Undergraduate Recruitment Officer

Job Details

Responsible to: Head of Undergraduate Recruitment

Location: Kedleston Road, Derby Campus

Closing Date: Thursday 5 March 2026

Salary: £32,260 to £36,251 per annum (for exceptional performers, there is scope for further progression up to £41,689 per annum)

Job Grade: ATOS 6

Reference: 0273-25

Contract Type: Permanent

Post Type: Full-time

Adaptive Working Type: Onsite. This role will be based on site, primarily in the named location.

About the University

We have one simple promise – to make a positive impact. Through our ground-breaking research, teaching excellence and commitment to sustainable living, we are changing lives for the better. The University of Derby is a modern university with a modern outlook. Everything we do is driven by delivering excellence and opportunities for our students, our staff and our region.

We have some of the best university facilities in the UK and achieve outstanding results for our teaching and research and have been awarded Gold in the prestigious Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023 – making it one of the top universities in the country recognised for its outstanding student experience and student outcomes.

Financially strong and seriously ambitious, we offer our employees an inclusive culture that centres itself around staff wellbeing, where you can be confident you will receive all the help and encouragement you need to build a rewarding career with lots of opportunities to enhance your skills.

About the College/Department

Our External Relations team is responsible for promoting and raising awareness of our University’s brand in the UK and overseas. From creating all messaging and content for external campaigns and our website, to social media, and managing events – ours is a highly complex and expert marketing, PR and Internal Comms environment, key to making the University shine.

About the Role

We are looking for an Undergraduate Recruitment Officer to join our award-winning External Relations department. As part of this exciting and varied role, you will work closely with colleagues across the department and wider university to develop and deliver engaging and impactful marketing campaigns to support student recruitment and the University’s wider strategic objectives.

Working as part of the Recruitment team, you will be responsible for the planning and delivery of promotional marketing activity to attract and inspire prospective students, parents and influencers to choose to study at the University of Derby. Campaign activity includes email communications, SMS, direct mail, and paid advertising.

You will work collaboratively with Content, Digital and Design teams to create promotional assets and content for a variety of platforms, as well as promoting and delivering on campus and digital events with Schools and Colleges Liaison and College Marketing teams.

About You

We are seeking a candidate with a relevant first-degree qualification or substantial equivalent experience, supported by a strong track record in planning, delivering, and evaluating marketing and recruitment activities to deliver creative marketing campaigns, recruitment and conversion activity to a high standard and evaluating performance results. You will bring proven success in using insights, evaluation and CRM systems to inform decisions and drive conversion. Creativity, innovation and excellent attention to detail are essential, along with strong written and verbal communication skills. You will be confident engaging senior stakeholders and able to convey complex information clearly to a range of audiences. You will be a go-getter, able to work well independently, and as part of the team, with an appetite to take on new challenges and drive forward the collective impact of the department.

Principal Accountabilities

• Deliver and develop a key part of our recruitment strategy, which drives awareness and applications from undergraduate home students.
• Develop engaging undergraduate enquirer and conversion campaign activity, which is in line with our overarching narrative, targeting home students.
• Work with the Content team to develop inspiring paid media assets, email communications and content to engage undergraduate target audiences, ensuring it is in line with the overall brand-led look and feel.
• Develop a good understanding of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system (Dynamics) to pull databases for email, SMS and direct mail communications to target audiences in line with GDPR guidelines.
• Ensure that all undergraduate web content on campaigns is reviewed and updated on a regular basis.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the External Relations team to develop activity to drive conversion at each point of the customer journey, from enquiry to enrolment.
• Work closely with the Schools and College Liaison team to support outreach activities with marketing collateral, follow-up communications and bring insights back into the team.
• Understand our course offer, their Unique Selling Points (USPs), target market, the wider recruitment environment, progression routes and competitor activity in order to support campaign development.
• Work closely with colleagues to review and refine our undergraduate product portfolio, ensuring that it meets the needs of industry and the needs of prospective students.
• Regularly review the undergraduate market, using sector insight and research to inform planning.
• Ongoing liaison with academic and professional support colleagues across the University to ensure all campaign activities are coordinated effectively.
• Work with the student communications and alumni teams to develop compelling current student and graduate stories and identify opportunities to include in undergraduate promotional activity.
• Provide Senior Leadership Team (SLT) with frequent updates on performance, including weekly activity updates and monthly reports.
• Proactively seek out sector and marketing best practice and trends, providing regular updates to colleagues.
• Support with managing relationships with external suppliers and agencies to deliver activity on time and within budget.
• Support with managing the undergraduate marketing and recruitment budget, giving regular updates on spend against forecast.
• Represent the university on internal and external groups as required.
• Work proactively with colleagues across External Relations to assist the delivery of the full range of activities undertaken within the department to support student recruitment including, Higher Education Fairs, Open Days, Visit Days, business and community events, Clearing call handling/promotion, and award ceremonies.

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

Qualifications

• Relevant first-degree qualification or significant comparable experience

Experience

• Strong experience and demonstrable success in planning, implementing and tracking marketing and recruitment activities
• Experience of planning with defined resources and delivering to this plan successfully
• Experience of working with external suppliers
• Experience of paid media advertising including paid search, paid social media, display, out of home and print publications
• Experience of supporting content creation and approval process
• Evidence of developing and using evaluation and insights to inform and influence decisions
• Considerable project management experience, including large-scale, multiple, and complicated projects
• Evidence of success in using CRM systems and data to drive conversion activities
• Experience of managing budgets

Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

• Strong communication and inter-personal skills – written and verbal – with proven ability to engage and influence senior colleagues and communicate complex information to a variety of audiences
• Demonstrable and extensive knowledge and understanding of all aspects of marketing and recruitment within Higher Education (HE)
• Ability to develop strategy and skills to implement and evaluate
• Flexible and adaptable, with strong transferable skills, which enable wider support for the team when required
• Creative and innovative with a strong eye for detail
• Ability to motivate, inspire colleagues and self as part of a high performing team
• Resilience and the ability to remain calm, professional and focused at all times
• Proven ability to plan and organise individual and team activities, short and long-term
• Knowledge of legal issues e.g., data protection, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) guidance and copyright

Business Requirements

• Willingness and flexibility to travel and work between University and external sites in a cost effective and timely manner
• Ability to work outside of normal working hours (including some evenings and weekends), to support the business during key University events, such as Graduation, Clearing and Open Days and at key student admissions points

Benefits

• Generous annual leave entitlement of 38 days inclusive of bank holidays and concessionary days (pro rata)
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Suite of holistic wellbeing benefits and support including family-friendly policies, generous sick pay provision and comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• Access to a variety of staff discounts at high street retailers
• Discounted onsite gym
• Cycle to Work scheme
• A flexible working environment
• A commitment to personal and professional development

Important Information

Visa Sponsorship Eligibility

The University is unable to sponsor the employment of international workers under the Skilled Worker route for this role; however, applications are welcome from candidates who are able to demonstrate an alternative right to work in the UK.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

The University of Derby is committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion, regardless of age, disability, trans status, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief (or none), sex and sexual orientation. We are Disability Confident Employers, demonstrating our commitment to disability inclusion, and invite applicants to highlight adjustments they may require to ensure equitable participation in our recruitment processes.

Further, we are committed to ensuring an environment which is trans and non-binary inclusive for all our staff, students, partners, and visitors, and continuously review our policies, guidance and training.

When applying to join the University, you can choose your preferred title, including the gender-neutral title 'Mx'. We also ask our candidates if they would like to share their preferred pronouns. This is voluntary but demonstrates our commitment to inclusivity for trans and non-binary candidates. Once employed, you can add pronouns and preferred names onto our system.

The University of Derby undertakes anonymised shortlisting during the staff recruitment process. This means that, when shortlisting, panel members will not be able to see an applicant's name and will see an applicant number instead. This demonstrates the practical steps we are taking to remove barriers to recruitment by minimising the possible impact of our unconscious bias.

However you identify, we actively celebrate the knowledge, experience and talents each person brings. Our students come from a wide range of backgrounds; therefore we are particularly interested to hear from applicants who will help our leaders and teams be more reflective of our student population.

Read more about equity, diversity and inclusion at the University of Derby.

Environmental Sustainability

At the University of Derby, we are passionate about embedding sustainability into everything that we do. We aim to bring environmental sustainability into all aspects of the University, including teaching, research and operational activities. In line with the University's strategic framework, we expect all our staff to embed sustainability into their working practices and support the University's objective to reach net zero carbon by 2050.

Don’t miss your chance – join the team and make a difference today!