Enrollment Operations & Process Lead

ABOUT ALU

At the African Leadership University (ALU), we're more than just an institution—we're a catalyst for transformation. Our mission is to develop a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial leaders who will shape Africa's future. Through our innovative curriculum, focus on experiential learning, and vibrant pan-African community, we empower students to become changemakers, problem-solvers, and innovators. At ALU, we're not just teaching; we're nurturing the leaders who will drive Africa's progress and prosperity in the 21st century

We are dedicated to fostering an open yet secure environment, balancing the safety of students, staff, and visitors with respect for individual rights, and safeguarding responsibilities.

HOW WE WORK

The ALU Team works in starkly different ways to traditional academic bureaucracies. We approach education from first principles, empower individuals to design, test, and implement creative new ideas, and work closely together to craft transformative learning experiences. We are deeply passionate about our students and excited by the challenge of building something entirely new.

The African Leadership University is committed to ensuring the safety and Well-being of all students under our care. As part of this commitment , we have a comprehensive safeguarding policy in place , which outlines our Zero-tolerance approach to any violation of safeguarding.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Enrollment team at ALU is responsible for one of the institution's most critical commercial outcomes — identifying, recruiting, and converting the students who will make up each incoming cohort. We are an ambitious, data-aware, and results-driven team that spans admissions, financial aid, regional recruitment, and enrollment operations.

As we scale across multiple programmes and geographies, the quality of our data, the reliability of our reporting, and the sharpness of our market intelligence are increasingly central to how we make decisions, allocate resources, and hit our targets. This role sits at the heart of that capability.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Enrollment Operations & Process Lead is responsible for designing how ALU's recruitment data is captured, qualified, and reported across the lead-to-enrollment journey, and for building the infrastructure needed to support it. Reporting to Enrollment Intelligence & Data Associate Director, this role sits at the intersection of process design and data systems: translating how recruitment actually works into clear, consistent workflows and specifications that our CRM and reporting tools can run on.

This role is highly analytical and best suited to someone naturally curious about why data and processes break down, and motivated to design the fix. The Process Lead will dissect data and process problems across the enrollment funnel, then translate solutions into dashboards, tools, and system specifications and build these directly where possible, and work with our central data team to implement them where platform-level changes are needed.

The role requires a strong grounding in data engineering and systems thinking, alongside the judgement to know when a problem needs a quick interim fix versus a structural one.

• ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES
• Data & Process Design
• Map and design how data should be structured, captured, and qualified across the recruitment funnel, end to end
• Identify gaps or breakdowns in current data flows and design the fix and whether that's a process change, a new field, or a new tool
• Define and maintain qualification logic (e.g. how a lead is assessed and progressed) so it's consistent and usable across markets and teams
• Design the data model for distinguishing fee-paying capability at the point of lead capture, drawing on school data, funding signals, and engagement behaviour
• Design how future-intake and not-yet-eligible leads are captured and tracked, so prospects aren't lost between intake cycles
• Define how qualification stages map to system fields, so manual trackers (e.g. SQL sheets) can eventually run inside core systems rather than alongside them
• Systems & Infrastructure Building
• Translate process designs into clear specifications for system builds, working with the central data and transformation team where platform-level change is needed
• Build and maintain interim tools, trackers, and dashboards directly where they're needed faster than a platform build allows
• Bring strong data and systems engineering judgement to decide what should be built where a quick fix vs. structural solution
• Maintain documentation of current data architecture and dependencies, so infrastructure knowledge doesn't sit with one person or disappear with staff turnover
• Own data integrity checks across core systems and connected reporting tools, catching structural issues before they reach leadership dashboards
• Market & Applicant Intelligence
• Optimise high school data into an intelligence layer on fee-paying likelihood, engagement history, and conversion patterns to sharpen how reps prioritise outreach
• Build economic and demographic context into market views (e.g. affordability shifts, currency movement) to explain conversion or pricing sensitivity by market
• Build and maintain applicant pool intelligence, funnel behaviour, drop-off points, and conversion patterns by market, programme, and source
• Reporting & Dashboards
• Own core enrollment dashboards and reporting, ensuring they reflect a reliable, qualified view of the pipeline
• Lead recurring pipeline and performance reporting, with insight-driven commentary, not just raw numbers
• Work with central data and transformation team to maintain a standardised set of reporting definitions and formats across markets and intakes
• Build and maintain views of pipeline and conversion performance, enabling year-on-year and cohort-level comparison

Collaboration

Act as the primary point of contact with the central data and transformation team for enrollment's infrastructure needs

Work closely with regional recruitment and admissions colleagues to ensure designs reflect how the work actually happens on the ground

General

• Continuously identify opportunities to improve data quality, reporting, and process efficiency across the function
• Stay current on relevant data, systems, and market intelligence tools and practices
• Other duties as reasonably assigned
• REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

Experience (typically 1-2 years) in a data, systems, or operations role involving process design and infrastructure building ideally within higher education or a comparable data-rich, target-driven environment.

• Strong hands-on experience with AI tools and/or CRM platforms (Salesforce preferred) and the ability to translate business requirements into technical specifications
• Practical data engineering skills and comfortable with data modelling, structuring fields/objects, and working with data pipelines, not just dashboard tools
• Skilled in building dashboards and reporting tools independently (e.g. CRMA, Tableau, Looker Studio, Power BI)
• Experience building or working with market/competitive intelligence, pulling together disparate data sources (demographic, economic, institutional) into a usable view

Strong systems thinking and able to assess whether a problem needs an interim workaround or a structural fix, and design accordingly.

Experience working in fast-scaling, imperfect-systems environments (e.g. high-growth startups, emerging markets, education) preferred.

Strong written and verbal communication and able to present data-driven findings clearly to non-technical stakeholders and leadership

Bachelor's degree preferred in a relevant field (Data Science, Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related) or demonstrable experience in AI builds.

• REQUIRED COMPETENCIES
• Functional Skills
• Data modelling and structuring
• CRM configuration and field/object design (Salesforce)
• Dashboard and reporting tool development (CRMA, Tableau, Looker Studio, or similar)
• Data pipeline and systems integration
• SQL or equivalent query language
• Process mapping and workflow design
• Market and competitive intelligence research
• Data quality auditing and root-cause diagnosis
• Stakeholder translation: converting business needs into technical requirements
• Soft Skills & Mindset
• Naturally curious and drawn to understanding why something is broken before fixing
• Builder's mentality who would rather create a working solution than wait for the perfect one
• Self-motivated and comfortable operating with ambiguity, without needing a fully defined process to start
• Detail-oriented, without losing sight of the bigger commercial picture
• Comfortable working independently, but collaborative when a solution needs buy-in or a build from another team