DIRECTOR OF ADMISSIONS in Huntersville, North Carolina at SouthLake Christian Academy Inc

Reports to: Head of School | Member, Senior Leadership Team

ABOUT SOUTHLAKE
SouthLake Christian Academy is a JK–12 Christian school serving the Lake Norman area of Charlotte, North Carolina. Known for academic excellence and Christ-centered education, SouthLake partners with families to educate and disciple the whole person. Our community is guided by the values of Respect, Integrity, Kindness, and Joy. Strategic Anchors: Centering Christ • Building Trust • Improving Services

APPLICANTS
SouthLake seeks a highly motivated, service-oriented Director of Admissions to lead enrollment efforts and provide exceptional support to prospective and current families. Successful candidates will demonstrate strong leadership, relationship-building skills, professionalism, and a commitment to SouthLake's mission and values.

APPLICATION PROCESS
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and may close at any time. Please upload a current resume and complete all supplemental questions. Qualified candidates will be contacted regarding next steps, which may include multiple interview rounds.

THE ROLE
The Director of Admissions leads SouthLake's enrollment strategy, from a family's first inquiry through enrollment and retention, and serves on the Senior Leadership Team. The Director oversees enrollment outcomes, forecasting, admissions operations, family experience, retention initiatives, and community partnerships while ensuring all practices align with the school's mission, values, and Executive Limitations noted below.

The Director inherits the current Enrollment Services Ministry Team and, within the first year, will recommend an organizational structure, roles, and decision-making framework to support future enrollment growth and sustainability.

IDEAL CANDIDATE
The ideal candidate has experience leading admissions, enrollment, or another relationship-driven function with measurable results in growth, retention, customer experience, or process improvement. They are skilled at building trust with families and community partners, communicating SouthLake's Christian mission with clarity and conviction, influencing across departments, and providing reliable enrollment forecasts that support strategic planning.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Senior Leadership
1. Serves on the Senior Leadership Team as a first team: attends weekly Tacticals with the enrollment scoreboard, argues positions in the room and owns the team's decisions outside it, and keeps the team's norms, including Sacred Sabbath and response expectations.
2. Gives the Head of School and the Associate Head of School, Finance and Operations a written enrollment forecast by grade for each budget cycle, built from funnel, retention, and market data rather than from the target, and reports the target separately.
3. Reports to the Head of School in writing each quarter on the Executive Limitations for enrollment, and within one business day of any actual or likely breach, with the corrective action.

Centering Christ
4. Represents SouthLake to churches, Christian preschools, Christian K-8 schools, and the wider community, makes intentional outreach to Christian families a priority, and keeps a partner record that does not depend on any one person.
5. Ensures every family hears SouthLake's Statement of Faith, biblical teaching, and expectations explained plainly before applying, and again in the family interview.
6. Monitors the mission composition of applicants and new families in aggregate, as a measure and never a quota, and reports material changes to the Head of School.
7. Leads the enrollment team in regular prayer for families, by circumstance and never by name.

Building Trust
8. Maintains a published admissions policy with observable criteria and ensures it is applied the same way to every family. Exceptions are decided only by the Head of School, and each one is logged.
9. Designs the admission decision process so that no family's outcome depends on its relationships, influence, or giving: anyone with a personal connection to a family recuses, and financial aid data and gift amounts never enter an admission decision. Financial aid is awarded separately by the aid committee chaired by the Associate Head of School, Finance and Operations.
10. Partners with the Director of Marketing and Communications to ensure the accuracy and consistency of family-facing admissions materials.
11. Fixes the definition of every enrollment measure before the cycle begins and changes a definition only with the Head of School's approval, noted wherever the numbers are reported.
12. Keeps FACTS as the only record of family information, sets role-based access with the SIS Coordinator, and keeps family details out of spreadsheets, email, and other tools.

Improving Services
13. Designs the family journey so that every family has one named contact, a personal reply within one business day, and its next step and date in writing at every stage.
14. Closes the gaps between admissions and the business office, the divisions, the Academic Development Center, and transportation, so an enrolling family is not required to repeat information.
15. Leads continuous enrollment and retention strategy with the division principals, with particular attention to transition years, and ensures every family that declines or leaves is asked why.
16. Ensures every new family is cared for from contract through the first year, in partnership with the division principals.
17. Leads an end-of-cycle review each year and brings the Senior Leadership Team what will change next cycle and why.

Leading the Team
18. Leads, develops, and coordinates the wider enrollment team through roles and decision rights put in writing.
19. Staffs the peak season so the response standard holds, and builds the admissions calendar so no one on the team is required to work between Saturday dusk and Sunday dusk.
20. Builds the admissions portion of the annual budget with the Associate Head of School, Finance and Operations, and approves admissions purchases as department head under the Authorized Purchases policy.

EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS FOR ENROLLMENT
The Head of School delegates enrollment leadership to the Director within five Executive Limitations. Within these guardrails, the Director has broad authority over the team, processes, and calendar. The Director will not, and will not allow the enrollment team to:

Mission Stewardship: Prioritize growth over mission alignment; misrepresent SouthLake's biblical convictions, Christian identity, or expectations; neglect efforts to attract mission-aligned Christian families; or use enrollment practices that weaken the school's Christian culture or ministry impact.

Christian Hospitality: Show favoritism based on influence, status, relationships, or financial capacity; use manipulative or coercive practices; allow families to feel ignored or disrespected; or communicate inconsistently with SouthLake's values of respect, integrity, kindness, and joy.

Service Excellence: Create confusion about processes or next steps; permit avoidable communication gaps or delays; or allow inefficiency to become a burden on families.

Truth and Trust: Overpromise programs, services, or outcomes; communicate inaccurate or misleading information; withhold information needed for informed decisions; or manipulate enrollment data or reporting.

Prayerful Stewardship: Lose track of families through inadequate systems or follow-up; mishandle confidential information; neglect continuous improvement; or fail to provide appropriate care and support to newly enrolled families.

HOW THE ROLE IS MEASURED
Targets are set each year with the Head of School. The Director is accountable for:
- Continuous enrollment by grade, against target.
- New enrollment by grade, against the budget-cycle forecast.
- Forecast accuracy: the gap between that forecast and enrollment on the first day of school.
- Speed to first response, and the number of families with an overdue promised next step.
- Mission composition of applicants and new families, reported in aggregate and never used as a quota.
- Executive Limitations: every quarterly report delivered on time, and every breach reported within one business day.
- Decline and exit reasons gathered for every family that declines an offer or leaves.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
- Bachelor's Degree or above. Be sure to clearly indicate your highest level of education in your application.
- Three to five years of experience in admissions, enrollment management, or a related field, including experience leading teams, building strong stakeholder relationships, and supervising staff.
- Be sure to upload a current resume and answer all supplemental questions to indicate relevant experience and any areas of expertise.
- A personal commitment to follow Jesus Christ, and faithful involvement in a local church that agrees with SouthLake's Statement of Faith.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Admissions or enrollment leadership in a Christian or independent school.
- Experience with FACTS or a comparable student information system, including building reports from it.
- Experience speaking to groups of families, pastors, and community partners.
- Experience leading a team whose members report to other supervisors.

COMPENSATION
Salary is negotiable based on individual qualifications.

NEXT STEPS
All communications and interview invitations will be sent electronically. Please provide a current email address and monitor your inbox for application updates.

Please Note: Résumés submitted via email will not be accepted in lieu of an online application. Only applications submitted through the online job portal will be considered.

Thank you for your interest in joining our team. For assistance, contact Jennifer Ramos in Human Resources at jramos@southlakechristian.org or (704) 949-2228.