Executive Director of Growth and Engagement at Kansas State University | Manhattan, KS | $140K/yr – $165K/yr

Kansas State University

Executive Director of Growth and Engagement

Manhattan, KS (On-site)

$140K/yr – $165K/yrSenior Level7+ years expFull time

Posted 6 weeks ago

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Job Summary

Own the strategy and cross functional execution to grow enrollment, boost brand, and deepen engagement across campus and external partners.

Growth ownership: align enrollment, audience development, and communications across digital and physical channels.
Stakeholder orchestration: connect academics, enrollment, marketing, alumni, partners, and external audiences to meet market demand.
Storytelling and brand: lead institutional storytelling and multi platform communications to boost reputation and learner loyalty.

Job Description

Responsibilities

Provide executive vision, leadership, and strategic oversight for initiatives that expand institutional visibility, strengthen brand awareness, grow enrollment pipelines, and deepen stakeholder connection through traditional, digital, and emerging engagement platforms.
Serve as a key connector between campus programs and services, institutional leadership, prospective learners, alumni, industry partners, and external audiences to ensure that educational opportunities, outreach strategies, communications efforts, and engagement initiatives align with institutional goals and market demand.
Oversee the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of integrated strategies related to enrollment growth, audience development, communications, digital engagement, stakeholder outreach, and market responsiveness across institutional offerings.
Provide executive leadership for institutional storytelling, multi-platform communications, virtual audience engagement, and brand amplification efforts designed to elevate institutional reputation, strengthen learner and stakeholder loyalty, and increase engagement across physical and digital environments.
Provide strategic leadership for alumni engagement, corporate partnerships, and external stakeholder communications while fostering innovative approaches to audience interaction, learner conversion, and community-building through data-informed outreach and engagement strategies.
Collaborate extensively with academic leadership, faculty, enrollment management, communications and marketing teams, student lift and support units, and external stakeholders to support institutional growth, learner persistence, workforce alignment, and sustained audience engagement.
Report to the CEO and Dean.

Kansas State University

The KSU Foundation is K-State's strategic partner for philanthropy. We inspire and guide philanthropy toward university priorities to boldly advance K-State. Foundation staff members work in close partnership with university administrators, deans and faculty to secure charitable contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations to support identified priorities for the university and K-State 2025. Gifts received through the foundation fund undergraduate and graduate student scholarships, establish faculty chairs and professorships, provide college and departmental support, and enhance the campus infrastructure. After the money is raised, it must be prudently managed. This function is managed by foundation staff members who work under the guidance of an advisory committee of trustees.Note: The Kansas State University Foundation was established in 1944 and is a separate, independent entity chartered by the state of Kansas as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education corporation. Gifts made to support K-State through the KSU Foundation are used according to the donor’s wishes and may not be reallocated by the state. Gifts to the foundation are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

Founded in 1944

Manhattan, Kansas, USA

210 employees (19 in marketing)

www.ksufoundation.org