Manager, Applicant Experience

University of Calgary

$80K — $95K *
Education, Government & Non-Profit
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Undergraduate degree required; advanced degree preferred.
  • 3-5 years in a registrar's office, preferably admissions.
  • Proven experience in developing and delivering training programs.
  • Preferred management and leadership experience.
  • Strong understanding of student information systems and CRM tools.

Responsibilities

  • Implement service strategy and operations plan alongside senior registrars.
  • Set and evaluate unit goals while guiding process improvements.
  • Oversee daily advising operations, ensuring effective response to inquiries.
  • Manage admissions processing performance and coach staff on policies.
  • Develop and execute communication strategies to enhance applicant experience.

Benefits

  • Professional development opportunities in an academic environment.
  • Collaborative work culture with emphasis on mentorship.
  • Access to the latest technologies in admissions and communications.
  • Dynamic work environment with the potential for innovation in applicant services.
Full Job Description
Description

Admissions within the Office of the Registrar is currently seeking a Full-time Temporary Relief Manager, Applicant Experience for approximately 3 years.

The Manager, Applicant Experience is an expert in effective communication that supports a positive experience for more than 40,000 undergraduate and open studies applicants and the admission of approximately 8,000 new students each year. Within the admissions process, operations include receipt of approximately 170,000 official documents, thousands of emails, and over 70,000 phone and in-person inquiries annually.

Reporting to the Assistant Registrar, Undergraduate Admissions, the manager provides direction, supervision and coordination on undergraduate admission processes, communications and advising services in support of the University of Calgary's enrolment goals. This position leads and coordinates 9 support staff and additional part-time and student staff to compliment peaks in the admission cycle in addition to leading the training, support and operationalization of advising within all admission and recruitment units.

The Manager works collaboratively with the Manager, Domestic Evaluations and the Team Lead, International Admissions to ensure coordination of undergraduate admission processing and service delivery including support in the development and implementation of new strategies to effectively recruit, admit and convert prospective undergraduate students.

Summary of Key Responsibilities (job functions include but are not limited to):
  • Works closely with the Assistant Registrar, Undergraduate Admission and Associate Registrar, Information, Admission and Recruitment on implementing the service strategy and operations plan.
  • Participates in goal setting for the unit; assesses and evaluates the units progress in meeting established goals and objectives, makes recommendations on process, service, system, and policy changes, and works to implement those changes, often leading a group of staff to achieve the desired outcomes. Assists in organizing and conducting team meetings and planning sessions.
  • Manages the day-to-day operations of the undergraduate admissions advising services including establishing appropriate schedules to cover student inquiries (phone, email and in-person advising etc.).
  • Manages the day to day operations of front-end application and transcript processing, and reviewing and assesses overall and individual performance.
  • Coaches staff on effective decision making and policy interpretation.
  • Provides a positive leadership model to staff; is a willing mentor and shares knowledge and expertise freely, and, creates a safe and productive working environment.
  • Develops and provides reports relating to advising and admission processing statistics as needed.
  • Assists in the recommendation, review, selection, testing, and implementation of technology to ensure an exceptional applicant experience.
  • Conducts research and analytics that support and drive operational changes that benefit the student experience; creates and distributes annual accept/decline survey and regular review of advising model and service delivery to implement changes that are responsive to student need.
  • Manages daily operations of the admissions contact centre including training, onboarding, set-up, maintenance and troubleshooting.
  • Responsible for the development and implementation of communication strategies and tactics including an annual communication plan executed through the CRM.
  • Assesses need, develops, and delivers training programs for admission processes, communications and advising services, ensuring these programs are kept current and timely. Develops and maintains training materials on an ongoing basis. Provides training to other departments as required.
  • Contributes to developing and maintaining training related documentation, including relevant policies, procedures and reference material is up to date and maintained in an effective format

Qualifications / Requirements:
  • A minimum of an undergraduate degree.
  • Three to five years of experience working in a registrar's office, preferable in admissions.
  • Several years of demonstrated success at assessing, developing and delivering training programs for a team, and the ability to develop and maintain appropriate training documentation.
  • Previous management and leadership experience preferred.
  • Student experience oriented with a demonstrated ability to lead and direct others.
  • Ability to be decisive while simultaneously working with a level of ambiguity.
  • Demonstrated ability to leverage technology to support decision making, service delivery and staff training.
  • Advanced knowledge and understanding of student information systems, preferably PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Recruitment and Admissions modules.
  • Experience using a Customer Relationship Management tool is required.
  • Advanced capacity to use a variety of software, including MS Office (or equivalent), an electronic document management system, a Chatbot tool is required.
  • Advanced understanding of the admission and conversion cycle is required and knowledge of recruitment is an asset
  • Comprehensive and expert knowledge of the University's policies, procedures, educational programs, regulations and services. Especially detailed knowledge relating to admission requirements for high school students with Canadian and international educational backgrounds. Includes detailed knowledge of education systems around the world
  • Must embrace change and have demonstrated successful experience supporting and leading change in a complex, people-oriented environment.
  • Experience with process documentation, developing training materials and training other staff.
  • Demonstrated ability to work, communicate, and build relationships with diverse groups of people.
  • A positive, collaborative and supportive leader, able to organize, motivate, mentor and develop people.
  • A clear and compelling communicator who must demonstrate success at giving compelling and clear presentations to a variety of stakeholders.
  • An ability to establish objectives and to implement a plan to meet those objectives.
  • An ability to simultaneously deal with a number of priorities and multi-task in a fast-paced, high volume environment.
  • An ability review, recommend and implement changes to the workflow, procedures and schedules.
  • An ability to work independently with minimal supervision, manage own workload to minimize stress and maintain own wellness, and to model desired work behaviour to others.
  • Experience and comfort leveraging technology to deliver high caliber services and to streamline business processes are required.
  • Demonstrated success in team building.
  • Experience in reporting and analytics is an asset, including demonstrated experience with data-based decision making.
  • Excellent attention to detail due to high impact of error.

Application Deadline: August 21, 2026

We would like to thank all applicants in advance for submitting their resumes. Please note, only those candidates chosen to continue on through the selection process will be contacted.

This position is classified in the Management Career Band, Level 1 of the Management and Professional Staff Career Framework.

For a listing of all management and staff opportunities at the University of Calgary, view our Management and Staff Careers website .

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