Admissions Assistant Director, Lakeland, FL

Role Overview

Excelon Associates is conducting a search on behalf of its client, a multi-campus post-secondary institution, for an Admissions Assistant Director at its Lakeland, Florida campus. The Admissions Assistant Director (AAD) is responsible for meeting individual enrollment goals and supporting campus enrollment performance. The role works in close partnership with the Associate Director of Admissions and the Director of Admissions to drive new student and re-entry enrollment by improving execution, quality, compliance, and consistency across admissions operations. Lakeland is the largest city in Polk County, midway between Tampa and Orlando on Interstate 4.

The AAD leads by example through strong personal enrollment production and serves as a coaching resource for the admissions team: conducting call and interview quality observations, reviewing performance metrics, providing systems support, and delivering coaching and training that close performance gaps. The posting requires an Associate's degree from an accredited institution, at least two years in post-secondary admissions operations with CRM and SIS platforms and performance reporting, a track record of meeting or exceeding enrollment goals as an individual contributor, and at least one year supporting admissions performance through coaching, quality oversight, systems support, or reporting. Extended hours and weekends are part of the schedule.

What Does an Admissions Assistant Director Do?

An Admissions Assistant Director is a working admissions leader: a representative who still enrolls students every week and who also observes, coaches, and supports the rest of the team. The seat sits between the admissions representatives and the Associate Director of Admissions. It is measured on its own new student and re-entry enrollment numbers and on the quality of the team's calls, interviews, and compliance, which it checks through documented observations and the campus BI dashboards.

The compliance side is not decorative. Private postsecondary institutions in Florida are licensed by the Commission for Independent Education within the Florida Department of Education, and campuses that participate in federal student aid recruit under the Title IV rules published by Federal Student Aid, which prohibit misrepresentation in recruiting and bar paying admissions staff per enrollment. The AAD is the person listening to the calls and reading the interview notes, so it is usually the first to catch a script drift or a systems error before it becomes a compliance finding.

Lakeland anchors the Lakeland-Winter Haven metropolitan area, one of the faster-growing metros in the United States, and sits an hour from both Tampa and Orlando. Prospective students here can choose among Polk State College, Florida Southern College, Southeastern University, Florida Polytechnic University, and a cluster of career colleges along the I-4 corridor, so the campus competes on speed of follow-up and quality of the admissions interview. The AAD's observation and coaching work is where that quality is built.

How the Assistant Director Compares to the Associate Director and the Director

The client runs campus admissions on three leadership tiers. The Assistant Director is the production and coaching tier; the Associate Director manages the office; the Director owns the strategy and the campus number.

Excelon is recruiting two Admissions Assistant Directors for the Lakeland campus: this general admissions seat and an Admissions Assistant Director for the practical nursing (LPN) program. The duties and requirements are the same; the LPN seat is tied to nursing program enrollment.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Personal Enrollment Production

• Achieve assigned individual and programmatic new student and re-entry enrollment goals aligned to campus and regional benchmarks.
• Maintain performance across key admissions KPIs, including call volume, appointment volume, show rate, interview-to-enrollment conversion, and compliance.
• Conduct admissions interviews, follow-up, and enrollment activities in accordance with admissions standards.

Quality Observation and Coaching

• Conduct documented call and interview quality observations in accordance with established quality standards.
• Deliver ongoing, targeted coaching based on observation findings and performance data.
• Identify individual and team-level performance gaps and support execution of improvement plans through coaching and skill reinforcement.
• Participate in performance conversations as a coaching and support resource when requested by campus leadership.
• Partner with the Associate Director and Director of Admissions to translate data insights into actionable coaching strategies.
• Lead or co-facilitate admissions training sessions, skill refreshers, and onboarding support.

Systems, Compliance, and Coverage

• Provide systems guidance and troubleshooting support to admissions team members to ensure effective and compliant use of admissions tools.
• Identify and escalate operational, systems, or compliance risks affecting enrollment performance.
• Support the rollout of new initiatives, scripts, systems updates, and process changes.
• Serve as a subject-matter resource for admissions practices and expectations.
• Provide managerial coverage for department leadership as needed.

Qualifications and Education

Required

• Associate's degree from an accredited institution (required).
• Minimum of 2 years of experience in post-secondary admissions operations, enrollment management, CRM/SIS platforms, and performance reporting.
• Demonstrated success as a high-performing individual contributor meeting or exceeding enrollment goals.
• At least 1 year of experience supporting admissions performance through coaching, quality oversight, systems support, or reporting.
• Ability to interpret BI tool data and dashboards and translate findings into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, results-driven environment.
• Solid understanding of admissions systems, workflows, performance metrics, and compliance requirements.
• Availability to work extended hours and weekends.

Experience the Client Values

• A record of hitting individual enrollment goals at a career college or a multi-campus institution, where the AAD's own number is tracked weekly.
• Working fluency in a CRM and SIS, enough to troubleshoot a representative's record and to spot a workflow error in a report.
• Experience coaching from documented call and interview observations rather than from impressions.
• Familiarity with re-entry enrollment and the follow-up discipline it takes to bring a former student back.

Compensation

The client has not published a salary range for the Admissions Assistant Director position in Lakeland. Compensation is discussed with qualified candidates during the recruiting process, and the client's full-time benefits are reviewed at the same stage.

Admissions assistant director roles are benchmarked between senior admissions representative pay and the Associate Director of Admissions band, under the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics category for postsecondary education administrators (SOC 11-9033). Because the AAD carries a personal enrollment goal, any performance element is structured to stay within the Title IV incentive compensation rules.

Who Thrives in This Role?

The role fits an admissions representative who already outperforms the floor and has begun helping teammates close the gap, and who wants a formal coaching mandate without giving up production. The Lakeland campus runs on the same KPIs as the client's other Florida campuses: call volume, appointment volume, show rate, interview-to-enrollment conversion, and compliance, and the AAD is accountable for all five, personally and for the team.

It also fits someone who is good with systems. The AAD is the team's first call when the CRM misbehaves, the person who tests a new script or process change before it rolls out, and the one who escalates a systems or compliance risk before it affects enrollment. Candidates from a campus where they were the informal admin of the admissions tools will feel at home.

Extended hours and weekends come with the job. The client fosters a community devoted to academic excellence, innovation, and human development. Every employee plays a key role in advancing student growth while enhancing their own professional journey, supported by a culture of teamwork, respect, and ongoing learning. Employees enjoy professional growth opportunities, career stability, and the satisfaction of contributing to an organization that changes lives through education.

About Excelon Associates and the Client

Excelon Associates is a retained and contingency executive search firm founded in 2007, headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, Florida, and a dedicated higher education recruitment practice that fills admissions, enrollment, academic, and campus leadership roles for colleges and universities. This search is being conducted by Excelon Associates on behalf of a multi-campus post-secondary institution with a campus in Lakeland, Florida, and the firm publishes its search fees and engagement terms. Employers building an admissions team can start from Excelon's Director of Admissions sample job description or its Director of Enrollment sample job description.

The client is a multi-campus post-secondary institution with campuses across Florida, including Lakeland. The client fosters a community devoted to academic excellence, innovation, and human development. Every employee plays a key role in advancing student growth while enhancing their own professional journey, supported by a culture of teamwork, respect, and ongoing learning. Employees enjoy professional growth opportunities, career stability, and the satisfaction of contributing to an organization that changes lives through education. The client's identity is shared with qualified candidates during the recruiting process. Excelon is also recruiting an Admissions Assistant Director for the DeLand campus and an Admissions Assistant Director, LPN, in Lakeland, and you can browse all current open roles.

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The client is an equal opportunity employer and values all applications. Excelon does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, marital or veteran status, disability, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.