proactive family engagement
- Build and sustain strong feeder networks with nurseries, community partners, and local organisations to create consistent pipelines of new students
- Represent the school at external and internal events, confidently promoting the ethos and excellence
- Provide regular reporting, forecasting, and insights on enrolment and retention to the Principal and Central Office
- Ensure a personalised, high-quality school tour and onboarding experience for prospective families
- Collaborate with school leadership and group teams to align engagement, marketing, and growth initiatives
Criteria:
- Experience in managing a team, with excellent communication skills
- Strong interpersonal and leadership skills, with the ability to build trust with families and influence senior stakeholders
- Proven leadership experience in marketing, parent engagement, or customer experience, ideally within education
- Strong track record of developing and implementing marketing and retention strategies
- Minimum of 2 years’ experience in the UAE
- Experience in data management and CRM systems, with ability to analyse and present key metrics
- Bachelor’s degree required
- Arabic speaker is an advantage but not essential
- Must currently reside in the UAE
Please respect the criteria requirements and only apply if you meet these as you will not be considered if you do not. We thank you for your application, however due to the high volume of candidate applications, we only accept online applications in the first instance. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted, however if you are not successful on this occasion, your CV will be stored on our database but to make sure you do not miss out, keep checking our website, follow us on Twitter and follow our Sapphire Recruitment LinkedIn page.