Associate Director of Admissions, Alpha - $250,000/year USD

In the Bay Area, top admissions professionals rarely sell—they curate waitlists, convene committees, and safeguard reputations decades in the making. This position operates differently. Your market does not yet know us. You will go introduce them. Alpha is a K–12 private school anchored in a verifiable claim: students finish core academics in two hours daily, progress ahead of national benchmarks, and devote afternoons to meaningful skill development instead of low-value assignments. Bay Area families represent both the most challenging and most rewarding audience. Founders, engineers, doctors, and investors will not settle for warm welcomes and mission-driven messaging. They will request evidence, question trade-offs, and evaluate us alongside Nueva, Castilleja, Harker, Marin Country Day, and Branson. Embrace that scrutiny. Understand the nature of this role. It is a sales position with a built-in expectation of selectivity. You create your own pipeline: partnerships with preschools and feeder schools, community alliances, local events, and referrals from families who already trust you. You own a growth target. You also decline families when the fit is wrong—even in a market where refusing a well-connected parent brings risks. Both responsibilities matter equally. A single misaligned family in a compact cohort damages more than an unfilled spot. In your first year, you serve as the founding regional presence for a campus with limited local brand recognition, and most of your time will be spent beyond the school walls. As enrollment builds, your responsibilities evolve. You transition from initiating first conversations to becoming the leader parents request by name, with a team supporting you and strategies that other campuses replicate. You will work on-site at a single campus (Palo Alto or San Rafael) five days per week, present during morning drop-off, afternoon pick-up, and evening programming. What You Will Be Doing Building qualified family demand independently through partnerships with preschools and feeder schools, community relationships, referral networks, and local events. Managing the full cycle personally: initial inquiry, needs-assessment dialogue, campus tour, student shadow visit, enrollment verdict, and onboarding process. Conducting tours, open houses, and informational sessions where you explain and defend an AI-driven learning model to analytical, questioning parents. Maintaining 7 or more concurrent family relationships across different decision stages, with each tracked and updated in HubSpot and our student information system. Delivering weekly reports on pipeline strength and conversion quality, and continuously refining the local admissions playbook, FAQ documents, and standard operating procedures based on market insights. What You Won’t Be Doing Managing an inherited waitlist. No pre-existing demand exists here. Escalating decisions to an admissions committee or navigating multi-layer approval chains. Following a rigid script or working from a quota-driven call list. Transferring families across multiple coordinators, event staff, and reception desks. Overseeing a large team or spending your week in internal coordination meetings. Associate Director Of Admissions Key Responsibilities Expand enrollment at a single Bay Area campus with families who align with and will succeed in the Alpha model. Basic Requirements 3+ years in premium client-facing positions where an individual or family was the purchaser at $25K+ per client or $2K+ per month. You can identify the employer and price point; business-to-business or enterprise sales experience alone does not qualify. Direct, personal ownership of a complete client, admissions, or enrollment process: application, needs assessment, offer, decision, and onboarding. Describe what you personally accomplished, not team outcomes. A quantifiable growth or customer-acquisition metric you personally owned, including your approach to generating leads and establishing local partnerships to achieve it. Management of 7 or more simultaneous client or family relationships at varying stages, tracked using a specific CRM or database system. A specific instance where you advised against your own offering because it was not the appropriate match. Practical experience using AI tools in client-facing workflows, such as meeting preparation, tailored outreach, conversation summaries, or follow-up communications. Direct experience leading in-person tours, presentations, meetings, or curated experiences for high-net-worth individuals, senior executives, or similarly discerning audiences. Excellent written and verbal communication with executive presence: you can identify needs, simplify complex ideas, address objections, and navigate high-stakes decision dialogues. Experience cultivating deliberate, multi-touch client relationships spanning several weeks, including sustained engagement with prospects who do not commit immediately. You reside in or will relocate within 60 days to Palo Alto, CA, or San Rafael, CA (Marin County). This position is fully on-site, not hybrid. Authorized to work in the United States without requiring visa sponsorship. Nice-to-have Requirements An established network within Peninsula or Marin families, including relationships with local private preschools or feeder schools. Admissions or enrollment background at a selective independent K–12 school, or a program with higher applicant volume than available seats. Experience in luxury hospitality, private client services, concierge medicine, private wealth management, membership clubs, or high-end residential real estate. About Alpha Join the team building school around student growth Alpha reimagines the school day around faster learning, stronger mentorship, and more time for students to build real-world skills. Roles with real student impact Alpha hires teachers (guides), operators, admissions experts, school & curriculum leaders, and remote team members. Education work that pays like it matters Alpha offers six-figure roles for people ready to help build a radically better school experience. A culture built for builders Alpha is fast-moving, ambitious, and student focused. It’s for people who want to improve the system, not maintain it. Alpha is where you can do the most meaningful work of your career. There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Working with us This is a full-time, W2 employee position with immediate access to benefits ( All roles are year-long positions. The compensation level for this role is $250,000 USD/year. The payment period is weekly. 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