Manager, Applicant Experience

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

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.

About the University of Calgary

UCalgary is Canada's entrepreneurial university, located in Canada's most enterprising city. It is a top research university and one of the highest-ranked universities of its age. Founded in 1966, its 36,000 students experience an innovative learning environment, made rich by research, hands-on experiences and entrepreneurial thinking.

It is Canada's leader in the creation of start-ups. Start something today at the University of Calgary. For more information, visit ucalcary.ca.

The University of Calgary has launched an institution-wide Indigenous Strategy ii' taa'poh'to'p committing to creating a rich, vibrant, and culturally competent campus that welcomes and supports Indigenous Peoples, encourages Indigenous community partnerships, is inclusive of Indigenous perspectives in all that we do.

The many unit-based circles working towards implementation of the strategy including the Faculty Advisory Circle and teams such as the Office of Indigenous Engagement, the Writing Symbols Lodge, and the Indigenous Research Support Team.

Many Indigenous-based events and processes are impacting curriculum, programming and polices at the University of Calgary.

As an equitable and inclusive employer, the University of Calgary recognizes that a diverse staff/faculty benefits and enriches the work, learning and research experiences of the entire campus and greater community. We are committed to removing barriers that have been historically encountered by some people in our society. We strive to recruit individuals who will further enhance our diversity and will support their academic and professional success while they are here.

In particular, we encourage members of the designated groups (women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, members of visible/racialized minorities, and diverse sexual orientation and gender identities) to apply. To ensure a fair and equitable assessment, we offer accommodation at any stage during the recruitment process to applicants with disabilities. Questions regarding (diversity) EDI at UCalgary can be sent to the Office of Institutional Commitments ([email protected]) and requests for accommodations can be sent to People & Culture ([email protected]).

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