Development Director
Responsible for the school's Admissions and Marketing Departments.
Job purpose (Overview)
The Development Director is responsible for the school’s growth strategy and sits on the school’s Senior Management Team.
Leveraging the school’s dynamic, growth-minded, and innovative community, the Development Director promotes and enhances the school’s creative and positive brand.
Working alongside the school’s Executive Committee, the Development Director sets annual strategic growth plans and manages programs and initiatives to achieve, measure, and report outcomes from the growth plans.
Outcomes may include improving enrollment, brand perception, internal community management and communications, smooth operation of marketing / admissions processes, social media engagement, partnerships, and extra curricular sign ups.
The Development Director reports to the school’s Managing Director, the Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors. The Development Director is supported by a direct team of four.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
Leverages a dynamic and fun school environment to positively and creatively promote the school.
Undertakes an extensive discovery process in preparation for developing the annual growth strategy, collecting and using analytics such as market, business, and customer data.
Works collaboratively with executive management to develop annual growth strategy.
Implements programs and initiates from the annual growth strategy. Measures and reports on these initiatives.
Independently manages a team of four toward high performance outcomes.
Develops, monitors, and maintains policies and procedures for the marketing and admissions departments and communicates these to staff, as necessary.
Oversees the process of student enrollment from application to admission to withdrawal.
Brand guardian, ensuring all school communications are consistent and high quality.
Produces marketing collateral, such as brochures, videos, and other items to promote the school and school initiatives.
Manages the school website; manages staff and parent portals.
Manages social media strategy and platforms (Facebook and Instagram).
Develops, maintains, and monitors business analytics that help drive market strategy.
Produces monthly reports on enrollment statistics (i.e. enrollment, inquiries, applicants) for Senior Management Team.
Prepares ad-hoc reports to agencies such as the Education Bureau, WASC (accrediting body), or any other body.
Builds relationships with relocation agents referring students to the school.
Meets regularly with parents to understand the school and school market. Conducts parent surveys as necessary.
Presents booths at international school festivals and represents the school at each festival.
Maintains general knowledge of school activities, programs and requirements.
Process debenture applications as well as the point of contact for debenture related questions
Works closely with the finance manager regarding the sale and resale of a debentures.
Builds department capabilities, as needed.
Required Qualifications
A Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Sales, Business and / or Communications
10+ years of working experience
Excellent organizational skills and ability to prioritize and manage tasks
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
Strongly Preferred
School experience, especially progressive educational ideals
Cantonese and Mandarin speaking and / or writing
Computer literacy (Apple, Microsoft Office, and Google Suite)
Proficiency / experience with social media marketing
Entrepreneurial / startup experience or entrepreneurial spirit; strong bias for action
Experience leveraging creative assets to drive business outcomes
Storytelling through video production
Data-oriented decision maker
Creative thinker
Direct Reports
Associate Marketing Director (Part-Time)
Events and Extra-curricular Programs Manager
Communications Officer
Admissions Officer
Safeguarding
The Harbour school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. All posts at the school are subject to rigorous background checks.
