Director - Parental Experience

Position Objective

• As a member of the School Senior Leadership Team, the Head of Parent Experience (PX) provides single-point leadership for how families experience communication, engagement, and day-to-day interactions with the school.

• The role ensures that communication is clear, coordinated, and confidence-building, and that parent engagement is intentional rather than reactive.

• Working closely with academic and operational leaders, the role strengthens parent trust, belonging, and advocacy across the lifecycle, recognising that sustained retention and positive word-of-mouth are outcomes of consistently strong parent experience, not standalone initiatives.

• The role also defines and monitors parent-facing operational standards (e.g., responsiveness, clarity, service discipline) to ensure the lived experience matches the school’s ambition.

Responsibilities

Parent Experience Leadership

• Provide end-to-end oversight of the parent experience environment across communication, engagement, and service interactions.

• Define clear parent experience priorities aligned to school strategy and to regional Parent Experience frameworks.

• Establish and monitor parent-facing operational standards (e.g., communication Service Level Agreements (SLA), issue resolution discipline, front-facing service quality).

• Regularly “walk the parent experience” to identify friction points and confidence gaps to be addressed.

• Surface risks to parent trust and advise leadership on mitigation.

Strategic Communications

• Lead communications team on school-wide parent communications to ensure clarity, consistency, sequencing, and alignment. Do so by building frameworks, process and governance systems for the team to execute on, for greater PX.

• Provide strategic guidance to leadership on messaging and tone, particularly for sensitive or complex matters.

• Lead school-level crisis communications, ensuring timely, clear, and confidence-building messaging aligned with regional brand and escalation protocols.

• Ensure all school communications adhere to guidelines, tone of voice standards, and narrative frameworks.

• Maintain alignment with regional communications sequencing and experience discipline frameworks

Parent & Community Engagement

• Adopt and embed agreed regional Parent Experience frameworks.

• Oversee key community-facing workstreams that strengthen belonging, advocacy, and long-term connection to the school, including volunteer and ambassador structures, milestone events, and alumni engagement where relevant.

• Support community and stakeholder engagement activity that strengthens the school’s reputation, relationships, and sense of connection across its wider community.

• Support the Community Engagement Manager to lead, design and deliver intentional parent engagement initiatives that build belonging and long-term advocacy.

• Ensure coherence and continuity across parent engagement activities, minimising one off events and strengthening sustained relationship building.

• Ensure key lifecycle moments (e.g., transitions, milestone events) reinforce connection and confidence.

Voice of Parent & Insight Integration

• Oversee collection, interpretation, and practical application of parent feedback.

• Ensure ‘Voice of Parent’ (annual survey) and related insights translate into visible improvement actions.

• Support leadership in closing feedback loops transparently.

• Monitor patterns that influence parent confidence and advocacy.

Cross-Functional Alignment

• Prioritise coherence by partnering and closely coordinating with the academic, operations, admissions, and marketing teams to strengthen the overall parent journey.

• Act as connector across functions where parent experience risks fragmentation. Includes championing experimentation and responsible AI adoption.

• Maintain active alignment with Regional Parent Experience and Regional Brand functions to ensure coherence across frameworks, tone, and experience standards.

Leadership & Delivery

• Lead and develop the Communications & Community Engagement teams.

• Translate strategy into disciplined, sustained execution.

• Manage resources and budget responsibly.

• Build capability in experience-led mindsets across the school.

Success Outcomes

• Increased parent confidence and trust resulting in improved retention and referrals.

• Stronger parent advocacy and positive word-of-mouth.

• Clearer, more disciplined communication environment that focuses on relevance.

• Reduced friction across parent touchpoints, platforms and communications.

• Improved sentiment and feedback outcomes over time.

• Improved family retention over time, as a result of strengthened parent confidence and experience quality.

Position Requirements

Essential

• Senior-level experience leading strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, or customer/community experience in complex organisations.

• Demonstrated ability to design and improve stakeholder or customer journeys, translating insight into measurable experience improvements.

• Strong executive presence with the ability to influence senior leaders, inspire teams, and represent the school confidently in parent-facing forums.

• Advanced written and verbal communication capability, including audience segmentation, copywriting and editorial judgement aligned to brand and tone-of-voice standards.

• Strong familiarity with digital communication platforms and tools.

• Proven ability to drive cross-functional alignment and improvement without direct authority.

• Experience defining and embedding platforms & service standards that strengthen stakeholder confidence and operational discipline.

• Typically 10–12 years of relevant professional experience, including leadership responsibility.

Desirable

• Experience in international schools or educational environments.

• Experience in premium service or customer-focused organisations.

Qualifications

• Degree in Communications, Public Relations, Marketing, Business, Hospitality, Customer Experience, or related field.

• Equivalent professional experience will be considered.

• Customer Experience Certification (e.g. CXXP, Forrester) is advantageous.

Working Hours:

8:00 am – 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday